Belonging to Christ

WORD 2day: Saturday, 27th week in Ordinary time

October 8, 2022: Galatians 3: 22-29; Luke 11: 27-28

'We are Christians for the past 4 generations'; 'I belong to such and such a Church or denomination'; 'oh! I am a born again' or I am born thrice!!!... nothing of these will make us automatically acceptable or blessed in the eyes of God. Whether Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free...it does not matter, says St. Paul in the first reading today - neither circumcision nor non-circumcision matters, when it comes to belong to Christ. What matters is, that we clothe ourselves in Christ, that we become one in Christ, that we truly BELONG TO CHRIST (cf. Gal 3:29) in all the sense of that term.

Belonging to Christ would mean 3 things according to the readings today: 

One, having faith in God, inspite of anything that happens or does not happen, like Abraham. It requires patience and endurance, to stay put in the presence of God, with humility and submission.

Second, hearing the Word attentively, like St. Paul. He heard it, he listened to it, he understood it and he converted himself according to what the Word wanted him to do. And precisely because of this fact, he was able to speak with ascendancy to the Jews and the non Jews, to the followers and the apostles.

Thirdly, observing the directions given by the Lord, like our blessed mother. She is blessed not merely because she bore and suckled the Son of God, but because she heard the Word, bore it in her mind and heart and conducted her entire life on the basis of the directions given to her. She was a perfect handmaid of the Word. 

Can I today really claim that I belong to Christ?