+ Our readings today are about unity
and community, or a more contemporary way of saying it
would be: participation. Jesus
makes it very clear that a disciple of
his must remain entirely and wholly attached to him like a branch on a vine, it
must participate in the life of the vine. A branch cannot live apart from the vine; and even if it could, its
fruit would be of a strange variety – being dissociated from the species of which
it is meant to be a part. And so, we must remain in Christ so that our
fruit is godly fruit, our works are meritorious for our salvation, and our
loving is pure and self-sacrificial. There are many in this day and age who are
semi-rooted to the vine, or so they think; but the truth is either you are or
you aren’t connected to it: either you have the Christ-life flowing through
your spiritual veins or the world’s: and if it is the worlds’ then it can never
be entirely true, beautiful or just!
In
the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Paul
and Barnabas in order to stay rooted on
the vine – which is the Mystical Body
of Christ, the Church, as it was just beginning to take form in the world –
decide to go to Jerusalem to consult with
the apostles and presbyters there about the matter of circumcision of Gentile converts.
They did not simply act on their own, but wanted to find out – by the
working of the Holy Spirit – in consultation with the others who received the
same Spirit at their ordinations – what is to be held or not held in this
particular case in the day to day operations of the Church. This is how the
Church was set up on Pentecost – it would be guided and informed by the Spirit
– and this is how it still operates today. The community, the unity, the
participation is protected, the gathering of personally united persons is
guaranteed freedom from error, when acting collegially, and together with the
Successor of Peter as their head.
And so today, we thank God for
joining us to him, for remaining with us and for joining us to one another in a
communion of holiness, fraternity and peace. And let us not forget that to
“experience the life of union”, we must go out from ourselves, participate in
life, and thus become who we are really meant to become in the first place. Then
we may all go together to the house of
the Lord, and give him thanks and praise! Amen! Alleluia!
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