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!
It was St. Thomas Aquinas who summarized the two movements of the human person as a “coming out from God (exire),” and a “returning back to God (redire).” This 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 whole heartedly, 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. Since every going out presupposes a return, today, our first reading shows the return of Paul and Barnabas to the community from which they were sent out; it was accountability time. Paul and Barnabas gave a situation report, to their human community, of what the Holy Spirit accomplished through them in their missionary journey. You and I, we came from God and shall return to God: what will the report of our lives on earth be on judgment day?
But why should Paul and Barnabas return to Antioch to report to human beings the out come 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, this is part of the reason the human person came out from God – to work out his/her salvation on earth, and to return to God to give a situation report of his/her accomplishments. Yes, your life and mine, on earth, is a missionary one, away from God, but to return to God in due cause.
Of paramount interest to us, today, is the wherewithal to achieving salvation on earth. If Paul and Barnabas were so successful that they were called Christians because their lives mirrored that of Christ, Christ himself leaves us, all Christians, the most reliable measurement of Christianity – sacrificial love (agapē): by the love you have for one another, people will know that you are my disciples (John 13:35), says our gospel reading. Hence, Christianity is a religion of sacrificial love, love that leads one to die for the other, and not ask the other to die for oneself or to kill the other in order to be saved! In the words of Jesus: “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another” (John 13:34). Can I die for love of my enemy?
Jesus exemplifies what love really means today, when he talks of his “glorification,” a Johannine term for his crucifixion and death. Jesus forewarned his followers that where he was going, they couldn’t go with him immediately, but later. In other words, Jesus was about to die for the salvation of the world, but each disciple too will die eventually, but not immediately. It is the purpose for which one dies that determines one’s glorification or non-glorification. What can you die for, money?
The immediate point of interest is not death, but the mission of love Jesus makes imperative for those who are his disciples as a precondition for the continuous presence of Christ in the world and as means for eternal salvation. The power of sacrificial love replicates the presence of Christ in Christians. 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 out earthly dwelling to God on judgment day. Can you point to one such example in your life, where you showed readiness for death out of love?
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 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. Is your life militating against the power of love creating heaven on earth?
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). As we have said above, we came from God and we shall return to God. What we report to God will be our lives of love and service to one another. Shall we be found successful as Paul and Barnabas in our first reading? 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 looking 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?