2.2 Jesus' mission
Jesus' mission of hospitality
However, when we read the Gospel accounts of Jesus' short public life, we encounter a Jesus whose goodness and kindness challenged and confronted the people of his time, especially their religious leaders. Jesus was a man on a mission, a mission he described as being God's mission, indeed his Father's mission. The people of the town of Nazareth, were angered to the point of violence towards him, when he described his mission in these terms
"He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according Throughout the Gospels, we find Jesus living out his mission, one marked by a profound and radical hospitality to the poor, the sick and the marginalised.
Some examples of Jesus' teachings
Hospitality requires seeing people for who they truly are ... children of God, made in the image and likeness of God to share in His life and love. Jesus saw the poor, the sick, the suffering and marginalised, with the loving and merciful eyes of the God he affectionately called Father. He saw them as blessed rather than cursed, as close to rather than far from God and the Kingdom of God. Jesus' mission and the Kingdom of God
Jesus shared his vision of the Kingdom in what came to be known as 'The Beatitudes'. Having heard it so many times, it can be difficult for us to appreciate how radical statement it was in the time of Jesus and now in our time. The Beatitudes When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying: Salt and Light
The Beatitudes, conclude with Jesus' reflections on disciples as "salt of the earth" and the "light of the world". This passage has special significance in a Diocesan church that has taken a lighthouse as its mission symbol.
|