Thursday of the 4th Week of Easter
Acts 13:13-25
Jn 13:16-20
“…no servant is greater than his master, no messenger is greater than the man who sent him.”
Today’s Gospel readings return us to the Last Supper, with Jesus washing the feet of His disciples. In this set of readings, Jesus makes two important points. First, He wants us to serve others as He had served His disciples (“If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it”). This is a fundamental tenet of Christianity. In John 13:34, Jesus said “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another”.
Love in the Christian conception is deeply intertwined with service. There can, in fact, be no love without acts of service. The words “I love you” would ring empty if there were no actions to back them up, whether this takes the form of taking on some chores for our spouse, sacrificing our own well-being for our children, or even taking the time to serve the poor. In all these examples, love is expressed through acts of service. The Christian conception of love is, therefore, embodied in thought, words and action.
Second, Jesus wants us to receive His disciples and see them as true messengers of His word (“I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me”). There is a simple line of correlation in Jesus’ statement. Since Jesus was sent by God into this world, our reception of Jesus is direct acceptance of God’s word. If His disciples have been sent by the Son of God, then our acceptance of His disciples (and subsequent disciples) is tantamount to accepting Jesus himself. This is why, as Catholics, we accept the Pope and clergy as legitimate disciples of Christ.
Jesus’ statement has significant implications for our faith, as it suggests that we should not only receive those who preach the word of God, but ultimately become messengers of the Gospel ourselves too. In fact, it brings us back full circle to His first statement. As children of God and disciples of Christ, we are to be messengers of the Good News through acts of love and service to others.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Jacob Woo)
Prayer: We pray for perseverance and fortitude to be good messengers of God, and to bear out His love through acts of service.
Thanksgiving: Lord, we thank you for the love that You continue to shower upon us through Your word, and the messengers who come bearing Your word.
OXYGEN 
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