One People of God - the Peace effect

WORD 2day - Tuesday, Fifth week in the Eastertide

April 30, 2024 - Acts 14: 19-28; John 14: 27-31

I am the vine and you are the branches - that is the wish that the Risen Lord has with respect to us. It is in being united in the Lord that we become one people, one people of God. This note that the Word gave us last Sunday, continues through this week, reminding us of the varied effects this "remaining" one with the Lord can create within us. Yesterday we spoke of the Spirit effect, and today we reflect on the Peace effect. 

When we are united with and united in the Lord, we experience what is called the peace effect, a peace that the Lord gives. The Lord himself clarifies it is not like the peace that the world gives - that peace which is precarious, fragile, to be handled with utmost care. Instead, the Lord declares: I give you peace, my peace I give you! What would the difference be, that is the point of today's reflection.

Peace that lasts - because it is not constructed on a delicate and bogus structure that looks fancy but lacks any internal substance, feared to collapse anytime, caused by just a word or even a gesture. Instead it is a peace that is built of hardships and sufferings, sweats of blood and interior determination. Everything may pass, this peace shall not!

Peace that spreads - because it is not a flimsily publicised and soon reproached set of principles and contracts. Instead it is built on a covenant, a fidelity that is infallible, the faithfulness of God that follows us forever. It is that steadfastness that guarantees this peace and it inspires people. If the early Christian community which was so much persecuted gained numbers, it was because of this quality of spreading!

Peace that prepares - because it is not just a feel-good experience or a make-shift arrangement for the moment. Instead it prepares us for a greater gift, a much profound mystery - that of the Reign. The peace that the Lord gives is a preparation for, a foretaste of the Reign, because it is founded on righteousness and joy in the Holy Spirit. 

Peace be with you!

One People of God - the Spirit Effect

WORD 2day: Monday, Fifth week in the Eastertide

April 29, 2024: Acts 14: 5-18; John 14: 21--26

The Word this Sunday introduced us to a specific theme to be reflected upon this entire week - that we are called to be One People of God, one people united to the Lord, just as the branches are united to the one vine. Branches which thus remain with the vine, bear much fruit and the Word shall speak to us this week about these fruits. The first fruit that we are called to reflect upon today, is the Spirit of the Lord, the Advocate that the Father sends. 

Remain in me, invites our Lord and Saviour and thus remaining in the Lord we shall be blessed with, equipped with, empowered with the Spirit, the Divine Advocate who shall teach us all the truth that we need to know. We know things, we learn things, we discover things in life - but what is important and crucial is to understand how to put to use what we know - saying the right word, taking the right decision, and making the right choice at the right time;  that is a special gift of the Spirit. That is what the Risen Lord promises to the people formed out of the experience of Resurrection, the easter people.

We possess knowledge and capacity, we grow in them... but it is only the Spirit who inspires us to give the due place to the One who gives these as a gift to us. How many we do see around, who possess knowledge and capacity, but end up far away from God, totally fallen in their ways! The reason is that they do not allow the Spirit of the Lord to work in them. Today we see Paul and Barnabas in the first reading, who were deified as gods Zeus and Hermes because of the marvels! They could have conveniently basked in that glory and made a career out of it, as many a person we see in today's context do. But what did they do - they knew what to choose! They make people understand to whom all glory has to be given - not to them, but to that One Almighty God! 

The Spirit effect was there in them; they knew who really mattered and what Truth really is! One People of God, are One in the Spirit and they never clamour for the centre, the focus and the limelight. They give praise to God and offer everything to God, making everything refer to One God, as One People. 

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