Topic

Mission Challenges

Jesus was aware of the difficulties that his apostles had in understanding his proposal and his mission. The Gospel of Mark reports, after the miracle of the bread, that the disciples "had not understood anything about the loaves. Their hearts still did not understand" (Mk 6, 52).

Still, in the Gospel of Mark, we see that the disciples: don't know who Jesus is, they don't understand his practice, they don't understand his new ethics; and they still argue among themselves to see who would be the greatest of them.

There were times when Jesus' words met strong resistance. Many disciples said, "That word is hard. Who can listen to him? ... From that moment on, many disciples abandoned him and no longer walked with him" (Jn 6, 60, 66).

But all these problems of Jesus with his disciples, in a way, did not represent as much as their abandonment at the time of his passion and death: we know how Peter denied Christ three times (Lk 22, 61).

After his death, Jesus appeared to the disciples and "criticized them because of their lack of faith and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who had seen him risen" (Mk 16:14).

At times, we may have the same temptation as the disciples, to stop following Jesus because we find it very difficult to implement his project. These are the moments of discouragement and dispersion. At such times, we need to think and talk about the causes of discouragement.

Many may feel insecure about carrying out the work and feel that it is beyond their strength. Others may be discouraged because the work in the community is not moving forward, and several leaders are already leaving. And there they may be tempted to forsake Jesus, perhaps at a time when He and other leaders need you most.

There can still be discouragement among the leaders because they are doing work without realizing the presence of God, like the disciples, who did not understand the meaning of Jesus' mission as Messiah.

How do we overcome these challenges? Where can I find the strength for this?



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