WORD 2day: Saturday, 5th week in Easter time
May 8, 2021: Acts 16: 1-10; John 15: 18-21
Almost gone are those days when people bound for a place that they have never been to, find their destinations with the help of people on the road, bystanders, fellow passengers etc. Those who are in their forties now, don't you still remember your childhood days, when you were travelling, asking people for directions to reach a spot, or person asking you for such directions? Those of this generation, the teens of today, may look at that as a nuisance, an invadent behaviour, and uncultured, to disturb a person who is a stranger! This is because, nowadays with the smart phones in all hands, everyone is GPS Enabled: Global Positioning System!
Why are we talking about GPS... because, today in the first reading we find the apostles too, GPS Enabled. They are instructed where to go and where not to go. Only that the GPS here is... God's Powerful Spirit. Some time ago we read about Philip, reaching out to the Ethiopian court official in his carriage, so accurately... that was with the help of the GPS too: God's Powerful Spirit.
Jesus warns his friends, wherever they go there will be people against them, because they are his disciples. But he also says, nothing to worry, because they were all GPS Enabled: God's Protecting Spirit. They need not prepare their cause, they need not be anxious and they need not be afraid of the powers that can harm them, because they all had with them their GPS: God's Protecting Spirit.
And we see the disciples, no less daring than their Master. They were schooled so well and nothing could stop them from proclaming the Gospel, because they were all GPS Enabled: God's Propelling Spirit. The apostles, the disciples and the first christians, were unstoppable. Come what may, with all the troubles and persecutions they went on, even to the level of giving up their lives, because they were powered by GPS: God's Propelling Spirit.
Today, amidst all the confusions and troubles we are having all around us, the invitation to us is to be disciples of Christ in our daily life - in spite of all its struggles and temptations - that is to be true disciples of Christ, who are GPS Enabled!