Newsletter May 7th 2023 (5th Sunday of Easter)

SsPeterandPaul | May 5, 2023 | Parish Newsletter | No Comments

Acts 6 shows how differences and disputes were resolved in the church’s early days. The Hellenist (converts whose language was Greek), complained that their widows were not getting a fair share of the church’s social services. The apostles’ solution to the problem shows how changes of practice are not only possible but necessary for the health of the church.

The solution shows two important dimensions of church life: prayer and service; and that living our Christian vocation requires a balance between the two. Each of us is personally called to prayer, to a dialogue of worship with God; and we are also called to service. No matter what we do in life, our work affects others in some way. We should be of service to our neighbours; and provided we have an attitude of respect, no task we do is a menial task. Prayer and preaching the word was of primary importance to the apostles; but service to the widows and the needy in the community was also vital, so they appointed seven trusted men to attend to it, and initiated them by an evocative ceremony.

As a result, the disciples in Jerusalem increased in numbers.. We may wonder how this kind of growth in the church could be revived in our day. Is the word of the Lord still spreading or the number of disciples increasing? In St Peter’s letter, the church is imagined as a spiritual temple, with ourselves as living stones making up a living house of God. Every time we say the Lord’s Prayer we say ‘thy kingdom come.’ This implies taking some responsibility for spreading the word and doing something to build up the church? We can work for God’s kingdom by our daily conduct and attitudes.

The cornerstone of the church is Christ himself, and he offers us encouragement even today. If he is going away, it is to prepare a place for us in his Father’s house, which has many rooms. So there is a place for us all in the kingdom. Each person has gifts of nature and grace, each should have a say in church life, as exemplified by the apostles in the first reading.

Many people today regard faith as irrelevant because their notion of God is faulty or distorted. For an authentic picture of what God is like, we should look to Jesus who said “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” He shows what the invisible Father is like: concerned for all, interested in all, respecting everyone, calling sinners back home. This welcoming God is the one that our church worships, and we renew our trust in Him.