Daily Meditation - Thursday 8th May - 7th Week Easter - OTHER FAITH TRADITIONS AND UNITY

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BarbaraTherese

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This coming Sunday is Pentecost Sunday

Acts 22:30; 23:6-11
Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7-11
John 17:20-26

Meditation
wau.org/meditations/meditations.asp?month=5&day=8&year=2008&x=13&y=7
  • Have you ever been invited to someone’s house for dinner, and felt right at home?
  • You don’t remember whether the house was clean,
  • if the kids were too noisy,
  • or if the food wasn’t quite what you’d expected.
Most likely you remember the warmth you felt, how well everyone got along, and how hard it was to leave. You had a sense of belonging. In fact, you almost felt like part of the family!
  • When Jesus prayed that we become one,
  • he was asking for just this kind of unity among Christians.
  • He wanted the world to be able to look at us and say, “This feels like home!”
  • He knew that others would be convinced
  • not by what we looked like
  • *** but by the love we were able to share. ***
  • That love comes from his sacrifice on the cross, and it gives us the power to become living examples of unity and brotherhood.
  • It’s not about achieving perfection first
  • —Jesus has already done that for us.
So how do we “do” ecumenism?
  • Like the family who invites us for dinner,
  • we don’t start by bringing up all our differences with the guest.
  • If we don’t know where someone is in his or her walk with the Lord,
it’s probably a good idea
** to stay away from **
sensitive topics.
  • Instead, we can focus on what we do have in common:
  • As baptized Christians, we are already one body, “given to drink of one Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:13).
  • The stranger we are talking to is actually our “blood” relative,
  • and that’s something we can both rejoice in!
Once we’ve gotten through the introductions,
  • we will naturally want to share something with our brothers and sisters—
  • and what could be more natural than prayer?
  • No matter what our denomination, we know that when we are two or more praying in his name,
  • Jesus is with us.
  • Praying alongside those of other traditions will open our hearts to be more loving toward them.*
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  • It will help us to repent of any judgmental attitudes we may have picked up about them.
  • And it will show us how much they have to offer
  • —for if we really are one body,
  • then we need them as much as they need us!
“Lord, send out your Spirit,
and give all Christians the strength and wisdom
to reach out to one another.
Heal the wounds of your body,
and make it whole!”
 
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