Sunday May 4, 2014

The Angel stood by the tomb and cried out to the women bringing ointment:
“Ointments are for the dead,
but Christ has shown Himself  not subject to corruption.
So now cry out: “The Lord has risen, bestowing great mercy upon the world.”
Tropar

pascha_14_myrrhbearingwomenOn this second weekend after Easter, both readings appointed by the Church highlight one of the essential characteristics of true Christianity, namely service to others. Jesus modeled service to others and, as we hear in the New Testament, His followers understood the importance of this way of living.

The hallmark of any community that desires to call itself Christian is an active outreach program wherein members of the community can be of service to others. Christians imitate Jesus when they intentionally engage in activities that help others. Jesus strove to be of service to His fellowmen because in doing so His Father’s Kingdom became real. Service to others is based on a vision and understanding of humankind. Service to others becomes natural when we see all others, regardless of who they are, as brothers and sisters and part of our family.

Being of service to others, however, doesn’t seem to just come naturally in our modern world. When we look around us and think about the type of society that has emerged in our modern world, we realize that there are great divisions between humans. Society seems to promote the differences between humans instead of stressing the similarities that exist. The reality is this: all human beings are animated by the same life-force, which happens to be God’s Spirit. All human beings, regardless of how they behave or think, have been made in God’s image and likeness.

The problem is that many humans do not see themselves as God’s children and, because they don’t act like God’s children, others tend to treat them as if they weren’t God’s children. It is critical that we, who call ourselves followers of Jesus, do everything in our power to treat others as Jesus did so that they might see, hopefully, themselves as God’s children. We are to bear witness, as St. John says, to the Light, which is the truth about humankind that was revealed by God through the Person of Jesus. We are called to bear witness to the Good News – the Gospel. This is done by the way we treat all others.           

Myrrh_Bearing_WomenХристос Воскрес!

Comments are closed.