People of One Flock - being Christians

WORD 2day - Tuesday, Fourth week in the Eastertide

April 23, 2024 - Acts 11: 19-26; John 10: 22-30

Those who followed Christ were called Christians for the first time in Antioch - we are given to reflect on this occasion in the first reading today. This event and the Christian experience at Antioch offer us some very fundamental lessons to behold. 

Firstly, it is not only that we are one people because we are called by the one Lord, in one faith but more importantly, we cease to be people called by the Lord when we are not one people! The moment we find reasons to divide and to discriminate, we cease to be the people of the one flock. 

Secondly, it is no merit of ours to call ourselves "Christians" and others as not, it has to be the others to call us so, and give us that title - Christians, because we live up to that name. Antioch, we read today, was the first place also where the message was taken to the Greeks - beyond the confines of the Jews. No wonder, the people were found worthy of the name 'Christians'.

Thirdly, 'Christian' is not a name, it is a description, an attribute, a qualification. We need to earn that title, that attribute, that qualification, by our lifestyle, by our perspectives, and by our priorities. People around us need to notice and be struck by our "being" Christians and "becoming" Christians more and more every day. 

We are a people of the one flock, called by the one Lord and schooled by the one Lord - is it not right that we grow up in that one lifestyle presented to us: being Christians!