This morning, I quote one of my favorite scripture commentators, Joseph Donders, priest and African missionary.
"[Jesus] saw in a very special way how all human beings belong together. How we all hang together - or at least should - as one tree of life.
"He expressed this in his idea about God: a Mother and a Father, and we all in the same family, brothers and sisters.
"This he expressed when his family - his mother, his sisters, and his brothers - wanted to see him. He did not come, because, he said, everyone is my mother, my sister, and my brother.
"He expressed this when he handed his bread around and said: 'This is my body, eat it, all of you.' When he handed the cup around and said: 'This is blood, drink it, all of you' - without considering age or wealth, social groups, race, or where you're from.
"He expressed this when he was interested in all the people he met during his life: the young, the old, the sick, the healthy, the dead, the sinners, the crooks, the lost girls, the runaway boys, and the saints.
"It is a vision in which slavery, discrimination, apartheid are out. It is an outlook in which the human family is really one family, in which peace will reign, conflicts will be solved, the economy will be interested in all, without a war that might destroy us all.
"His vision is the only one that saves. He remains the only good shepherd, his the only door leading in and leading out."
Praying and Preaching the Sunday Gospel, Joseph G. Donders
Fourth Sunday of Easter
If we as Christians believe or act any other way, then it is because of misguided and self-serving principles, put in place by those who want the advantages of being called "Christian" but not the responsibilities.
Jesus said, "Either you're with me, or you're against me" (Matthew 12:30).
What am I? Who am I? Do I really believe in Jesus' vision? Do I show it through my words and more importantly, through my actions?