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Reflections
for Sunday, April 28, 2013
If you have love for one another. We must continue to hear that phrase in
our hearts all of our lives. If we want to live in the Kingdom of God and
be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ, we must love one another.
Such love for one another never excludes the possibility that our love may
fail from time to time. Yet, when love fails, we must recognize that our
love has failed and ask forgiveness and love again. All we need to do is
look at the lives of Simon Peter and Thomas. Both of them had failures in
their love for Jesus. The failure of Simon Peter was public and was known
to all in the early Church - and yet Simon Peter was still seen as the leader
of the Church. The doubts of Thomas were a less direct rejection of Jesus
but were also known to everyone in the early Church.
We can never use our failures to justify remaining apart from the Lord
Jesus.
What about when we are hurt or rejected by others. This was clearly what
Jesus experienced and yet he never stopped loving. Even his last encounter
with Judas is a kiss, which Jesus accepted. Jesus does not reject Judas.
We are invited to live as Jesus and that means always living with love for
others, even if they reject us. If we reject others, we must repent.
All of this speaks of proclaiming the Good News which we hear in the first
reading today. Paul and Barnabas are sent as a team. They give witness to
others of what God has done among His people and in them personally. You
and I are called to be witnesses also. When we forgive and are forgiven,
we bear witness to the presence of the Lord Jesus in our lives.
It is just as we have heard in the second reading: the old order has
passed away... I make all things new. Christ is risen, alleluia.
Readings of the day:
First Reading: Acts 14.21b-27
Second Reading: Revelation 21.1-5a
Gospel: John 13.1, 31-33a, 34-35++
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