How does our faith inform our life in community?
When, in John’s Gospel, shortly after his resurrection from the dead, Jesus appears to the disciples behind locked doors, he breathes the breath of life into them: Receive the Holy Spirit, he says, filling them with God’s mercy and love. In so doing, he calls them to action: Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained. A week later, when he returns and invites Thomas to see, Jesus is speaking as much about understanding as he is about physical sight; he proposes a way of seeing things that will radically change Thomas’s world view. He then calls Thomas to faith: do not be unbelieving, but believe.
The First Letter of John reminds us that, as Christians, we are bound together in that very same faith: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is begotten by God. We are brothers and sisters through baptism and are bound together in the love of God and of one another in Christian community. The early Christian community is described in the Acts of the Apostles as a community of believers, of one heart and mind. There, too, love was the bond that held them together and allowed them to bear witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, meeting the needs of all in Christ’s name. Their bond is a reason for rejoicing, as Psalm 118 reminds us to do: Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love is everlasting. We are called to live in love for God and for one another, strong in our belief in the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection to bring salvation to our world. May he breathe life into us as well, that we might be bearers of his mercy and forgiveness to the world.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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