Who Are The People on Your List?

Sunday | Easter| 3rd | C
Ac 13 | Rev 7 | Jn10

Vancouver, May 12, 2019

A few years ago -- or more than a few years ago -- when I was a student in my early years at university, I was part of a Bible-group and we studied the Scriptures together.
One summer, we travelled by bus from Montreal to Ottawa where we spent the afternoon. And during our group meetings and Bible sharing one of the questions was: who are the people you want to bring to Jesus Christ? To know Jesus Christ.
Write down the list of names. I don’t remember the list I had but I remember the exercise.
And we had to be determined enough to invite these individuals to share our faith with us somehow. It was not just writing their names on paper and then closing the binder. There had to be some concrete follow-up.
Now, if you were to be given this same exercise, who would be the people on your list. Who would be the people whom you would say, they really need to know Our Saviour Jesus, Christ.
The people who really need to meet Jesus Christ. The person invited to learn, to know, to share, and grow, what it means to be a follower of Jesus.

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You could make this invitation to family members, to friends, even go out into the city of Vancouver or abroad.
We could respond by simply saying, well, being a good person is good enough, and the people I know are good people.
As long as I live my life of faith that is what matters and to be kind and charitable towards others. And this is all. You don’t need to go out and invite -- or even share your faith.

Well, the disciples could have practised their faith simply by acts of kindness towards others. And they did show their goodness, the goodness of God, certainly in many ways in which they lived their community life.
But they also had a mandate, to spread the Good News! To proclaim the Good news! They certainly could not keep it to themselves. We all share in this mandate. When you have good news to share, you don’t hide it from others. If you win a prize, or a game, or if you are recently engaged or married, or if you have found a job or if you are promoted at your job, of if you have a new house, a new car, going on a vacation – everybody knows about it.

Right! We like to share good news. That’s why Facebook has so many Sharing features – so everybody knows.
Well, what about sharing the news that Christ the Messiah is Risen? That Our Saviour has come into the world to give us Everlasting Life, as God had promised! This is the excitement of Paul who speak with zeal, energy and excitement. He wants everybody to know that Jesus is Risen. The promised Messiah has come. And those who believe in him shall have eternal life. But, whom should they first go to to announce this wonderful news? Where do they go from Jerusalem? Generally speaking they went to the Jewish communities first. For two reasons.
First, the Jews were waiting for the Messiah. They knew from the Scriptures that God was going to fulfil His promise and send them a Saviour, but they did not know when. So, they believed it only made sense to let the Jews know, to teach in the Synagogues and to inform the Jewish teachers about Jesus and that He is the promised Messiah.
The other factor is going to the Jews in the town they were visiting, they disciples would be welcomed warmly and received as guests. Of course, until they started teaching… In the Acts of the Apostles that we just heard the journeys of Paul and Barnabas extend to what is today Turkey, but at the time, this was part of the Roman Empire, and scattered across the Empire in the major cities were Jewish Communities.

This part of Christianity became known as Byzantium, but the Christian eastern Church fell with the rise Muslim Ottoman Empire which came into existence in the 13th century, and with the fall of the Ottoman Emprire, the Muslim state of Turkey come into existence in the early 1900s. So, it’s good to remember that many of the Biblical sites which we hear of in the Acts of the Apostles such as Perga and Pisidian Antioch – places where St. Paul preached and what became the first Christian communities -- are no longer.

We have ruins, remains, but no communities or Christian communities struggling to survive as in Turkey, and other parts of the Middle East. Rather strange that in the parts of the world where Christianity was first preached, is the part of the world where Christianity is trying to survive. both Paul and Barnabas chose to focus on the Jewish communities who welcomed them and who were waiting for the coming of the Anointed One, namely, Jesus Christ.
This is why we hear of the meeting at the synagogue in the Acts of the Apostles. We hear many followed Paul and Barnabas urging them to continue in the grace of God. But as so often happened these meetings did not go well. There were so many who had gathered at the Synagogue to hear Paul and Barnabas that the jealousy of the authorities led to contradicting what Paul was actually saying. What we have then is the receptivity and attentiveness on the part of the people, while the authorities saw the disciples of Jesus as a threat because they were attracting such large crowds.

But notice that Paul acknowledges that he first proclaimed the Good News to the Jews, It was necessary that the word of God should be spoken first to you.  But then St. Paul says since you reject it and judge yourselves to be unworthy of eternal life, we are now turning to the Gentiles. The Jews who would be familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures should be able to see Jesus as the fulfillment of the Scriptures, but, instead, the Jewish the authorities rejected the message, the Good News, so Paul and Barnabas turn to the Gentiles. The non-Jews.
We also hear of the receptivity of the Gentiles: they were glad and praised the word of the Lord, destined for eternal life, they became believers.

The officials relied on devout and high standing women along with the prominent men to create hostility against Paul and Barnabas and drive them out of the area. Since the Crucifixion, we have this relentless determination to stamp out Christianity. And we still have this attempt to silence Christianity even in liberal democracies. The Second Reading goes hand in hand with the first because evangelisation, bringing the Good News of the Ressurected Christ, to all people, nations, languages, means also taking great risks, namely, that of persecution and martyrdom as so many of our Saints have known. In the Book of Revelation these people -- martyrs -- are dressed in white but their robes were  washed in blood of the Lamb. The martyrs. The Saints before the Throne of God, worshipping God incessantly, God who is seated on the Throne. God fulfils all our desires: what we hunger and thirst for...

​At the center of the throne is the Lamb: Jesus Christ: sacrificed on the Cross.This Lamb is also our shepherd guiding us to eternal life. What does St. John tell us in Revelation? God who is at the centre of the Throne, we shall worship Him day and night. We have here the vision that St. John gives us of eternal life: where we are filled with joy worshipping God eternally. Where there is no sadness. Where we are perectly fulfilled. This image of shepherd continues in St. John’s Gospel: we know the voice of Jesus, we recognise his voice, and Jesus knows us, just as when Mary Magdalene recognised the voice of her shepherd at the empty tomb, the moment Jesus said, Mary,  and she replied Rabouni.
Nobody can snatch us from the arms of Jesus. But we need to put our trust and faith in our shepherd. So, he can lead us and guide us to pasture in green fields of eternal life.

​The love of Jesus is for all of eternity. This is the good news. This is why we can rejoice. Amen.
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May the Mother of the Messiah, the Blessed Virgin Mary, cover us in her cloak of mother’s love.