(Memorial Saturday before the Feast of Pentecost)
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Today we are reading the conclusion of the Book of Acts, and with it we come to the end of the Paschal season. Tomorrow we begin the Pentecost season. As I have said before, the reading of the Book of Acts is necessary for us. It is important that we remember how the Christian community is built up and strengthened, how we are supposed to be living together, and how the Holy Spirit is still working in and amongst us. Tomorrow we will celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit as He comes to us. During the liturgical services, we will be with the disciples and apostles in the Upper Room in Jerusalem when the Holy Spirit comes down in tongues of fire and gives power to those who love the Lord.
It is for us also, in harmony with the action of the Holy Spirit, to be prepared to live in accordance with the Gospel, and in accordance with the love of the Lord. We must remember to be continuously building up and strengthening the Body of Christ, Christ’s Holy Church. More than anything else, it is our responsibility to be nurturing and strengthening the body of believers here in this place by supporting one another, encouraging one another in love. Thus, we are urged to continue following the Lord, living in the Lord, all together and individually. At the same time, we are to exercise all the gifts that God has given us. He has given us all gifts of wisdom, gifts of understanding, gifts of knowledge, gifts of insight, gifts of prophesy. It is for us to discover these gifts in our lives, and to let the Lord work in us with these gifts. He has given us these gifts not just for our own strength, but so that we can exercise love in the community. In our relationships in the community, we can work together with the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. When we can put this love into practice amongst ourselves in the community, we will then be better able to do acts of love amongst people who do not know Christ and whose hearts are searching for Him. It is not all that easy to proclaim Christ to people who have not heard of Him. There are walls that have to be penetrated. It becomes more possible if we believers are able ourselves to exercise this love amongst ourselves in Christ, and all together to save ourselves in Christ.
We are not to be individual human beings concerned about “individual salvation”. That is one of the big mistakes of the television evangelists. We are not so much interested in “individual salvation” since individual salvation can only truly be achieved in community salvation. When we are all working together, encouraging and strengthening each other, there is much less focus on us as individuals. Individuals might be saved somehow, but that is up to the Lord. It is not likely that only one person in a community would be saved, because that person who is being saved is already exercising the love of God amongst others around so that they may be saved as well.
It is not possible to be a Christian and live outside of community awareness and community responsibility. Even Saint Symeon Stylites (whose memory we are celebrating today) who lived on a pillar in North Syria and never moved from it for many years, was not being saved by himself. Through his prayers, he was part of the Church all the time. People did not leave him alone sitting there on his pillar out in the country on a hill. They came and bothered him all the time, asking him to pray for them and asking him to speak to them.
Even hermits are called to serve others, and that service is what our Lord is referring to today when He is speaking to the Apostle Peter. The love of the Lord produces the feeding of the sheep, the caring for the sheep, and the tending of the flock. The love of the Lord must be demonstrated in concrete action. When our Lord says to the Apostle Peter : “‘Feed My lambs’”, “‘tend My sheep’”, “‘feed My sheep’”, He says it to us as well. It is important to remember that the number one fundamental lesson when we are reading the Bible and hearing about the works of all the great people who have gone before us (work done by the Lord through them, I should be careful to say) is that we have the same calling that they have. People throughout the generations are not different from one another. It does not matter if some people lived 4,000 years ago and were great and did wonderful works in the Lord. Living in 1987 or living in 1997 makes no difference. Human beings (although they become much more sophisticated in technology) remain the same in the heart. Their fundamental desires and needs are still the same. Their fundamental requirements are the same, and their call is just the same. The Lord calls His followers to act, and that is why we have read the Acts. Love of Him must be put into action. He calls us to work His works of love in His Kingdom amongst us, reaching out to those who are lost and in darkness.
Just as our spiritual ancestors, our fathers and mothers answered that call, we, too, today answer that call. We come to the Lord today ; He comes to us today. We receive Him today ; He gives Himself to us today. As much as He lived in those disciples and apostles 2,000 years ago, and enabled them by the power of the Holy Spirit to do great deeds and to save souls, He does the same for us in 1987, and God willing, if we should live until 1997, He would do the same thing for us in ten years’ time. May our whole lives now and forever glorify our Saviour who loves us so much, together with the unoriginate Father and the all-holy, good, and life-giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto the ages of ages.