WE ARE ONE BODY IN CHRIST (Rom 12:5)

⏰Friday of the Twenty-Ninth Week of Ordinary Time 2 (26 October 2017)

📕Eph 4:1-6; Ps 24:1-2, 3-4ab, 5-6 (R.v.6); Luke 12:54-59

I wonder what Jesus would do if he were to come back to us the way he had come to the Jews. He called the Jews hypocrites for not being able to read the signs of the time and believe in him and repent (Luke 12:54-59). I am sure he would surely call us fools for not being able to understand what we really need at this time in the face of current religious situations in our world.

This is surely not the time to battle on issues of doctrine (even though they are very important) or tribe and allow them divide us. What we need most now is to come together as Christians and call on God’s intervention in the face of our battle to exercise our faith freely and truly.

St Paul reminds us of the bases of that call to Christian unity, “There is one body and one Spirit…one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all” (Eph 4:4-6). In that one body, Christ is the head (Eph 5:23; see also 1Cor 12:12-30).

So let us fight only the things that need to be fought, especially things that oppose our unity. Sin is one of such. It separates us from the body of Christ in the same way the Prodigal Son was separated from his father’s house and lost the good things that come with that union until he got reunited with the family (cf. Luke 15:11-24).

Jesus tells us the shortest formula to get our prayers answered, “If two of you on earth AGREE to ask anything at all, it will be granted to you by my Father in heaven” (Matt 18:19). Can we now join our hands of faith and pray for unity, peace and good governance in our world?

May God hear our prayers and heal our land of the evil of division and persecution on the account of our faith. May our unity with one another profit us for progress in this world, and salvation in the next. Amen.

Have a grace-filled day. Peace be with you.