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Deacon’s Beacon: As Parts of The Body of Christ, We Are Called to Action

We are part of The Body of Christ

In last Sunday’s gospel, the feast of Corpus Christi, on the evening before His passion and death, Jesus shares His last meal with His apostles.  He prepares them for their faith journey after He returns to the Father.  He says to them, “Take this; this is my body,” and then “This is my blood of the of the new covenant, which will be shed for many.”

At that moment, with the stress and tension of that evening and the upcoming events, the apostles did not yet have a full understanding of what Jesus meant with those words.  That event, the Institution of the Holy Eucharist, is difficult for us to grasp the full meaning.

When we receive the Eucharist, we unite ourselves to Jesus Christ who makes us sharers in His body and blood.  The Eucharist strengthens us in charity and enables us to be more firmly rooted in the love of Christ.  After receiving, the apostles have a period of prayer, then they are anxious to share the Holy Eucharist with all who accept Jesus’ message.

When, Where, How?

When we leave the church, we also are anxious to bring Christ’s message to those in our world.  The question is – “what should (and can) we do?”  The period of prayer is a very important first step.  The choices are unlimited; our prayer should guide us towards a starting point.

The Two Parables

In this Sunday’s gospel Jesus tells two parables that give further insight to how we can put our faith into action.  In the first, we hear the story of the man scattering seed in his field.  Slowly the seed would sprout and grow – “he knows not how.”  However, when the grain is ripe, the harvest has come.

The message here is that we need to put in our effort and then trust in God to give growth to the Kingdom.  The growth may be greater than we could ever imagine.  Like the farmer, we must wait and trust in God and in God’s time, we will bear fruit.

In the second parable we hear the familiar story of the mustard seed – “the smallest of seeds on the earth.”  The mustard bush, Jesus reminds us, does not exist only for itself, but it is a refuge for the birds of the air who nest in its shade.  So we also are called to reach out to others – especially the poor, the lonely, the abused, all those with special needs.

These readings from the two Sundays show us that, as we pray and focus on what God is calling us to do (whether big or small) we need to confidently go forward, trusting in God.

OLW answers God’s call!

“We are part of the Body of Christ”

We have many wonderful ministries that provide outreach to others.  This past year has been very difficult for all of us.  I would like to extend a sincere thank you to several that have risen to the occasion:

St. Mark’s Food Pantry – monthly food deliveries doubled and tripled in the past year;

P.A.D.S. in a very challenging year, approximately $20,000 was raised to buy food for the homeless, and many prepared countless meals to be delivered to their shelter; and many others, including Shawl Ministry; SPRED ministry; Ministers of Care; and many others.

St. Mark’s receiving a food delivery

As the top banner declares – We are the light of the world.  Our light must shine before others, that God may be glorified.