Thursday, 21st April, 2016

Acts 13:13-25; John 13:16-20
The Christ I see is my Neighbour

The gospel of Matthew bases judgment on good deeds: whatever you deed to the least of these, you did to me (Matt 25:31-46). John’s gospel today comes close to that same reality: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me” (John 13:20). This is to say that walking down the street is Christ; living and sitting next to me is Christ; do I recognize him and treat him well everyday?

Some sense of history, as Paul recounts it in today’s first reading, helps us to see God in others. Every human being is a theatre where God unfolds and tells a sacred history; every human life tells us something either about what God is doing right now or what he did in the past. Part of this story, especially as regards the Israelites, is what Paul is narrating in the first reading. In essence, the history of the Jews leaves the domain of secular history to become salvation history. God used some Israelites in the past to unfold his desire for human salvation. The vicissitudes of their lives served as building stones for the realization of God’s promised gift of salvation.

It follows that a checkered history, henceforth, does not mean a life devoid of God; a badgered and problem riddled life still has God’s signature on it. On every human face and in every human life, God is at work to accomplish his purposes, just as he did in the lives of the peoples of other generations and epochs.

Therefore, in me and in my neighbor God is present; and, I am called upon to see God in myself and in my neighbor; when I do that, every minute and every second and every hour will be spent worshipping God, “for the Christ I see is my neighbor!”