14th Sunday in Ordinary Time ©

INTRO: Summer is for many a time to go places! So, when you go places, are you a TRAVELER or a TOURIST?

If you think with me for a minute, there is a surprisingly good defined distinction between the two….
The Traveler
• Is interested in unfamiliar things.
• Desires wild encounters that enlarge their perspective
• Is active.
• Is strenuously in search of new people, adventure, and experience.
While
The Tourist
• It is a spectator.
• Passive
• Waits for the guide to show him or her this or that.

So, are you a traveler or a tourist???

I looked in the bible for the word: TRAVELER. It appears multiple-x-multiple times. I looked for the word: TOURIST. It does not even appear.

Scripture and Tradition places a character definition upon us as TRAVELERS! And so does our Gospel for the day which is meant to guide us this week.

We are considered travelers this week on this journey of life.
Jesus sends the seventy-two not just to see the places in which he will visit but to engage themselves in an encounter in those villages, being interested in the unfamiliar people, and actively be AGENTS OF PEACE MAKING.

That is our week’s goal as well…. Agents of making PEACE.

This work of JESUS is to get involved in life and people around us.

Beginning here at this EUCHARISTIC TABLE, Jesus calls us to become engaged with one another as a means of support, reconciliation, and community-building.

Jesus adds a condition ……….one is TRAVEL LIGHT!

CONCLUSION

Jesus knows that the material world can have a strong hold on us, and it also means carrying baggage; the baggage of resentments, past hurts with those with whom we live, or with whom we work. Let go of these.

This week, let us put His definition of traveler into our path, actively engaging in the people around us to bring PEACE and not holding on to old baggage!

Photo by Andy Vu: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-in-brown-jacket-and-brown-hat-standing-on-rock-near-lake-3217911/