Immersed in Christ: Tuesday after Easter: April 6, 2021
Our Bond of Unity
"The communion (koinonia) of the Holy Spirit be with you all."
To begin Mass the presider announces that our "communion"—common union—is "communion in the Holy Spirit." What does that mean?
At Mass we do not gather as "sociological Catholics"—people who profess the same doctrines and observe the same rules. Nor as residents of the same neighborhood parish, rich or poor. Nor as people who speak the same language. What we have in common, our bond of unity, is the Holy Spirit present in the hearts of all.
We recognize as one with us, and as rightfully present in this assembly, all who have received the "Gift of the Spirit" (Acts 2:48; 10:35), no matter what religion, or lack of religion, they profess.
True, for public recognition we require public acceptance of Jesus. We "give Communion," the Body of Christ, only to those who have visibly become the Body of Christ by dying in him and rising with him in Baptism. But the unity we proclaim is not that of being in the right building but of being ourselves a building the Spirit is in. Jesus said: "God is spirit… True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth (John 4:19). We don't identify ourselves or others by the visible presence of our bodies in the pew, but by the invisible presence of the Spirit in our hearts.
ACTION: Look around at those in church with you. See them as temples of the Holy Spirit.
PRAYER: Lord, make us one in the Spirit.
Yorumlar