The Resurrection Community

WORD 2day: Friday, 24th week in Ordinary time

September 20, 2024 - 1 Corinthians 15: 12-20; Luke 8:1-3

The Word today points to an identity that has to be the most fundamental to any follower of Christ.  It is totally centered upon and rooted in that pivotal event of our faith - the Resurrection. 

First and foremost of all the effects that Christ has on his followers is the Resurrection effect: that is a life filled with hope! The year of jubilee that we are preparing ourselves towards, gives us an opportunity too to realise the importance of this element of hope. If Christ were not raised from the dead, our faith would be in vain - declares St. Paul today. We are filled with a hope so great that nothing, not even death, can take away the meaning of our life. 

Secondly, we find today Jesus amidst the first community that he himself had initiated - the Twelve, and some women! That is another Resurrection effect - the fruit of rising above all the pettiness of the world, discarding the divisions, despising the differences of gender or geography, and becoming one community, one people! 'We are all baptised into the one Spirit - Jews or Greeks, free or slaves, we are all filled with the same Spirit', St. Paul would instruct ( cf. 1 Cor 12:13). 

Today, our faith communities are challenged to ask themselves, are we one body? are we made into one by the Risen Lord? are we "following" the Lord? do we have the "mind" of Christ in us? In short, the question is, Are we truly Resurrection Community?