Father Prince's Gospel Reflection
The Sixth Sunday of Easter:
Here is a piece of ‘holy’ humor from someone’s creative mind. “St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine of Hippo decide to rob a bank. The note to the teller is 1,200 pages long, not counting footnotes, complete with a promise of damnation if the teller does not accept immediate baptism. In the middle of the heist, they engage in an extended debate as to whether or not the money really exists. Are they committing a mortal sin or a venial sin?”
Being church in this world of ours is not easy, but then being church in any age has not be easy either. There is no magic bullet guaranteeing success for today’s church, only pointers provided by the likes of apostles Peter, Paul and John. “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence ….For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.” (1 Peter 3:15-16)
The believers in the early church faced some tough issues; like how does one present the Gospel in such a way that others will be attracted to its message and more than that, to commit themselves to its cause? When Peter confronted this same issue of the church being an alien community within the Greco-Roman society, he was concerned that the fellowship of believers be people of character. Most of the folks in the society operated by a set of rules and principles that made a certain sense because they worked. Like, do good to those who do good to you and strike back at those who don’t. If someone maligns you, give it back to him or her double. The majority may have celebrated such attitudes, but for Peter and for his community of faith such attitudes were unacceptable. For Peter, one lived out the ethic of Jesus no matter how one’s peers decided to live.
John also was concerned about how to be a follower of Jesus in a hostile environment. It was clear to him that some within his community felt alone and alienated and often at odds in a culture that did not recognize the significance of Jesus Christ. No doubt the temptation to abandon one’s faith in Jesus and to slip into a mild conformity with the surrounding culture was very real. John, therefore, reminds his community of Jesus’ promise to send an ‘Advocate’ to accompany these believers in their lonely journey. He also reminds them that connection with Jesus was inseparable from obedience to Jesus. What he is saying to us, the twenty-first century Christians is that being church means living lives in Spirit-filled and Spirit-led conformity to the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Act of Spiritual Communion
My Jesus,
I believe that You
are present in the Most Holy Sacrament.
I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul.
Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally,
come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You.
Amen.
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