Report Card Sunday
[Acts 14:21-27; Revelation 21:1-5a; John 13:31-33a, 34-35
It all depends! At the end of the elementary or secondary school term, some of us couldn’t wait to get home to report that we either came first, second, or third in our class. The joy of a chicken that will be killed to celebrate our success animated us. Of course, returning home to face the music of either failure at the end of the school year or not being among the top 3 in our class dragged the feet of some of us. It really depends on the news we have to announce to determine the joy or sorrow of returning home!
Report card Sunday captures the essence of our first reading, the first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas (Acts 13:1-3). The Holy Spirit set them apart for this mission, which they accepted wholeheartedly, and to which they gave their best. In fact, the decision of non-Christians to call them Christians, for the very first time (Acts 11:26), is a testimony to the success of their mission.
Paul and Barnabas teach us that accountability matters when one is an emissary. Although it was the Holy Spirit who sent them on their missionary journey, yet they were part of a visible human community or church to which they owed accountability or report of their missionary activities. Paul and Barnabas gave a situation report to their human community about what the Holy Spirit accomplished through them in their missionary journey.
But why did Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch to report to human beings the outcome of their missionary journey, since they were sent out by the Holy Spirit and not human beings? It is simply because God and human beings work in tandem – God works through human beings to realize his purposes. Human agency and instrumentality, for the work of human salvation, are inseparable. The fact of human creation implies a human way of salvation; human beings are God’s coworkers in the mystery and history of salvation.
A lesson to learn from Paul and Barnabas is the reason for their success: they were so successful that they were called Christians because their lives mirrored that of Christ. This is the bridge between our first reading and the gospel – the Christian obligation to mirror Christ on earth!
While our first reading shows that Jesus had dispeared (ascended into Heaven) from the scene and Christians are now his visible presence in the world, our gospel reading portrays Jesus’ farewell message to his followers: “My children, I will be with you only a little while longer”. Jesus knew that he was not going to be always visibly present with his followers, so he taught them the best way to guarantee his presence going forward when he said to them, “I give you a new commandment: love one another”. The followers of Christ are missionaries of love that must mirror that of Christ so much so that they will be called CHRISTIANS (like Paul and Barnabas).
Indeed, Christians are the visible presences of the invisible Christ. The power and example of sacrificial love ensures that Christ is present among us up until the end of time. And, it is on the basis of how much we have loved and lived out the commandment of sacrificial love that we will give an account of our earthly dwelling to God on judgment day.
Paul’s claim, in our first reading, that “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God” (Acts 14:22b) is very important for every true Christian. These “hardships” are engendered by love, so they are sweet yokes, yokes we carry with Christ for our salvation! An added element, which Paul gives as admonition today, is fidelity or perseverance: “[he] exhorted them to persevere in the faith” (Acts 14:22a); this virtue of perseverance is capital because people easily chicken out when the going gets tough, when the odds are against them; remember that Christ gave his life for us as an example of endurance and perseverance.
Our second reading reminds us of the necessity for God’s new commandment of love – so that God might dwell among us, for God is love! This is the way our second reading puts it: “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3). Our task is to make the earth a heaven before the heaven of the hereafter: God wants us to create the image of heaven here upon earth before we return to him. The sole ingredient for the creation of heaven on earth is LOVE, sacrificial love, for where there is love there is God because God is love, and he dwells in love.
Report-card-Sunday makes every day an opportunity to come first/second/third in the school of showing love. This is not in order to have a whole chicken served to us because anyone can buy chicken to eat, but because only God rewards the best candidates in the school of love (agapē). We do not need to become priests and religious to become missionaries like Paul and Barnabas. Our lives on earth already make us missionaries because we came from God to this earth, and we shall return to God. Like Paul and Barnabas reporting to their community the success of their mission, after our earthly lives, we will return to God to give a report to God about our lives of love and service to one another while on earth. The question is, would we be found as successful as Paul and Barnabas in our first reading?
As regards the new commandment of sacrificial love, how are we faring in loving and serving our enemies? If God dwells in love and wants to dwell among us, creating heaven on earth, here and now, are we coworkers with him through our lives of love and sacrifice? There is no need to look for God somewhere else: God works in tandem with human beings! You know what, you are Christ because he lives in you: be the best image of Christ people will ever see!
Assignment for the Week:
Can you telephone anyone you consider an enemy this week and wish them well or send them a surprise gift?