by Bishop Thomas Gumbleton
Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace
How many times have you heard that command of Jesus to spread the Gospel everywhere, take the good news to the ends of the earth? Probably all of us have heard it many, many times now. But how seriously have we taken it? The idea that you, I, and every one of us has to be a witness to the good news of Jesus, to be the ones who take that good news wherever we go so that it really goes to the ends of the earth.
In the final part of Luke’s description of Jesus’ life, he puts it a bit more clearly even when Jesus tells them, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria even to the ends of the earth, you will be my witnesses.” Again, I wonder how many of us really take that seriously and think of ourselves as witnesses to the good news of Jesus? If we do take it seriously, what is the good news that we’re going to spread?
I think on this feast of the Most Holy Trinity, we have an opportunity to really, in some way, understand perhaps better than on another feast day or another Sunday of what is the good news. Now in the first lesson today, we heard Moses insisting to the people, “Be convinced that God is the only God of heaven and earth, and there is no other.” Those first disciples were Jews. They really understood that and believed that — there is no other God...