Reflection for the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time by Deacon Craig, OFS
This reflection was originally posted in our June 27th newsletter

There is both comfort and travail in proclaiming the truth of the Gospel to all the world. The proclamation will be either rejected or embraced, but we are not to be bothered by either reaction.
The reading from Isaiah for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time describes a delicious peace and comfort in being embraced by the Truth. In our Gospel from Luke, we hear of the delight of the 72 disciples in the positive results of their proclamation. Jesus seems to share that delight but also give them a warning. The results of ministry are not to be grasped at. Like our Kenotic Lord, we are not to measure our ministry by results but we are called to simply rest in the peace of the New Jerusalem, knowing our names are written in Heaven and that we have been known by our Creator from the beginning, and to express that lived, experienced truth from our own lives to the world as we meet it. The world’s reaction to our witness is not our business. We should remain at peace, comforted only by the faith that we are known. The world is in the Lord’s hands, not ours. The world will react to our witness and the world chooses to react as it will.
This requires, in our time, incredibly strong faith. Witnessing in this world we now live in requires monumental hope:
We hope, for instance, that our compassionate witness to the sanctity of life, our individual treatment of the outcast, the immigrant, or people with disabilities will, in God’s time, stimulate the hearts that observe our acts to realize the fear in their own hearts which leads them to do such things as harangue the immigrant or hold on to their guns with death grips. We hope that our love, expressed freely and heroically, will pique the conscience of others and lead them toward compassion and understanding. Let healing begin, Lord, with us and our witness!
We are called to live our faith openly, courageously, truthfully, and not to measure the results of that lived-out faith. We are to remain loving, forgiving, compassionate, active, open to a world that often ignores us and sometimes actively conspires against us. But that cannot change how we live our faith. Our faith remains. Our love remains. Our hope remains.
Peace and all Good
Deacon Craig, OFS
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