To listen and to follow - being Christians

WORD 2day: Tuesday, 4th week in Easter time

May 13, 2025: Acts 11:19-26; Jn 10: 22-30

The sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me! The believers in Antioch were called 'Christians', because they belonged to the Lord... they listened, they followed! 

Listening to the Lord would not mean just hearing the Word, it would mean to drink in the principles of the Lord. It is, as St. Paul would reiterate most often, to put on Christ's mind! It is thinking like Christ, having the priorities of Christ, having the same motivations and purpose as Christ - the fulfillment of the holy will of the Father. 

Following the Lord would mean, to live like him. As an effect of listening to the voice of the Lord, and thinking as the Lord does, our choices and our values would mirror those of the Lord himself. And the result: our actions, our decisions, our judgements, align themselves with those of the Lord. Our actions will have to be our witness, not merely our words or our titles.

Would anyone, unknown to me, looking at me and my actions, say I should be a Christian? Not because of the cross I might be possibly wearing, nor with the name tag that I may probably have, but with the attitudes that I sport and the actions that spontaneously emanate from me! 

I am tempted to ask myself today: is it right to say that a person will do good if he or she is a Christian, or to say, anyone who does good to the other without expecting anything in return, is truly a 'Christ-ian'?