by Rev. Fr. Happy Jacob

Gospel Reading: St John 20:19-29

After the resurrection of Jesus Christ, his disciples were filled with joy that there Teacher was resurrected .But they have fear about the Jews, so they gather in the house and the door was closed. Soon Jesus stood in the middle of them showing them his hands and his side. He said to them , Peace be with you.

The church is based on the resurrected Jesus. Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. Jesus had come to save all from sin. The Church is the body of Christ. We are the members of that body.

With out the resurrected Christ we have no message. But most of the times we are not carrying this message, because we kept ourselves away from the communion with Christ. St Luke 14:27 says, who ever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. We usually say that we are the disciples of Jesus Christ. We hold the name Christian, but what we are doing in our daily life could not be justified before Christ. As Jesus said I am doing all this because of my Father. St Mathew says it clearly 7:21, not every one who says to me, Lord Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. By the resurrection we got many privileges. We are freed from the bondage of sin, we are saved from the evil, and we became the sons of light.

St Paul gives the picture of the church as building, were Jesus the corner stone, the disciples were the basement and the believers were the parts of the structure. So the Church members have to maintain the link with the fellow and with Jesus.1 Cor 6 :19 says or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit with in you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own. While sending the disciples he breathed on them and said to them receive the Holy Spirit. We can see the same act in the time of creation. Genesis 2:7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the Breath of Life; and the man became a living being. Thus we are powered with the Holy Spirit .So we have to produce the fruits of the spirit. Galatians 5:22 the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kind ness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against this.

We, most of the time in our life acts as sign board that shows direction to the people, but our mission is ultimately not that. We have to witness the resurrected Christ and produce the fruits of the spirit.