Today’s readings: Acts 14, 21-27; Apocalypse 21, 1-5; John 13, 31-35.
The focus of today’s readings is how the message of Christ’s resurrection is being translated in concrete terms in our cities, in the contexts where we live and in the networks of relationships that shape city life.
Polis in Greek means ‘city’, and politics is a derivative from it. Politics should, above all, stand for the art of what is good, what makes our cities healthy and worth living in. Politics should be concerned with people’s wellbeing. Of course, from what we experience around us and globally, politics has become too distorted.
I do not intend to make a political discourse today. But the Scriptures today are really inspiring on what living in the city for the Christian should mean. Christianity from its inception was also a political movement; it challenged the mainstream political and religious scenario. But is it still provocative and serving as ferment? When religion is not transformative of all that distorts our lives, then it has no reason to exist.
“Now I am making the whole of creation new,” we read from St John’s Apocalypse. John’s vision of a new heaven and a new earth sees a world where God “will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness. The world of the past has gone”.
Very utopian indeed! Proclaiming this vision in today’s context is very risky because it may sound unrealistic. But what is the alternative? Are we to give in and believe that the people of the lie will always sing victory? Can our cities be redeemed to resemble more the new Jerusalem built on the ruins of the old one? Can our politics be redeemed and serve more the wellbeing of people?
All these and many others are questions posed to us by today’s proclaimed word narrating the aftermath of Christ’s resurrection. Our inertia risks to render futile the proclamation of Easter. As Christians we are called to act, not just to preach or speak. To act is fundamentally something very political and it is also something fundamental to discipleship.
There are forces that act in the world not only on people but also through them. Christians are called to act in the present and in a future opened up by the risen Christ. All this is to happen within the context of our cities. This is how the Church participates in the resurrection and this in turn makes of the Church a transformative community.
As author Graham Ward writes in his book The Politics of Discipleship, “we need to examine more closely Christian agency itself and its role in the struggle for the soul of the city in which it operates”. We cannot continue to sing our Hallelujahs with no impact at all on the polis or on the immediate world around us.
The Book of Acts in the first reading narrates how Paul and Barnabas, go from city to city and “put fresh heart into the disciples”. They impacted quite forcefully the life of the polis. They were credible and powerful in their proclamation. What they communicated was good news.
This poses serious questions on how things are today. For example, we still have quite a massive Church presence in our country but we seem to be failing in translating our faith in a way that impacts social and political life. Corruption is rampant, addictions are the order of the day, domestic violence is on the increase.
We seem to be living two parallel lives; we continue to be ferociously divided practically on everything, putting at serious risk the common good of our society and the wellbeing of our people.
In this social and political context, our Church is still too self-referential, to quote Pope Francis. Which, in his own words, makes it a sick Church. Our messages no longer make news, let alone good news. Our faith on the mainstream still comes across as piety and religiosity. It seems so difficult for us to exit the maintenance mode and switch to mission mode.
As we read from John’s gospel text today, it was only when Judas left that the Son of Man was glorified. Judas, in our case, can be so many things. He stands for all the heavy stuff that hinders the Church’s take-off, that blocks the possibility of cherishing afresh the joy of the Gospel, very often dampened by puerile piques and anachronistic practices.