Instead, I have called you friends, since I have made known to you everything I learned from my Father.
You did not choose me; it was I who chose you and sent you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last.
And everything you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. This is my command, that you love one another.
REFLECTION:
The promise that Jesus made to his disciples – the promise of his abiding presence in his Church –
is as true and real today as it was when the early Christian community began its work of preaching the Good News.
It is something we need to constantly remind ourselves especially as the world and contemporary society seem to grow more
and more antagonistic towards faith, religion, and the church. When Jesus declared that
“the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”, he meant it, but not just as a promise, but as a reality.
For two thousand years, the church has found itself assailed, both externally by adversaries who have sought to destroy it,
and internally by misguided Christians or those who live lives that are inconsistent with the demands of discipleship.
This is the reality of the church, and it is within such challenging and difficult reality that we must learn to tend to it,
care for it and, if we are able, reform it – out of love.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2020