Second Week of Easter : Tuesday 9th April 2024

Our reading today offers us a beautiful vision of what the early Christian community was like — perhaps too ideal! In any case, it offers us a very concrete description of what it means ‘to be one in mind and heart,’ and challenges us to take a look in the mirror to evaluate our own community life and how we relate to one another.

Today our Church is experiencing all kinds of division and discord over matters liturgical, theological, ecclesiological, and also, rather sadly to say, over matters of race, culture, the economic status of individuals, and other socio-economic differences. The divisive arguments are in contrast to the way of Jesus Christ’s witness to Nicodemus by His word and life, the  community He built.

Hence, evangelisation must not forget that the primary way in which we evangelise is not through our words, our philosophy and clever arguments, but rather through the witness of our lives and that of our communities. What does the world around us see? What makes us different from others? Do we share our blessings with one another, especially those who are in need? Do we think of ourselves primarily as individuals and nuclear families, or do we sense that we belong to a community, that we participate in the community that is now called to be Christ for our world?

Lord, come and animate our community to be of one mind and heart.