Saturday in the Fourth Week in Ordinary Time
Acts 13:44-52; Jn 14:7-14
The first reading today invites us to do an examination of conscience.
Peul and Barnabas, we read start preaching the word of God not only to the Jews but also to the Gentiles, and many of the Gentiles converted. We read how some of the Jews became jealous of them and even intentionally made some members of their community to speak badly of them.
The issue was spiritual jealousy. They thought to themselves, how could it be that these who do not form part of the Jewish people, are now favoured by God? How could it be that these, who not not form part of the chosen people have now accepted the word of God? They thought that they had a privilege over others simply because they formed part of the Chosen People. They thought that they had a free pass simply because they were Jews.
We have to be careful because this can very easily happen to us as well. We too can feel jealous for others. And the worst type of jealousy is not the jealousy for a the new sportscar that the neighbour has or the new house that a distant relative might have just bought or inherited. The worst kind of jealousy is the one mentioned today in the Gospel: jealousy for spiritual things. It happens when we see someone making spiritual progress and who in our eyes does not deserve to do so. Perhaps we see someone whom we thought never really cared about his or her spiritual life and all of a sudden we see them taking prayer life more seriously, or taking certain important commitments in life or being more generous and loving. We start wondering why does God favour them more than he favours us.
The way out of this is to flip it on its head, so to speak. Instead of thinking that we have been those who have struggled all our life and perhaps have not even found favour with God, it would be helpful to consider ourselves as the gentiles. Instead of looking for God's favour as though it were our only right and privilege, we must look as ourselves as the Gentiles, the recently evangelised, whom God has shown favour towards not because we deserve it or because we were always brought up that way but simply because he wanted to, no reasons given.
The Gospel today (well, as always!) calls for our attention as well. Jesus tells Philip, "I have been with you so long and you still do not know me?" It can happen that even among two persons who have long been in a relationship, one tells the other, How could it be that you do not even know me by now? It can happen indeed when that we do not go deep enough into a relationship, that we remain merely on what is superficial. Jesus is inviting us to dig deeper. He says that who sees him sees the Father. We say that Jesus is the face of the Father's mercy. And we recognise someone by his or her works.
May we first be grateful for the gift of faith that God has given us, and which he has given us without our meriting it. Secondly, may we also now continue the journey by deepening our relationship with God as we deepen our relationship with Christ.
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