Mission

 

The Spiritual Waiting Room

Mission

Fulfill   Prophecies

Blessed   Trinity   Revealed

This Is My Beloved Son

Public Ministry

(Photo and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scripture:   Matthew 3:17

When Jesus was baptized by John a voice came from heaven:

"This is my beloved Son. In Him I am well pleased."

Reflection

Most of us go through life on a day-to-day basis. We try to make a living and meet our expenses. When we think about our mission, we might say, "To survive and to help our family as much as we can."

Our mission is actually larger than that. It is based on our relationship with Jesus. We ask ourselves, "What does Jesus want me to do with the precious time He has given to me?"

Jesus took some time to enter into His mission. As He grew, He reflected on the Hebrew scriptures. He learned about the Torah and the prophets. In His human nature, He deepened His knowledge of the history of His people and God's covenant with them.

He realized that His mission from God was to fulfill the prophecies about the Messiah. He was to proclaim the Kingdom of God and let the people know how deeply God loved them. He knew that it was going to be a difficult mission.

To assist Him in His mission, Jesus knew that the Blessed Trinty would always be with Him. The Father and the Holy Spirit guided Him every step of the way. His mission was hard because God's fulfillment of the promise through the prophets to send a Messiah was much greater than the expectation of the people. 

God's Love always exceeds our understanding. The very idea that God would become one with us by assuming a human nature was unfathomable for so many both in the time of Jesus on earth and in our time today. 

God gradually revealed the depth of His Love through the prophets and then in the mission of Jesus. 

Jesus was affirmed in that mission at the time of His baptism by John. The Holy Spirit and the Father let Jesus know that He was not alone.

The Holy Spirit came down on Jesus in the form of a dove, and the Father spoke about how pleased He was in Jesus. He let Jesus know that He was beloved.

That close relationship sustained Jesus in the challenges He faced as He invited people to become part of the Kingdom of God by loving God and their neighbor. Jesus found the strength He needed to face rejection and execution.

During His public ministry, Jesus would always take time to go off quietly in prayer to speak with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus becomes a model for us as we reflect on our mission.

We are invited to spend time in prayer to ask Jesus what He would like us to do to let people know how deeply God loves them. 

As we quiet all the distractions and worries that we face every day, we can hear that voice of Jesus.

It is like the voice of the Father that Jesus heard.

It is telling us that we are beloved.

God is pleased with us.

God will encourage us and make up for our shortcomings.

We are never alone in our mission!

1. What is your mission in life?

2. How do you deal with the challenges you face as you try to embrace your mission?

3. Does reflecting on the Hebrew and Christian scriptures help you to discern your mission more clearly?

4. In what ways does the Blessed Trinity support you in your mission?

5. As you reflect on Kathy's photo of the first responders on 9/11, what do you feel?

(Scripture adaptation, reflection, and questions by John J. McNamara)