21st Sunday in Ordinary Time
R. Go out to all the world and tell the Good News.
Written by Rita West Gernon
What a commission! This invitation from Jesus to go out to all the world and tell the Good News...it sounds exciting and only slightly (read: extremely) intimidating. If you’re feeling that at all this Sunday, you’re in good company, as I imagine the group of less-than-well-traveled fishermen who Jesus called his disciples felt similarly.
I hear this commission and these two questions arise:
- Lord, do you really expect me to go out to all the world?
- And how do I even begin to articulate the Good News?
If you’re like me, even as I deeply desire for the world to know the love and mercy of Jesus - these questions remain in my heart, and at times have paralyzed me from living out the commission the Lord has given.
But perhaps starting small could give us some perspective.
Maybe ‘going out to all the world’ starts with those in the world I come into contact with in the normal course of my life. My spouse, friends, children, parents, my parish priest, my coworkers and boss, the cashier at the grocery whose line I always end up in, the person on the other end of the call with my insurance company. The list goes on and on and is different for all of us.
And articulating the Good News? Are we all supposed to get theology degrees, and professional training in public speaking... I can’t even make it a straight week of consistently listening to the Bible in a Year podcast. How does the Lord possibly think I’m qualified to tell the Good News?
The 2nd verse of our psalm today gives us the diving board: “For steadfast is his kindness toward us, and the fidelity of the Lord endures forever.”
You don’t need a theology degree to tell people about the ways you have encountered the Lord’s kindness, his fidelity, his mercy, his love, his compassion. Pope Paul VI said, “Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”
Those people in the world that you come into contact with, they indeed need the Good News. But often the entrance point isn’t convincing theological arguments. It’s the witness of someone who has allowed the love of Jesus to transform their life.
And maybe, if all of us were to share this life-transforming Good News with just the people we’re already in relationship with - soon enough, we’d have covered ‘all the world.
So maybe this week, as we keep these Sunday Mass readings near to our hearts, we can enter into this commission from the Lord with that perspective.
This week, how can I be intentional to share with someone the ways I’ve personally encountered the kindness of God?
Rita West Gernon is a Catholic songwriter and worship leader from South Louisiana. She works in creative outreach for Dumb Ox Ministries, a Catholic non-profit organization dedicated to Theology of the Body formation and outreach. Rita enjoys slow Saturday mornings, drinking specialty coffee, and doing life with her husband Roch. Stream her music on Spotify and Apple Music, and follow her on Instagram.
Pray with today’s psalm.