By Fr Antony Christy, SDB –
May 2, 2021: Fifth Sunday in Easter time
Acts 9: 26-31; 1 John 3: 18-24; John 15: 1-8
We are the Church of the Risen Lord, the People of God in the Risen Christ…it means we have an identity, a mission and a characteristic lifestyle, that should define us! This is what the Word comes to tell us this Sunday! It would be a challenging message, taken in the context of what we are going through as a worldwide experience these days!
One statement that connects the second reading and the Gospel could provide us with a starting point for our reflection: “whatever we ask him, we shall receive” says the second reading (1 Jn 3:22) and “you ask what you will and you shall get it,” says Jesus in the Gospel (Jn 15:7). Whatever we ask, we shall get! Whatever we pray for we shall receive! Are these not too tall as claims, looking at the travail that we are through during these days of pandemic…the effects lingering on in some parts of the world, and a fresher and more vigourous wave in other parts! Where have all these promises gone – one may feel like screaming!
Whatever you shall ask, you shall receive, says the Word…be it first reading or the Gospel today. There are those who take this to be a magic spell, and expect that to happen as soon as they decide to arrange for a few hours of prayer and performance of some rites! It is a simplistic understanding of our relationship with God, with world and with each other, too simplistic. Prayer today has to be more an examination of conscience, a renewal of our confidence in God and a personal and communal decision to conversion! That is what is required of us – that again is the message of the Word today! Let us not be taken up and lost with just one part of the message: Ask whatever and you shall receive it; pray for whatever and you shall have it… there is another part, more crucial and more challenging… when is it that I shall have whatever I ask? when is it that I shall receive whatever I pray for?… the conditions matter much and in those conditions there is also a clue to another question – why is it that these untoward things happen in our life and leave us so helpless!
The condition is very clearly stated: when you remain in me, and I in you, the Lord says, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you! We recived for him anything we ask, the Apostle explains, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him! That is where lies the clue. From here we need to understand three (atleast) hard facts of life:
1. Things go wrong when we do not do what is in accordance with the Divine Law: The phrase, ‘because we keep his commands and do what pleases him, we receive what we ask for’, as a corollary instructs us that when we do things that do not go with the life that we are called to live, we face consequences that can turn our lives topsy turvy! How true! And at the same time, how hard! We refuse to face the fact that every time we make small choices against God’s will, we are paving way for a disaster somewhere, sometime! All the experiments that go to any extent, be it in our personal lives or in the common life of humanity, when they are purportedly against what is true and what is right, we are slowly and gradually setting up our own ruin. Has the humanity any time in history really accepted this fact, though knowing it is true is every sense?
2. What I choose does not affect merely me, whether I acknowledge it or not: That is not the only fact; the other way is true too – that I am affected not only by what I choose, but what others choose, what collectively we choose! So there are so many who are affected, innocent of the choices made, but vulberable to the effects of the wrong choices. The small and tiny choices come together, make up a whole culture and there is a culture of exploitation, use-and-throw, consumerism, greed, insensitive hoarding, inhuman priorities that is created today – the effects of which the whole world has been facing for the past two years. Who shall we blame for it – a country somewhere in the corner of the globe, a continent that bears a big percentage of the population, an alleged conspiratory group that contriving against the entire humanity…the blame game can go one endlessly. What I need to do is, become aware of my choices and become critical of the choices at large. Acknowledge my mistaken choices and speak up againts the ungodly choices! That is where a discpile is identified, that is where an apostle is seen, that is where a Christian is born… in reminding the world of the right choices? Am I capable of doing it. Paul did it…he was about to be killed…he had to move out so that the Churches would be left in peace!
3. The Christian faith does not end in an answered prayer: I ask and Lord gives, and does everything end there? I want something and that comes to be, or comes not to be…does it end there? It cannot. We read in the first reading the Churches in Judea, Galilea and Samaria were left in peace…and they built themselves up, in the feat of the Lord and in the consolation of the Spirit. That is what is to be done in our lives too: this pandemic will end, soon; yes it will; we hope in the Lord, it will. And after that what is going to be our response? The reflection has to lead us to a further choice, a choice to hold on to the Lord, to remain with the Lord, to make an absolute choice for the Lord! Once that sort of an absolute choice is made for God, we do not ask anything from God, we do not wish anything different from what God wishes…that is the state of life we are called to grow towards!
To remain in the Lord is being connected to the Lord, thinking with the mind of God, knowing exactly what pleases God, living in accordance to the will of God and building up ourselves as People of God, growing up into the image of God and bearing fruit in abudance, reminding the world of God, in everyway!
Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005, who has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (Specialisation in Catechetics). He is currently pursuing his doctoral research in Theology at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the Young towards a World of Peace and Dialogue is the passion that fires him.