The Christian Path

Gospel: John 13: 16-20

"No servant is greater than the master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him."

Jesus says these words just after washing the feet of his disciples on the night before he is to be executed.  This statement echoes an earlier one - "As I have done, so also you must do." It is not for us merely to receive these things from the Lord Jesus.  We are to carry them out in our own lives as well.  To be a Christian is to take up the ministry of love and mercy in our own lives within the circumstances in which we find ourselves.  

For too long we have adopted a suburban Christianity of comfort and convenience.  We have bought the lie that Jesus did all of this for us so that we did not have to do so ourselves.  Time and again in the Gospel Jesus refutes this lazy discipleship.  "Whoever wishes to follow me must deny oneself, take up one's cross, and follow me."  We are even to suffer persecution and even death just as Jesus did for the sake of others, something for which we are to rejoice in the beatitudes.  

So today we reflect on the ways in which we might carry out the mission of love and mercy in the world - how we might feed and give drink to others, clothe and house them, visit those sick and in prison, and welcome the stranger and outcast just as Jesus did throughout his ministry among us on earth.  This is the Christian path, the only authentic evangelization in the world.