Gone are the days when priests and nuns were the only ones expected to be working for God.
Jesus’ last words to us in the Gospel of Matthew are Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them
to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age. (Matt 28: 19-20). The Pope has said, also, that what the Church today needs most, are committed disciples of Jesus. I sense that the moment has come to commit all of the Church’s energies to a new evangelization and to the mission to all nations. No believer in Christ, no institution of the Church can avoid this supreme duty: to proclaim Christ to all peoples. (Pope John Paul II, Redemptoris Missio, 1990, no 3)
We cannot expect the clergy, required to be almost always in the church and often weighed down with so many duties, to shoulder the entire responsibility of bringing new people to the Church. It is us, who are out there in the world, who God expects to attract people to
him. We can bring people to the church so the priests can feed them God.
All we require for the position of ‘disciple’ is faith and a willing heart. I have seen the most seemingly useless of people become disciples of Jesus. These are people who society may peer down their noses at, but God puts them to work for him, simply because they are willing and because he loves them with a love we cannot
imagine. The simple, jobless woman with the desire to constantly pray for others, or perhaps, the young schizophrenic man who leads his troubled friends to the Church.
God recruits well-to-do people as well. The young receptionist who wears her little Holy Spirit button to work, answering questions about it to anyone who asks, or the executive manager who mentors his new staff subtly in the ways of God.
The money may not be great – even non-existent. But money seems so insignificant when considering the immense spiritual rewards we accumulate for that day we will enter the ecstasy of heaven – rewards that will remain with us for all eternity. So if you dare to live an
extraordinary life, dare to work for Christ. Be inspired by him first, so you can go out and inspire others. Allow him to touch your life and correct the imperfections, so you can be trustworthy of being in his employment. I promise you, be it full or part-time, it will be the most rewarding career you could ever have dreamed of.
Excerpted from How Sweet the Bitter Fruit by Anna Breheney,