If the people are worthy people, your peace will rest on them; if they are not worthy people,
your blessing will come back to you. And if you are not welcomed, and your words are not listened to,
leave that house or that town, and shake the dust off your feet. I assure you, it will go easier for the
people of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment, than it will for the people of that town.
REFLECTION:
One neglected form of evangelical work in our time is home visitation. This was how the first Christian
communities flourished. Evangelical home visitation is not just seeking hospitality but letting God penetrate
into homes or people’s lives. For the hosts, you can be a disturbance because evangelical visitation is actually
a home invasion. Today’s evangelizations are largely done in pulpits or in retreats or other pastoral activities
where people are gathered away from their lives. By evangelical work, I do not mean only those done by priests,
lay ministers or missionaries. All Christians are asked to do evangelization. Our Gospel today speaks of evangelization
as bringing God into people’s homes and lives—not just treating people as audience. In visiting a home, you enter into
someone’s well-guarded privacy. You may be welcomed or deemed a threat. Christians are called to invade homes and
people aligning their lives in God’s ways.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2020