+ In the gospel passage,
Jesus
tells the disciples that there are two prerequisites for membership “on the
vine” – having the commandments of God
and observing them. Now for the “new people of God,” the “commandments”
shift from the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments) to the single law of
Love: love one another as I have loved
you, as you have been loved first by God. But, of course, if you do
this loving of others fully and as prescribed, then you will also be doing the
Ten Commandments: because I have come not
to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.
And to ensure that you are in
tune with the new fullness of the Law, to ensure, for your own assurance, that
you are pleasing to God, to ensure that you are specially loved children of my
Father – the Advocate, the Holy Spirit
will be sent by the Father, in my name – to teach you exactly how all these
things came to be and are – and he will
remind you of all that I told you and
then teach you ongoingly more and more.
And for us today, as we find
ourselves members in the assembly of those who believe in God, accept his
commandments and try to live them out in love – we will feel an unusually close
identity with Jesus, his Father and their Spirit – because they abide deep
inside of our souls, and we find ourselves doing great things for God, great but in an ordinary sort of way:
just as Paul and Barnabas simply spoke words, simply proclaimed Christ
Crucified and Risen. This ordinary proclamation, however produced the result of
their being considered “gods” by the Greeks, after accompanying the preaching
with healing of a cripple in Jesus’ name – but they were simply as human as anyone else – imbued however, with the powers of belief.
We too are very human, very susceptible
to all life’s “feasts and famines” diseases and poverties – especially as we
see ourselves needing to cope with, and readjust our whole lifestyles and
activities due to the insidious and cunning coronavirus – but we have at our
disposals – all of us – the powers of belief – belief in ourselves, belief in
the ability of experts who are trying to point out suitable and logical guidelines
for interacting with one another, belief in the Spirit of God who fills,
informs and moves all of us to become a better and higher version of our True
Selves everyday – that we can adapt to what is going on, allow it to raise our
spiritual and mental consciousnesses, and aid us in reestablishing a local,
regional, national and international “familyhood” – so that when similar
disturbances occur globally in the future – we will be well prepared to deal
with them.
Today in a sense, is always a “dress
rehearsal” for a better play tomorrow! and tomorrow! and tomorrow!!
God LOVES us, God is WITH us,
and God will NEVER abandon us!
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