COME AND BELONG

The call, the choice & the condition!

May 11, 2025: 4th Sunday in Easter Time

Acts 13: 14,43-52; Revelation 7: 9, 14-17; John 10: 27-30

When I am lifted up, I shall draw everyone to myself said Jesus when he was around. And after his resurrection that is what he did. He drew everyone to him. "Everyone" is the key here - in illo Uno unum (in the One we are one)... that precisely is the motto of our new given Holy Father Leo XIV... to be one in the One! It was not merely incidental, it has always been part of God's magnificent plan. Yes, it is a plan for the whole humanity, 'beginning with the Jews' as St. Paul would often point out and indicates in the first reading today! However, what happens in concrete, depends on three considerations: the call, the choice and the condition!

The Call is given to every one, there is no Jew or Greek, Christian or not! The first reading today speaks of that shift that took place from the Jews to the entire world, within the salvific plan of God - it had to happen. Paul and Barnabas pay heed to that call... the call to go to the entire world, the call to be the light to the nations, the call to reach out to the ends of the earth. 

The call to belong is universal, every one is called to come and belong! AT times believers have a hard time understanding how everyone will be saved, if only those who believe in Christ could be saved. We have to absolutely beleive, what Jesus taught us: that the Father wills the salvation of ALL. Yes, the salvation is through Jesus Christ, and that is the only name given to us for our salvation! But let us not rule out the fact that the Father will see to it that the whole creation is reconciled in Christ Jesus our Lord: that is the Eternal plan. The call from all eternity, the call to belong, is for everyone!

The Choice is mine to make! Each of us has to make a choice and when one does not make a choice to belong to the Lord, of course the Lord misses a precious child, but loses nothing; whereas the person loses everything! The apostles try their best to impress this upon their fellow Jews, but nothing would change them. They would make a choice for their own obstinacy, supremacy and comfort, and their own life style! 

This is where the hitch lies; though it is God's will that everyone heed the call to belong, God will never force it on anyone - that is not God's style! The possibility is offered to me: behold, I place before you life and death, salvation and ruin, eternity and end, says the Lord. What is going to be my choice today? To belong to the Lord, to belong to the flock or continue in the way I think best?

The Condition that the Lord places is just one: that I listen! I should know my Master and listen to my Master's voice. Isaiah puts in very simple words: he says - even the donkeys know their stable and the asses their master (Isa 1:3)! The call as we presented it earlier is to come and belong... there are two steps to it. At times we are very enthusiastic and we COME...but the sad fact is that we tend to fail to BELONG. My own know me, and they follow my voice, says the Lord. 

We begin with so much enthusiasm, only to soon find some excuses to fall by and give up. If only we can work out of the emotional overtures and truly commit our ways to the Lord, we shall not only come, but continue to be and belong to the Lord forever. When we come, stay on and belong to the Lord, there is so much joy and we shall be filled with the Spirit. 

These are specifically the two signs of our total belonging to the Master - being Joyful and being Spirit-filled: a joy that no one can take away and the Spirit that enlightens every bit of my daily life... what more do we need?