4th Week of Easter 2018 - Thursday - Go where you've been SENT

On the evening of Easter Sunday, the risen Jesus said to us: "As the Father has sent Me, so I send you" (Jn 20:21), echoing the words He spoke after washing the disciples feet at the last supper, as we just heard in our Gospel, “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send, receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

Jesus is the “sent one”, come not to do His own will, but the will of the one who sent Him. So, too Christians, are “sent ones”, following the model of Jesus the master.

The Father sent the Son to reveal His love for the world. In the same way, we are sent to reveal the Father's love.

The Father sent the Son to preach the good news of liberation and restoration to the poor. We likewise, are sent to preach the freedom and wholeness found in Jesus Christ.

The Father sent Jesus to destroy the devil's works. We too are sent to attack the gates of hell and to crush Satan and his empty works under our feet.

The Father sent Jesus to do good works and heal the sick. We, whose lives have been healed, by Christ, our sent out to bring that same healing to the soul-sick.

The Father sent the Son to die and rise; we are sent to die to ourselves, take up our cross daily, and share in Jesus' resurrection.

Christians don't do their own thing or go their own way, this would be selfish. We go where we are sent. We go to the highways and byways and even to the ends of the earth. We are sent out of comfortable complacency into hardship and challenge. We are sent to do the dirty jobs no one else wants to do. We go to the sickest, the poorest, the most repulsive, even to those who do not appreciate us, even to those who hate us on account of Him, as bearers of the mercy of Christ, because to them we have been sent, and we are to do so cheerfully, joyfully, patiently, gently, without grumbling, without resentment, without fear. And when we do go, we find, Christ has arrived before us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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God the Father was glorified in the death and resurrection of his Son. Let us pray to him with confidence.

God the Father bathed the world in splendor when Christ rose again in glory, may our minds be filled with the light of faith.

Through the resurrection of His Son, the Father opened for us the way to eternal life, may we be sustained today in our work with the hope of glory.

Through His risen Son, the Father sent the Holy Spirit into the world, may our hearts be set on fire with spiritual love.

May Jesus Christ, who was crucified to set us free, be the salvation of all those who suffer, particularly those who suffer from physical or mental illness, addiction, and grief.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.
O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.