Mt. 10:7-13   “Go and proclaim that the Kingdom of God is coming.”

Jesus has already chosen his 12 apostles to “be with him and to be sent”. The time for the mission arrives and Jesus sends them out with the words we have highlighted: proclaim that the Kingdom of God is coming. It is what they themselves have heard about Jesus and what they have perceived by seeing his way of life, contemplating his way of healing, forgiving, lifting, encouraging others. Without that experience and those learnings, their mission to proclaim the Kingdom would have sounded empty, they would not have the strength to face with peace the difficult moments that the mission brings: the rejections, the failures, the misunderstandings. Nor could they have left lacking everything, ready to be content with what they were given; for this reason it is essential to be able to be with Jesus, to contemplate him, to allow oneself to be challenged by his way of living and acting. It is the grace for which we need to ask him always.