July 8
Our Lady of Kazan
Russia (1579)
Gospel: Matthew 10:1-7
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| Image created using Google AI Image Creator. |
Today’s Gospel
is about Jesus handing real authority to twelve very ordinary, and very flawed
men and sending them out to do what He’d been doing, healing, casting out,
proclaiming the kingdom. He doesn’t wait for them to be ready. He commissions
them while they’re still rough, still arguing among themselves, still getting
things wrong.
We tend to
assume we need to be finished products before God can use us, fully healed,
fully wise, fully patient, before He’ll send us anywhere. But the Twelve were
sent out unfinished. Peter would deny Him within the year. Several of them were
still jockeying for status. Jesus commissioned them, anyway, trusting the
mission to people who were still very much in progress.
Stop waiting
to be ready before you act on what God’s already put in front of you. You don’t
need a finished faith to comfort a grieving friend, share what you believe, or
simply show up where you’re needed. The Twelve learned by going, not by waiting
until they qualified. Whatever small commission is sitting in front of you
today, you’re probably more ready than you think.
Today the
Marian calendar recognizes Our Lady of Kazan in Russia, 1579, an image
entrusted to ordinary, unfinished people in an unstable century, and still
carried forward faithfully across hundreds of years. Our Lady trusts imperfect
hands too. Something to think about: What has God already commissioned you to
do, that you have been postponing until you feel you are ready?
Rosary Man Jim 🌹
Freely given.
Freely shared.
