Sometimes -- perhaps too often -- I respond to some passages in Scripture with the thought, "Yes, I believe that...BUT..."  I have faith in the ideas I read, but I also think I have observed contradictory evidence.  God will be our help, but why aren't we getting that help right now? We will prevail against evil, but why aren't we prevailing right now?  Love is stronger than hate, but why does hate seem to win its own victories every day?

But how today's readings ring true!  What's more -- and it must be through the paradoxes of Divine Providence -- this good news, first communicated so long ago, speaks to us as though it were written for this very year, and for next year, and for all the years you and I will live through!  And finally, it speaks as though it were specifically dealing with this program of using electronic technology for our daily illumination!

These readings seem not for some amorphous, unconnected, theoretical mass of humanity. These are for you who turn on your computers right now, to read my words, to read the words of others, to send out your own words.

People who know me know that I am restrained in my enthusiasm for the mass media and for every advance in the technologies of communication.  Partially, I am a victim of my being born many decades ago; partially, I am a prisoner of my biases and mediocre abilities. But today's readings spark an excitement in what I am doing this second, because as Paul says, I am no longer a stranger or a sojourner among my fellow Christians.  Paul tells me that the "message goes out through all the earth."   It does!  Because of the state of our electronic communications now, the message of Christ is indeed literally going out through all the earth from our keyboards.  And thus you and I have opportunities as never before to join those whom today's Gospel names as called by Jesus to be his Apostles.  I call that exciting!

Yes, I know I joined his missionaries through Baptism and Confirmation.  Yes, I know I did a few modest things in the past to spread his word.  I was darned good at writing something to put in a envelope and send out via the U.S. Mail.  Nevertheless, seldom have I encountered readings which so forbid even the hint of a "BUT" in my response.  You and I have a message - - not ours, but Jesus's -- which makes us Apostles through our modern media.  That's all there is to it.