TUESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF EASTER (Year II)

1st Reading: Acts 4:32-37; Psalm: 93. R. v. 1a; Gospel: Jn 3:7b-15

SHARING IN LOVE

BY FR VALENTINE NNAMDI EGBUONU, MSP

Mission Statements Are Not Enough: Learning from Early Christian Catechesis  — Center For Baptist Renewal

The believers were beginning to increase and as a consequence had to abandon their Jewish faith. Added to this, they professed faith in Jesus Christ and his resurrection. This led to their expulsion from the temple and the synagogues by the chief priests and the religious leaders. They started gathering together in a separate place as one new family bonded in one faith. This generated in them the desire to share whatever they had amongst themselves. With this kind of spirit united in one heart and mind, the pain or the joy of one became the pain or the joy of others. They built that intense responsibility for each other. Though some were richer than others but because of the common life they shared, this was unnoticed.

Barnabas’ action revealed this. He sold his field and brought all the money at the feet of the apostles. This was how the believers survived as refugees sent out of the temple. Although the primary thing that brought them together was their faith in Christ Jesus but they never forgot the needs of one another. They prayed together but they also understood that prayer without love in action is vain. Because of this love in sharing, their expulsion from the temple which would have evoked a feeling of sadness turned to a feeling of joy.

The Christian life is fully realised when love is visible in action. It is not that kind of love which the law compels us to practice but that love that stems from a heart that loves for the sake of loving. That love that moves us to share what we have without counting the cost. We actually have enough in our world not to make people go hungry. But the reason why there are so many starving people in our world today is because our world has refused to share. Once we begin to share in love, our needs would be taken care of. But selfishness has blinded us and so our world starves. Generosity can begin from you and me. Let us shun selfishness today and make our world a better place.

PRAYER FOR THE DAY

Lord Jesus, help us to be kind and generous to one another. Amen.

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