By John Desing csc –
Readings: Acts 13: 13-25; Jn 13: 16-20
The first reading tells us about the chosen ones of God who became powerful instruments of God’s mercy, love and compassion. They were able to do so because they listened to God’s voice and faithfully followed his command.
Similarly, the twelve apostles in the Gospel passage of today are chosen ones of Christ. They were chosen for a purpose. However, being chosen is not a privilege alone but a big responsibility as well. The disciples were called to be witnesses of the master to the world by living an
exemplary life.
In the world today we have enough and more followers of Christ but we do not know whether these followers are witnesses of Christ or not. One of my professors said that what we are lacking now in Christianity is not religious but witnesses. We Christians sometimes feel proud of ourselves to be called Christians but the question is how much do I resemble Christ to others?
Many non-Christian may not know who Christ is but looking at us they will understand who Christ is. Jesus has shown himself as our Lord, friend, servant and Savior by his action and he wants us to do the same to one another. We are called to do like our master did; by treating everyone
equally and loving everyone justly.
We need to realize that in accepting the invitation of following Christ we are bound to be despised by the standard of this world because the pursuit of the world is completely different from the mission of Christ: service without payment, giving without expecting any rewards. We are called not just to fulfill our duty or do the things that we like, but committing ourselves to noble tasks that we may not like but is necessary of us to do.