ONE PEOPLE OF GOD

 

People of One Flock - the Rapport!

WORD 2day - Saturday, Fourth week in the Eastertide

April 27, 2024 - Acts 13: 44-52; John 14: 7-14

I am in the Father and the Father is in me - a powerful statement indeed by Jesus. Earlier in the same Gospel of St. John Jesus would have proclaimed: the Father and I are one! This is what set Jesus apart from the great prophets and the rabbi that they had; and made him so difficult for the Jews to understand. They were until then, unaware of a rapport so close with the Father. The utmost they could imagine was that of Moses: the Lord spoke to him face to face, as with a friend! Jesus takes that a step ahead and they were scandalised. 

There is nothing to be scandalised... Acts of the Apostles today presents to us another instance where the so-called traditional "chosen people" were scandalised - when God chose to reveal Godself to the so-called pagans! We must turn to the pagans, Paul and Barnabas proclaim boldly, because the Goodnews cannot be contained. It has to be announced, it has to be spread, it has to be shared, it has to be received, it has to be communicated... making everyone people of the One Flock, people who have heard the Goodnews and accepted it. 

God is love, God is relationship... God reaches out. That is why there has been revelation constantly. Through the ages God spoke to us through prophets and the leaders, and in the final times, God has spoken through God's only Son... the Word of God, Godself made human person, who lived among us and died for us, saving us for eternal life, making us people of the One Flock. We would therefore naturally be people who relate, who would reach out, who would go out to meet the other and bring everyone into that relationship of love and acceptance. Because, we have been made people, we have been made one people, we have been made people of the one flock, by that relationship, by that rapport that God has willed to share with us. 

People of One Flock - acknowledging the Absolute

WORD 2day - Friday, Fourth week in the Eastertide

April 26, 2024 - Acts 13: 26-33; John 14: 1-6

Reflecting on being constituted as people of the One Flock by the One Saviour and Shepherd, the Word today tells us we can be worthy of that identity only in as much as we acknowledge the absoluteness of the One who has called us, chosen us and has made us into His own - today I have become your father, you are my beloved children.

We may have a myriad of dreams and multitude of projects, there is nothing wrong in it. In fact, that is the way we celebrate life, the greatest of gifts given to us. But beyond all the plans and projects, dreams and ambitions, there should be an unassailable conviction that the Lord alone is the absolute. It is the Lord who moves us, animates us and guides us. Without the Lord, we are nothing; it is in the Lord that we live, move and have our being. Can we really belong to God, if we do not ackowledge this fact?

The human pride and our bloated ego do not permit this acknowledgement - they smudge our clarity of thought and make our vision distorted, making us unduly reliant on our own capacity and blindly addict to our personal glory. This not only mars our relationship with God the true Absolute, but also with our brothers and sisters, pitching them unnecessarily against us and our self-image.

If we have to really become the One flock that we are, we need to accept that Jesus is our way, the truth and the life - that God is the Absolute, revealed to us in Christ our One Shepherd. It is not about giving God what is due to God, for we are nobody to give God anything for that matter. Everything belongs to God and no one gives or adds anything to God. It is about knowing and being convinced about whom we follow and whose flock we belong to. We are people of the One flock, because God has chosen us: you are my children, my people!

Did Mark ever see Jesus?

THE WORD AND THE SAINT

April 25, 2024: Celebrating St. Mark the Evangelist

1 Peter 5: 5-14; Mark 16: 15-20

Did Mark ever see Jesus? That's possible. But most probably, only as a young lad. They say, it is probable that Mark is referring to himself in "the young man" who left behind his garment and ran when Jesus was being taken prisoner (Mk 14:51,52). These are only probabilities. 

The documented information of him that we have is that he had been one of the prominent among the second generation apostles. He was taught by Peter, he accompanied Paul and Barnabas and he wrote the Gospel - these are facts we have!

Today celebrating the feast of this great apostle Mark, we are given with three lessons to reflect on.

1. Let us be enthusiastic about the proclamation of the Good news by facilitating or helping or supporting or encouraging those who are involved in this task. We see in the Acts of the Apostles that John Mark and his mother Mary, were regularly hosting groups of Christians who gathered to pray... they were promoters of faith.

2. Let us be diligent in our dedication and simple in our disposition when we are required by others, to accompany them. Peter took Mark with him, Paul asks John Mark to be brought along, Barnabas decided to take Mark along on an important journey... Mark was a promising servant of the Lord... a person who was unassumingly ready to accompany.

3. Let us write the Gospel today. We are called to be Gospel writers just as Mark was called to be. The fifth Gospel that we are called to write is our life itself and as it if often remarked: who knows, that could be the only Gospel read by some people! We are called not only to be proclaimers, but also to be the proclamation!

May young St. Mark inspire us today to be enthusiastic Evangelisers wherever we are.

People of One Flock - listening to the Word

WORD 2day: Thursday, Fourth week in the Eastertide

April 24, 2024 - Acts 12:24- 13:5; John 12: 44-50

The word itself that I have spoken will be the judge on the last day, declares Jesus in the Gospel today underlining the importance of the Word in the making of the people of his flock. He insists on that even figuratively in the parable he gave us about the flock: my own know my voice and they follow me! Hearing the Word, listening to It and making It the light to the path of one's life - is a way of life proposed for the flock of the One Lord. 

What does listening to the Word mean, concretely? The Word clarifies that to us in the Word today. The first reading reports to us about the call from the Word - to set apart Paul and Barnabas. The Word said the apostles did. That is true listening. Jesus teaches us that in the Gospel: he says, what my Fathers says, I do; so you are called to do what I say. It is thus we become the One flock after the heart of the Shepherd. 

There are two elements to note here: that God's call continuously keeps appealing to us and that we are called to act accordingly or respond to it appropriately. First is an element of faith and the second is an element of mission. They go together - believing and doing, believing and living, believing and following! That is the sign of the flock of the Lord - to listen and to believe; to believe and to follow; to follow and to live. 

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! 

People of One Flock - through one Gate

WORD 2day - Monday, Fourth week in the Eastertide

April 22, 2023 - Acts 11: 1-18; John 10: 1-10

Jews and pagans - this week the Word will present to us how this distinction was overcome gradually after the Resurrection experience. It was not neither natural nor an easy process - it had its moments of terrible resistance and inacceptance. However, there was no other way because the Spirit of the Risen Lord was categorical - it has to be one flock of the one shepherd. 

Jesus declared that even while he was with his followers - I am the gate of the sheepfold and all the people of God have to enter through this gate. The single name given to us for our salvation as the Word reminded us yesterday - that is what Jesus meant by the metaphor of the gate of the sheepfold. I am the way to the Father, in other words, is what Jesus taught them. Children of the One Father, flock of the One Shepherd, the people of the One flock!

Today, at times when we still speak like the pre-Resurrection people: we and they, we and the others... it is so indicative of what we need to till learn, and of where we need to still grow in our maturity. Our faith is not something that differentiates or divides us from the other, but it urges us to move towards them, to embrace them, the reach out to them. This is what it means to become the Church that goes forth... and this can happen if and only if we realise we have all come to know the Father, through that one Saviour; and we are made one people, through that one Gate, the Risen Lord Jesus Christ.  

PEOPLE OF ONE FLOCK

People of the Light - the choice!

WORD 2day: Saturday, Third week in the Eastertide

April 20, 2024 - Acts 9: 1-20; John 6: 52-59

People of the light are drawn by God and they are transformed - the Word highlighted this to us, the past two days. If they are drawn and transformed, they should show some sign of it. And the sign is their choice, their absolute, unswerving choice, for God and for a life in God. If it were Paul yesterday, it is Peter today, presented to us by the Liturgy of the Word, soliciting our attention on the aspect of choosing God to truly belong to God.

Peter's statement in the Gospel today: "Lord, who shall we go to?", is an expression of such a choice, a choice of absolute nature. Even if everyone else leaves you, we shall not, because you mean much more than anything or anyone else. This absolute choice is highly demanding. It can destroy everything else that one could think of as a source of meaning or basis of sense in life. Peter, Paul, and every other messenger chosen by God, drawn by God and transformed by the Message, is a living illustration of this choice.

What happens when that choice is concretised? Aeneas and Tabitha stand witnesses to the effect that can be  seen. Just as Jesus said - the one who believes in me shall accomplish all I do, and even more than that. We see a stark resemblance in the narration of these signs accomplished by Peter, to those that we can see in the Gospel where Jesus said to the crippled: pick up your mat and walk (Jn 5:8), and to the little girl: talitha koum (Mk 5:41). 

The key is the choice! The people of the Light are those who have chosen God, God's Son, God's Message above everything else in life. If we are among those, we shall certainly see the signs of it in our life. Let our words today, from our hearts be: Lord to whom shall we go, you have the Words of eternal life, and we believe in you. You have chosen us; and we wish to choose you above all.  

People of the Light - transformed

WORD 2day - Friday, Third week in the Eastertide

April 19, 2024 - Acts 9: 1-20; John 6: 52-59

The Light infact blinds us, only to make us see everything more clear and more resplendent. That is what we see in the experience of Paul, or any other apostle or disciple. When they encountered the Risen Lord, they were blinded, they could not really get what they were seeing, but very soon, they began to see everything in a new light... because they were transformed; people of the Light are transformed, they begin to see everything new, clear and renewed. 

Transformation here could mean three important internal experiences of a person: conversion, renewal and proaction.

We see Saul who turns away from his past, with an absolute detachment to the old ways of life. Jesus' call to his followers was a break from the past too - they had to unlearn what the old bread meant and behold the new bread that was being offered. That required accepting the challenge of transformation. Conversion, as a definitive break from a tendency that keeps us away from our way to perfection is an essential first step towards transformation.

Paul becomes a new man, all new that he was able to proclaim, "I live, but not I, it is Christ who lives in me" (Gal 2:20). Is it not what Jesus promised too: he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him? Transformation is not about touching up some corners of our life, but being born anew, becoming a new person, a total Renewal into Christ every time we encounter the Risen Lord in intimacy.

We see a sense of urgency in the transformed Paul. He is emphatically dedicated towards preaching Christ without lamenting or crying over the forgettable past. Whoever eats me will draw life from me, says Jesus - a new life, a new way of life, a new meaning to life. Transformation is all about this Proaction - it is not explaining to all what has happened to me, but letting my actions speak, letting my life manifest the new lease of life in me. 

People of the Light are transformed people, with an enviable experience of conversion, renewal and proaction. Are we?