3rd Sunday of Easter
Acts 5:27-32,40-41
Apo 5:11-14
Jn 21:1-19
“It is the Lord”
I am quite a consumer of social media. One of the things I enjoy doing is watching those (cheesy) videos which normally end with some moral themes, such as, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover, or ‘Be respectful to others’, just to name a couple.
An example of a story is this — two persons are shown going to an interview. The first comes across a lowly cleaner and proceeds to abuse and treat this cleaner unkindly. He insults the person and threatens to take further action to make life for the cleaner a living hell AFTER he gets the job for which he is interviewing. Another interviewee soon comes and encounters the same cleaner. Unlike the first person, he chooses to help the cleaner, even risking being late for the interview. The ‘twist’ comes at the end where it turns out the cleaner is actually the boss, and the second person is ultimately chosen for the job. The response of the first interviewee would invariably be; “If I had known you were the boss, I would have treated you differently”.
I have often wondered about the disciples, about how they came to the thought that, “It is the Lord”. Imagine this — the eleven (excluding Judas) had spent some three years with Jesus. They would know what Jesus looked like and how He sounded. Yet, they were able to go past this history with Jesus and be able to identify Him…. I mean, if the man did not look like Jesus nor sound like Him, how could he be Jesus?
For all of us today, we have no such physical contact with Jesus. This means Jesus can take many forms in speaking to us — through those we interact with on a daily basis, or in the newspaper article we read, or in promptings that come during prayer. Yet, ironically, many of us can miss his voice or messages meant specially for us.
A couple of weeks ago, I had been rushing to a photo studio to take a passport photo at a shopping mall. I had tried to take a shortcut (past a TraceTogether check-in counter). The gentleman manning the counter called after me and, in my impatience, I raised my voice at him and irritatingly went to check-in. This interaction, however, left me troubled, and I soon returned to apologise to him. I had expected a stoic reply from the uncle, but what I received was graciousness. He smiled at me and gently assured me that it was okay.
With this interaction, I felt Jesus had gently admonished me, reminding me to be mindful of others and not be so self-involved. I genuinely feel that it was Jesus’ voice I heard. Let us continue to be open to Jesus, in whatever form He chooses to speak with us.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Paul Wee)
Prayer: Father, help us to be open to You and to Your promptings. Help us to be open to Your Spirit!
Thanksgiving: Thank you Jesus, for showing us how to truly live our lives. We are grateful for your graces.
OXYGEN 
Leave a Reply