May they be One

Reflection on John 17:20-26

There is this story about how Jesus once went to a football match with a friend. The match was between the Catholic Bombers and the Protestant Rockets. The Catholic Bombers were the first to score a goal. Jesus cheered heartily. Then in the second half, the Protestant Rockets equalised. Jesus again cheered heartily. The friend was confused. He asked Jesus which side he was on. Jesus answered, "None. I am just enjoying the game."

The moral of this story is that the disunity among Christians is not willed by Jesus. That is clear from today's Gospel passage. Jesus wanted unity for his followers so much that he even prayed for it. He prayed that they might be one as he and the Father are one, "may they be so completely one, so that the world will realise that it was you who sent me and that I have loved them as much as you loved me."

The disunity among Christians has been a veritable scandal. That is what the Second Vatican Council called it. It has been a stumbling block (that is the meaning of the world "scandal") in the way of proclamation of the Good News. That proclamation would have fared a lot better if Christians did not speak in so many discordant voices.

Thanks be to God, Christian leaders around the world have decided to do something to bring an end to the divisions among Christians. They started doing something around 1948. It is called "Ecumenism" or the "Ecumenical Movement". "Ecumenism" is the name given to all efforts that are aimed at progressively narrowing the divisions among Christians until we become one again, in accordance with the wish and prayer of Jesus for his followers.

Years ago, there was a Consistory -that is a meeting of all the Cardinals with the Pope in the Vatican. Top of the agenda was Ecumenism and how to move it forward. In Nigeria, Catholic Bishops are reaching out to Protestant denominations individually or collectively, within the framework of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

The actions of our leaders challenge all Christians to reach out to one another across denominational divides. It is true that we cannot yet do everything in common. We must not do everything in common yet since there are still divisions among us, and those divisions are real and serious. We cannot, for instance, share the Eucharist yet with our Protestant brethren because it does not mean exactly the same thing to all of us.

But there are still a lot of things that we have in common and a lot of things that we can do in common. We can pray together for various religious and civic intentions, including that of Christian reunion. We can give joint Christian witness on issues of social justice and human development. We can collaborate in areas like education and health care delivery, among others. We can certainly show a great deal more love, understanding and respect for one another than we have done in former times.

Whatever we do along these lines will contribute in no small measure towards fulfilling our Lord's wish and prayer, that we may be one, as he and the Father are one.

Peace I Bequeath to You

Reflection on John 14:23-29

The late Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, will be remembered for many things. Most of, all, he will probably be remembered as an Apostle of Peace. That is because of so many unprecedented steps he took in the interest of world peace. During a trip to Syria, the Pope did the unthinkable: he took off his shoes, walked into a mosque in Damascus, the capital of Syria, to pray at the tomb of St John the Baptist. He was accompanied by the grand Mufti, the highest ranking Islamic cleric in Syria. While it is true that the Pope went to pray at the tomb of St John the Baptist, it is equally true that his gesture was a powerful statement on behalf of peace between two of the world's great religions, Christianity and Islam. Both religions have a history of hostility going back at least ten centuries, to the time of the Crusades.

While in Syria, the Pope made a passionate appeal for a cessation of hostilities between the Jews and Arabs in the Middle East. Both groups have been locked in violent conflict that has claimed thousands of lives over the years.

In all his efforts for world peace the Pope was only following in the footsteps of his Master, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Peace was one thing that must have been dear to the heart of Jesus because, time and time again, he wished peace for his followers. He did so before his passion, as we read in our Gospel passage today. He did the same in the evening of the very day that he rose from the dead (John 20:20-21). When he sent out seventy-two disciples, Jesus instructed them thus; "Whatever house you enter, let your first words be, 'Peace to this house!' " (Luke 10:5). One of the eight beatitudes pronounced by Jesus was "Blessed are the peacemakers: they shall be called children of God" (Matthew 5:9).

If peace meant so much to our Lord, then we can understand why the Pope, his Vicar on earth, should take it upon himself to be an Apostle of Universal Peace in our time. The Church as a whole is being challenged to follow the leadership of the Holy Father in this regard. Every son and daughter of the Church must share in the passion of Jesus and the Pope for peace in our world. None should be indifferent simply because we are not engaged in open warfare within our own country or with -outsiders. The painful reality staring us in the face is that many countries in our world today do not know any peace.

Several of those countries are in Africa. The men and women and children who are daily losing their lives or limbs or property in those countries are our kith and kin, our own flesh and blood. Their suffering is our suffering, their pain is our pain. We should be concerned about them. We may not be in a position to do anything physically about ending the conflicts i1i those lands. But we can pray the God of Peace to restore peace to them, and quickly. If that is all we do for the cause of peace in the Congo, Sudan, the Middle East, it will already be much.

Can it even be said that we are at peace here in Nigeria? Not really; not with all the recurrent incidents of violence arising from ethnic, political and especially religious differences. The memories of the religious clashes in Jos in the not-too-distant past are still fresh in our minds. We are already being treated to threats of war and bloodshed during the next national elections in 2011. Those threats should not be taken lightly. These are more reasons why we should join the Pope in his crusade for world peace by doing everything we can to promote peace in whatever way we can, beginning right where we are: in our family, our community and our country at large.

The Christian Trademark

Reflection on John 13:31-35

It is often said that Jesus gave a new commandment to his disciples. As a matter of fact, that is what Jesus himself says in our Gospel passage of today. That new commandment is the commandment of love. But how can it be new? Were people not required to love before the time of Jesus? Certainly! The Jews had two commandments of love enunciated in Deuteronomy 6:5 (love of God) and Leviticus 19:18 (love of neighbour). Even Jesus described them as the first and second greatest commandments of the Law (Mt. 22:37-39; Mk. 12:29-31). So how was the commandment given by Jesus new?

The newness of Jesus' commandment lay in its range and application. For instance, whereas the neighbour that a Jew was required to love was another Jew, for a disciple of Christ, the neighbour is every man and woman, friend and foe alike. A Jew had no business loving a Roman or a Samaritan. Not only was he not required to love his enemy, he was even entitled to exact an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Not so for a Christian. For a Christian, even a Samaritan is neighbour to a Jew, as we learn in the parable of the "Good Samaritan" (Luke 10: 29-37). In our own context today, we might say that even a Muslim is neighbour to a Christian.

Also, the Jewish commandment of love was "You must love your neighbour as yourself" (Lev. 19: 18). Jesus' new commandment is rather "Love one another as I have loved you" (John 15: 12) When you hear what comes next, you will know that it goes far beyond loving your neighbour as yourself. In the next verse Jesus says, "No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). And Jesus went ahead to show it by actually dying on the cross for us, his friends. That is how he has loved us.

If Jesus then commands us to love one another as he has loved us, it means that we must be prepared to lay down our life for our neighbour. There have been cases recorded in history when someone actually did that physically, someone actually died in place of another. What is more likely to happen, though, in our case is that we shall be required to lay down our life for our neighbour morally, symbolically. What that means is that we shall be required to make sacrifices, to deny ourselves certain things that we want, but someone else needs; or indeed something that we need, but someone else needs it more than we do. The thing that we may be called upon to sacrifice or deny ourselves may be material, like money, food, clothes, accommodation; or non-material, like our time, comfort, or simply a listening ear. We must be prepared to love one another as Jesus has loved us with all these things. According to Jesus in today's Gospel passage, that is how everyone will know that we are his disciples. It is the Christian Trade Mark!

The Lord’s Sheep

Reflection on John 10:27-30

The image of a shepherd and his sheep is not familiar to us living in an urban setting. We never see shepherds herding sheep across our streets. Things may be quite different with people living in rural areas.

It is obvious that Jesus was far more familiar with the image of shepherd and sheep than we are because he used it so very often. The classic text where Jesus made extensive use of that image is in John 10. That is where our Gospel reading of today comes from, as is the case every 4th Sunday of Easter. As a matter of fact, the 4^th Sunday of Easter every year is known as "Good Shepherd Sunday."

One of the lessons one may learn from the teaching of Jesus is that there is some kind of unwritten covenant between the shepherd and his sheep. By the terms of that covenant, the shepherd commits himself to care for the sheep, to lead them to fresh and green pastures (Psalm 23), to defend them against the wolf and other potential predators (John 10). The sheep, for their part, are expected to listen to the voice of the shepherd and follow where he leads. They are to follow him alone, and not strangers.

Where both parties are faithful to the terms of the covenant, all goes well for the sheep. The contrary is the case if either the shepherd or the sheep were to breach the terms of the covenant. The shepherd can do that if he is only a hireling and not the owner of the sheep. His interest in the sheep will not go beyond what it takes for him to earn his pay. He will not, for instance, risk his life to defend the sheep in the event of an attack by a wolf. The sheep can default on their own part of the covenant by refusing to listen to the voice of the shepherd and thereby choosing not to follow him. If and when that does happen, the sheep are exposed to grave danger from the wolf and other predators.

Jesus is the Shepherd, we are his sheep. He has carried out his own part of the covenant with us to the letter. He cared for us to the point of laying down his life for us-literally-thereby freeing us from the clutches of the “Wolf”, ultimate predator, our “Ancient Enemy” Satan himself.

Now, the question is, do we listen to our Shepherd? Always… or when it Suits us or it is convenient, doesn’t cost us much? If and when we do listen, do we follow where he leads? Or do we rather prefer to go where our own whims and caprices, appetites and fancies lead us?

If we listen to our Shepherd and follow where he leads, he promises us eternal life, and we shall never be lost because no one will ever be able to steal us from him. “No one” includes Satan and all the forces of darkness and evil that serve his cause.

“Simon, do you love me”

Reflection on John 21:1-19

In an earlier reflection, I spoke about a poster that bore the statement: "God allows U-turns!” After we have strayed into the pathways of sin and shame, if we repent and return to God our Father -remember the "Prodigal" Father of the Prodigal Son (Luke 1511-32) - he will not only forgive us, but he will give us a chance to turn a new leaf and begin to write the story of our lives from scratch.

One very clear example of that is what Jesus did to Simon Peter. Jesus had chosen him to lead his Church. He had even changed his name from Simon to Cephas (Peter, meaning Rock), and promised that he would build his Church on that Rock (Matthew 16: 17-19).

When trouble came after Jesus was arrested, Peter fell with a thud. He denied his Master, not once but three times. One of them was before a mere maid. Ironically, Jesus had earlier

Warned Peter that he was going to do just that. But Peter had boasted that even if he had to go to prison or die with Jesus, he would never do such a thing. It turned out that his boast was just that: a boast and nothing more. It was empty. Even before anybody had threatened him with anything, Peter denied his Master. No wonder, when he heard the cock crow, he went outside and wept bitterly (Matthew 26:69-75).

After the resurrection, Jesus would have been fully justified to take away the leadership of his Church from Peter. He could have concluded that Peter was so unreliable that it was risky to leave him in charge of the Church. But Jesus did not do any such thing. Instead, he gave Peter a chance to reverse his threefold denial with a threefold profession of love for him. Three times he asked Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Three times Peter said, ''Yes, Lord, you know I love you." Three times Jesus said to him: "Feed my lambs", "Look after my sheep", "Feed my sheep." Jesus simply meant to reassure Peter that he would still be in charge of the Church, the leadership of the Church would not be taken away from him as a result of his denial of Jesus.

After experiencing the forgiveness of Jesus, Peter became a changed person. We see that in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 5:27-32. 40-41). The same person who denied Jesus in the presence of a maid would now confront the high priest himself and tell him to his face that "Obedience to God comes before obedience to men", and then proceed to give testimony of the resurrection to the entire Sanhedrin, the Supreme Council of the nation of Israel. What a transformation!

That is exactly what can happen to anyone who experiences the forgiveness of God. He can be so thoroughly transformed or converted -to use a more technical term- that he will do great things for God. That was what happened to Saul of Tarsus after his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. The same thing happened to Augustine of Hippo after his conversion from a wayward life. The same thing can happen to us if and when we experience the forgiveness of God. We too will do great things for God. Nobody will be able to stop us and we will not be deterred by anything, because we shall be obeying God rather than men, like Peter and his companions.

“My Lord and my God”

Reflection on Gospel of John 20: 19-31

There is a common saying that “seeing is believing.” That is what Thomas, Didymus (the Twin) told his fellow disciples when they told him that Jesus had risen and paid them a visit. You can hardly blame him for his incredulity. Resurrection is not something that happens everyday. Thomas had certainly not heard of any before. The raising of Lazarus and a couple of other persons from the dead by Jesus was not quite the same thing.

Jesus understood Thomas' problem. So he returned to show himself specifically to Thomas. He did not rebuke him for his incredulity. tie merely invited him to step forward and verify for himself that it was truly he, and he had risen from the dead. We are not told whether Thomas actually took Jesus' invitation or not, whether he actually put his finger into the holes that the nails made and his hand into his side. It would seem that merely seeing the risen Jesus was enough for him. It was enough for him to make a profound act of faith: "My Lord and my God." Indeed, "seeing is believing." Thomas saw and believed.

What Jesus said next is instructive. He said, "You believe because you can see me~ Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe." That is to say, "seeing is believing" is alright, but to believe when you have not seen - physically, that is- is better. In other words, believing after you have seen is really no big deal. Anybody can do that if they have eyes that see. But to believe when you have not actually seen, purely on divine authority, is what has real value in the sight of God. That is the virtue of faith, which, according to the Catechism, is a "supernatural gift of God." It is what is celebrated in Hebrews 11, which begins thus: "Only faith can guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of realities that are unseen."

That faith is what we have when we believe that Jesus really did rise from the dead, that he gave the power to forgive sins in his name to the Church when he said, as we read in today's Gospel passage, "Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained'”, that the Holy Eucharist is the true body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, among other things. Indeed, there is an age-old custom in the Catholic Church to say "My Lord and my God" at the Elevation during the Consecration at Mass. Those were the very words of Thomas when he saw the risen Jesus.

If that is the kind of faith we have, the same risen Jesus assures us that we are "happy", that is "blessed" since we have not seen and yet believe.

“He has risen indeed”

Reflection on Gospel of John 20: 1-9

There is an ancient myth that Jesus did not really die on the cross. The argument is that someone like him – a prophet, even the very Son of God – could not have died on the cross. The story continues that Jesus did carry his cross to Calvary alright. But at the very moment that he was to be crucified, he disappeared, vanished into thin air.

The Roman soldiers were confused. They had come all the way to Calvary to crucify someone. Now, all of a sudden, the man was nowhere to be found. What were they to do? Someone had to be crucified, anyone. So the soldiers got hold of poor Simon of Cyrene, and crucified him in place of Jesus.

That story is not as funny as it sounds; it is not funny because it is important to establish that Jesus really did die on that cross. For if Jesus did not die, then he could not have risen from the dead. If there was no death, there could not have been a resurrection. And resurrection is the bedrock of our faith as Christians. For, as St. Paul says, “… if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is without substance, and so is your faith" (1 Cor. 15: 14) That is why anybody who is a Christian must believe in the resurrection. And if we believe in the resurrection, we must also believe that Jesus really did die on that cross. He did not run away from it or disappear to anywhere.

The resurrection of Jesus was his own personal victory over death. In the words of St. Paul again, "We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and will never die again. Death has no power over him any more" (Rom. 6:9). On Good Friday, it seemed tI1at death had vanquished Jesus. But on Easter Sunday, Jesus had the last laugh; and what a good one it was! The victory of Jesus over death was also our Victory. Because Jesus died and rose from the dead, we are assured that we too shall rise again after our own death. His resurrection is thus the pledge of our own resurrection from the dead (1 Cor. 15:20¬22). As we say in one of our Consecration Acclamations, "Dying, you destroyed our death, rising, you restored our life, Lord Jesus( come in glory."

The resurrection of Jesus also represents the ultimate victory of good over evil. No matter how long it takes, good will always triumph over evil. The enemies of Jesus did a grave evil by putting an innocent person to death. At that time, it seemed that evil had silenced good forever. The resurrection of Jesus proved them wrong. Good came charging from the grave with Jesus, and evil to an ignominious flight.

Those who are on the side of good in the Society can take heart from these facts. Their struggle is not in vain; their efforts will not go forever unrewarded. Their success, their victory may be delayed, but it will not be frustrated forever. By the same token, the agents of evil in our Society should be warned that they will not always win. Their apparent victory now will end in defeat sooner or later.

This is a drama that has been played out again and again down through the ages. History is littered with the carcasses of tyrants and despots who wreaked untold havoc on their fellow human beings. For a time they seemed to be getting away with their crimes. It seemed that nobody could stop them. Along the way, they amassed fabulous wealth for themselves and their cronies. But when good staked its supremacy over evil, they just fell like a pack of cards. Examples abound, even from just the last century: Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao, Idi Amin, Bokassa, Mobutu, Samuel Dow, Abacha, Milosevic, Saddam Hussein. History has always repeated itself. It always will.