Can I say to a dearest friend it is alright for you to reject my wife for I have known you longer? Or do I instead hold that bond of my marriage as sacred, and so say to friend, “If you reject my wife, you reject me!” For we are One in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What then are the implications for us when we reject Jesus? In today’s Gospel we are reminded that God our Heavenly Father are One. To know Jesus is to know God our Heavenly Father and so to reject Jesus is to reject God our Heavenly Father. Oh! But I will never reject Jesus! Really have I never rejected Him?
When I refused to sit in His presence daily to listen to His Word? Was I not rejecting Him? When I ignored the poor, the hungry and the sick? When I refused to attend community prayer meetings with my brethren who were gathered in His name? (the whole town assembled to hear the word of God) Do I count myself worthy then of eternal life?
Live in me Lord Jesus! Let me never stray from You! And may all that I say and all that I do bring Glory to You O Lord. Amen Alleluia!
First reading
Acts 13:44-52 ·
Since you have rejected the word of God, we must turn to the pagans
The next sabbath almost the whole town assembled to hear the word of God. When they saw the crowds, the Jews, prompted by jealousy, used blasphemies and contradicted everything Paul said. Then Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly. ‘We had to proclaim the word of God to you first, but since you have rejected it, since you do not think yourselves worthy of eternal life, we must turn to the pagans. For this is what the Lord commanded us to do when he said:
I have made you a light for the nations,
so that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.’
It made the pagans very happy to hear this and they thanked the Lord for his message; all who were destined for eternal life became believers. Thus the word of the Lord spread through the whole countryside.
But the Jews worked upon some of the devout women of the upper classes and the leading men of the city and persuaded them to turn against Paul and Barnabas and expel them from their territory. So they shook the dust from their feet in defiance and went off to Iconium; but the disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.
Gospel
John 14:7-14
To have seen me is to have seen the father
Jesus said to his disciples:
‘If you know me, you know my Father too.
From this moment you know him and have seen him.’
Philip said, ‘Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied.’
‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip,’ said Jesus to him, ‘and you still do not know me?
‘To have seen me is to have seen the Father,
so how can you say, “Let us see the Father”?
Do you not believe
that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?
The words I say to you I do not speak as from myself:
it is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work.
You must believe me when I say
that I am in the Father and the Father is in me;
believe it on the evidence of this work, if for no other reason.
I tell you most solemnly,
whoever believes in me
will perform the same works as I do myself,
he will perform even greater works,
because I am going to the Father.
Whatever you ask for in my name I will do,
so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If you ask for anything in my name,
I will do it.’
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