5th Sunday of Easter; Year C 2016

DOCTRINE AND FAITH 
(Acts 14,21-27;  Rev 21,1-5; John 13, 31-33. 34-35:  5th  Sunday of Easter; Year C  2016)

    The theme of the Church is discernible in the readings of today’s liturgy. The church emerged from the heart of the Risen Christ who mandated her to continue his mission in the world. The church is also the depository and dispenser of all the gifts and graces which Christ merited for us. By virtue of our baptism we are incorporated into Christ who is the head of the Church and ipso facto, we are members of the Church. It behoves us, therefore, to reflect on how each of today’s readings presents one aspect or the other of the church. This will surely enable us appreciate our membership in her as a loving privilege from God.

    The first reading from the Acts of the Apostle shows how some of the local churches were founded.  The Apostles, Paul and Barnabas, guided by the Spirit of the Risen Lord (as they proclaimed the good news of the Risen Christ from one place to the other) started establishing small communities of disciples in places like Listra, Iconium and Antioch. These communities are equivalent to our present parishes. Their usual custom was to preach first to the Jews who were familiar with the Scriptures, but whenever their proclamation was rejected, they turned to the Gentiles who eagerly received the good news with joy and as a privilege. Such ecclesial communities were characterized by their community prayer, fasting and trusting faith in God.  From time to time, the apostles visited the communities (as did Paul and Barnabas in today’s first reading). During their visits, they encouraged the members to remain firm in their faith so as to meet up with the challenges of persecution and tribulation that might arise on account of their faith. During such periodic visits, the apostles also appointed leaders for every community. What can we learn from such primitive ecclesial communities that were more or less structured like our present parishes, with our parish priests as leaders? Our present parish communities should be places where we are to be exhorted, encouraged and taught how to remain steadfast in faith. It should also be centres where we mutually share our common Christian burden and reciprocally put new spirits in our hearts. It should also be a community that is united under one parish priest, who represents the apostle (bishop) and who is truly a brother among brothers and sisters. The members of our parishes should take responsibility of the affairs of the ecclesial community and participate actively in its growth and development.

    The second reading from the book of Revelation reveals to us the profound mystery of the church, which is referred to as the holy city; new Jerusalem. The church descends from heaven. It is from God. On earth, it is where God and man dwell. In other words, the members of the church are the God’s own people, recreated, renewed by the Risen Lord, who makes all things new.The fact that the Church originates from God and is the dwelling place of God among men, is a mystery. It is, therefore, neither a community that is established by sheer will of men craving for association nor a social club of friends who come together. The mystery of the Church consists in God’s willingness to save people through the Risen Lord. The church is the presence and the realization of this divine will of salvation in human history. What a privilege that per virtue of our baptism we are members of this church! How do we respond to the love of God for this singular privilege? It is worthwhile to have at the back of our mind that this Church that is existing here and now today, that is, in this present and temporal life, of which we are members, has eschatological destiny. The book of Revelation offers us some allusion to this, when it holds that God will wipe the tears from their eyes (that is, the eyes of the people among whom he dwells), eliminate death, mourning and laments. Though, the church has earthly, temporal and visible dimension, she is being projected towards her final fulfillment or actualization. On this Vatican II holds: The church into which we all are called in Jesus Christ and in which and through the grace of God we acquire holiness, will not have her fulfillment if not in the glory of heaven (Lumen Gentium, 48).

    In her pilgrimage on earth, what are the fundamental laws of this new community, the Church, that believes in the Risen Jesus Christ? Jesus gave the law of love as the distinctive character of his disciples, the members of his church: I give you a new commandment: love one another; just as I have loved you … By this love you have for one another, everyone will know that you are my disciple. The novelty in the Jesus’ commandment does not lie in the bare fact of asking his disciples to love but in doing so, they have to love as he has loved. How has Jesus loved? First of all, they have to imitate the reciprocal love between Jesus and God the Father. The disciples will first imbibe how to enter into relationship with God the Father so as to always do the will of God just as Christ did, even unto death. Secondly, if we are to love our neighbours as Jesus loved us, we shall be prepared to give up our lives for the sake of our neighbours just as Jesus did by offering his life in sacrifice for the sake of fulfilling his Father’s wish to save us. It is when we, Christians of Nigeria, are prepared to love our neighbours, using the model of the reciprocal love between Christ and God the Father and also ready to love like Christ by suffering for our needy neighbours, can we hope to make the Church salt and light of the world, and a veritable instrument to bring to fulfillment God’s will and plan to save and transform humanity and our present society, thereby contributing to the final and eschatological glory of the church for which she and we her members are destined. Happy Sunday! +John I. Okoye 

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