[stephenkhoo]

06 May, 2012, Fifth Sunday of Easter


COMMUNION AND CHARITY IN MISSION

SCRIPTURE READINGS: ACTS 9:26-31; 1 JN 3:18-24; JN 15:1-8

Pope Benedict in his encyclical “God is love” says that the whole Christian message is the proclamation of God’s love. Evangelization is the proclamation of God’s love for humanity. St John in the second reading writes, “My children, our love is not to be just words or mere talk, but something real and active; only by this can we be certain that we are the children of the truth.”

How can we love? Again Pope Benedict says that love today is so often misunderstood. Hence, in spite of our attempts to love, our conscience continues to unsettle us. And, as John wrote, this is because our love is not genuine and thus unable “to quieten our conscience in his presence, whatever accusations it may raise against us, because God is greater than our conscience and he knows everything.”

For this reason, John gives us the key to authentic love, namely, “His commandments are these: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and that we love one another as he told us to. Whoever keeps his commandments lives in God and God lives in him. We know that he lives in us by the Spirit that he has given us.” To “believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ” is to believe that he is the Son of God the revelation of the Father’s love. Jesus is the norm of authentic love. This love of course is expressed in the incarnation and in the paschal mystery.

Only by living this kind of love, can we feel truly happy as St John says, “My dear people, if we cannot be condemned by our own conscience, we need not be afraid in God’s presence, and whatever we ask him, we shall receive.” Besides, because we love sincerely and selflessly like Jesus, we can be sure that our prayers will be answered since it is asked from pure love. Indeed, Jesus promised us, “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask what you will and you shall get it. It is to the glory of my Father that you should bear much fruit, and then you will be my disciples.”

Once we realize this we will see the necessity of being in communion with Him. As the gospel tells us, He the vine and we are the branches. “Whoever remains in me, with me in him, bears fruit in plenty; for cut off from me you can do nothing. Anyone who does not remain in me is like a branch that has been thrown away – he withers; these branches are collected and thrown on the fire, and they are burnt.”

Indeed, being in union with the vine is the indispensable criterion for bearing fruit. Why? Because only in union with Christ, can He live in us in the Spirit. This is what John says, “Whoever keeps his commandments lives in God and God lives in him. We know that he lives in us by the Spirit that he has given us.” Only when His Spirit lives in us, can we love like Jesus. Besides, our love being self-centered needs to be purified. By being one with Jesus, the Father, who is the vinedresser, will prune each one of us in order that we become more fruitful. In other words, when our motives for loving and serving are purified, the Lord will work more powerfully in and through us. Quite often, our ego stands in the way of the Lord working in us.

How can we be in union with the Vine? By allowing the word of God to dwell in us and the Holy Spirit to live in us! Jesus said, “You are pruned already, by means of the word that I have spoken to you. Make your home in me, as I make mine in you.”

It is important to take note that there is a very important relationship between the deepening of our prayer life, indeed, our spiritual life, with that of the reading and praying of the scriptures. The more we read the scriptures, the more intense is our prayer. Reading the scriptures will urge us to pray more. If we have no desire to pray or are not praying properly, it is because our prayers are not rooted in the word of God. On the other hand, when we pray, we want to read the Word of God even more. As we pray and as we read the Word of God, the Spirit of Jesus makes His home in us because we become attune to His Spirit in us.

However, communion with Jesus is not sufficient. Since Jesus is the vine and we are the branches we must also be in communion with the Church, which is the Body of Christ. This entails primarily communion with the hierarchical Church, the magisterium. This explains why Paul had to be introduced to the apostles. Indeed, “when Saul got toJerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him: they could not believe he was really a disciple. Barnabas, however, took charge of him, introduced him to the apostles, and explained how the Lord had appeared to Saul and spoken to him on his journey, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.” Union with the Church ensures that we live in the truth. Only by living in the truth can we love with a clear conscience since truth and love are mutually inclusive.

There is another level of communion, which is the fraternal fellowship between fellow Christians. Once again, we see how the fraternal love of the Christians saved Paul, for when the brothers knew of plans to kill him, “they took him to Caesarea, and sent him off from there to Tarsus.” From this perspective, we see the importance of maintaining unity in the Church and promoting ecumenism, which is part of the presupposition of the mission of the Church and for the sake of the mission of the Church.

Only when there is communion, can we speak of mission. Mission flows from communion and is accomplished in communion, since our mission is to promote communion. We must realize that only when Paul was in communion with the apostles and with the Christians, could he preach the word of God effectively. Without communion, we are told that people could not believe in him. Indeed, “when Saul got toJerusalem he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him: they could not believe he was really a disciple.”

This communion must be expressed in charity by being witnesses of love in the world in justice and service. From communion with God and with our fellow Christians spring our communion with our fellowmen, regardless of race, language and religion. This is beautifully expressed in the fourth chapter of the apostolic letter, Novo Millenio Inenunte where the late Pope John Paul II explains what this charity entails, namely, the service of promoting the dignity of every human person, the promotion of justice, life and alleviation of the poor. In a similar vein, Pope Benedict XVI in Deus Caritas Est #25 says, “For the Church, charity is not a kind of welfare activity which could equally well be left to others, but is a part of her nature, an indispensable expression of her very being.”