One cannot give what one does not possess
Feast of St Bartholomew, Apostle: Saturday 24th August 2019
Rev. 21:9-14; Ps. 145(144):10-11,12-13,17-18;
Jn. 1:45-51 (Ps Wk IV)
The Entrance Antiphon today sums up the life and work of an Apostle. An Apostle must “day after day proclaim the salvation of the Lord” and “proclaim his glory to all the nations”. “One cannot give what one does not possess”. Obvious though it is, this principle reminds all of us who are called to engage in some degree in the Church’s work of evangelization. If we are to proclaim the salvation of the Lord, we must, through prayer and faith, have a real experience of all that God has done for us in Jesus. We can only be evangelizers if we ourselves have a lively and firm faith, for evangelization is not the communication of a set of doctrines to another but the sharing with them of “much greater things than that,” as Jesus promised. Evangelization is giving the gift of a living faith, a faith that gives life because it draws the recipient into a life-giving relationship with Jesus, who among other things proclaimed himself as the way, the truth and the life. Our prayer must initate us into an experience of those “much greater things” before we can communicate them to others.
Lord Jesus, by the grace of Your resurrection deepen our prayer lives so that, like all the saints, we may become channels of Your truth and life.
