ATTAINING SPIRITUAL GROWTH AND PEACE

SATURDAY, THIRD WEEK OF EASTER

Act 9:31-42; Ps 116:12-17; Jn 6:60-69

Avoiding Error on the Way of Eternal Life

The Church organised the readings of the Eastertide to nourish the faith of the newly baptised and strengthen the faith of all of us, her older children. Our faith, and the spiritual life it engenders in us, are delicate things. Just as we care for our physical lives, we should care for our spiritual life even more. The first practice we must develop to nurture and grow our spiritual life is prayer. We must develop the practice of private and communal prayer. We read that the early Christians usually meet together to pray and share the word of God. The cenacle of prayers and the breaking of bread contributed to the spread of the Christian faith in the early Church. The second practice follows from the first, that is, as Christians, new or old, there are companies we must not keep to promote the tender spiritual life we received from the Holy Spirit. Most of us make the mistake of keeping the old friends we had before our baptism or renewal of our baptismal profession of faith in Jesus Christ. Because these friends have not resolved to follow us in the practice of our new faith, the possibility that they would pull us back to our former ways abounds. We must make a clean break from such friends to facilitate our personal and communal attachment to the Holy Spirit and body of Jesus Christ, the Church.

We see these play out in the nascent Church in Jerusalem and Judaea. They went to the Temple to pray as others but always met in their homes for scriptural studies, exhortation, prayer, and the breaking of bread. These personal and communal activities distinguished and characterise the Church ever after. These spiritual activities gradually separated them from the company of the general Jewish people and religious practices that were inimical to their faith in the risen Lord. They fled the company of people like Saul and other enemies of their faith in Jesus Christ. Through their devotion to the faith, the Lord granted the grace of conversion to Saul, which brought a conducive environment and peace to the Christians. “The churches throughout Judaea, Galilee, and Samaria were now left in peace, building themselves up, living in the fear of the Lord, and filled with the consolation of the Holy Spirit.” The practice of prayer, scriptural studies, and works of charity and the removal or distancing of ourselves from things and occasions inimical to our Christian faith would always result in the growth of faith and the Church. These spiritual practices cause growth and development in our spiritual lives and the Church. The two miracles Saint Peter worked at Lydda and Jaffa demonstrate the flourishing of the presence of the risen Lord among his people when they practice their faith. About Tabitha, who was raised to life by Peter, we read: “At Jaffa, there was a woman disciple called Tabitha, or Dorcas in Greek, who never tired of doing good or giving in charity.” The risen Lord was always present in these churches. The coming of Saint Peter only crystallised his presence through the miracles.

We cannot overemphasise the importance of the above spiritual practices. Through these practices, we use our Christian faith to understand and assimilate the dark events of our daily lives. Doing this daily helps us to habituate our mindset to the tenets of our Christian faith and train and habituate our feelings and emotions to the heavenly worldview the Christian faith contains. We have described these daily activities as walking the Way of the Sacred Humanity of our Lord. The gospel gives a demonstration of these. The doctrine of eating his body and drinking his blood was a hard one for the disciples of our Lord to swallow. The apostles pulled through because of the little faith developed through their habitual presence with him. “After hearing his doctrine many of the followers of Jesus said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’ Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this upset you? What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?” In constant prayer and contemplation of his words and deeds, we gradually comprehend his real presence, which helps us to overcome difficult moments. The sickness of Aeneas and the death of Tabitha are examples of such difficult moments in the lives of Christians. There will always be a temptation to consider alternative solutions to our problems. Saint Peter’s confession of faith should always represent our faith in the risen Lord. “Lord, whom shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.”   

Let us pray: O God, who in the font of Baptism have made new those who believe in you, keep safe those reborn in Christ, that, defeating every onslaught of error, they may faithfully preserve the grace of your blessing. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.