Dear Brothers and Sisters, today’s Gospel is often read by priests during parish visitations.
There are different traditions around the world regarding the timing of when we bless houses.
For example, in Poland houses are blessed usually once a year during the Christmas season.
In parishes in Australia homes are blessed during the Easter season.
It is important to offer to God our dwellings through priestly ministry. But
that’s not enough. We need to consecrate to the heavenly Father ourselves and our families.
I encourage you to do it every single day, not just once a year.
When priests visit homes, they are like 72 disciples sent by Jesus in today’s Gospel story.
They went to announce a simple yet powerful message. Christ told them,
“Whatever house you go into, let your first words be, ‘Peace to this house!’” (Lk 10:5).
To be honest with you, I didn’t like my name when I was a small child.
But after discovering what it meant I began to love it. Ireneusz means “a man of peace”,
or “someone who brings peace”. It is a great name that summarises my whole priestly vocation.
I am called to bring peace to other people. Not my own peace of course, but Jesus’ peace.
I am called to bring God’s peace to all the households I visit. Today’s Gospel tells us
that the Lord sent out his followers ahead of him. My priestly vocation is to prepare the
parishioners for an encounter with the Saviour. I was sent to a particular place on earth to help
those who live in my area to accept Jesus as their Lord. But that task does not belong only to those
who received the sacrament of priesthood. It is something that all the baptised Christians must
do. I encourage you to think for a moment about the people to whom you could introduce Jesus.
Identify those who belong to your OIKOS. OIKOS is the Greek word which describes people
with whom you relate on a regular basis. They are your relatives, neighbours,
co-workers and those with whom you spend you free time and share your hobbies.
Dear friends, Jesus sends us to all those people. My OIKOS
is different than your OIKOS. We meet people, others maybe will never encounter.
If I don’t share the faith with my OIKOS, most likely no one else will do it.
We have an individual responsibility before Christ to evangelise those to whom He sent us.
We are called to bring God’s message of peace and salvation. How should we do that?
Well, I think, we should start from building good relationships with the people of our OIKOS.
Invite them for a meal to your home. Take time to listen to them. Show them your Christian care.
Pray for them. Share with them your experience of the Church community. Invite them to your parish.
God wants us to use our existing relationships to transform people’s lives.
He just needs our cooperation.
Let us pray for courage to become missionaries to the people from our OIKOS. Let us do our best
to prepare their hearts for Jesus’ peace and joy of a new life in his presence.