The Gospel for The memorial of St. Vincent de Paul Priest is taken from Luke 9, 1822 Once, when Jesus was praying in solitude and his disciples were with him, he asked them, who do the crowds say that I am? They said in reply, john the Baptist, others, Elijah, still others. One of the ancient prophets has arisen. Then he said to them, but who do you say that I am? Peter said in reply, the Christ of God.

He rebuked them and directed them not to tell this to anyone. He said, the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and on the third day be raised. One might question, did Jesus really tell his disciples not to talk about him as Christ of God? Why would he do that? Because he wanted people to understand what his mission was about. He was a human being like us.

And what happened to him happens to us. And the happening is this great gift of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, healing and driving out demons. That’s what Jesus wants us to understand. The gift that he won for us by his death on the cross. He returns to the Father and we have the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. Please ponder these thoughts and I will close with a prayer.

Foreign Father, you have given us a great challenge. How do we understand your ministry in the world? How do we live it as you call us to live it? We need wisdom. We need your understanding and patience as we seek to understand what it is that God has called each of us to do to build this kingdom. It’s about being used by the Spirit of God.

And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.