Friendships thru Faith: Peter, James and John (Gospel Topics Series Book 11)

Forming Community

While reading the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles again, I came upon this passage of St. Luke[1] which reads: “While meeting with them he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for “the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:4) There is a Greek word use din this passage which can be rendered “sunolizomai,”[2] which means to “eat together, with emphasis upon fellowship during the process.” (Louw & Nida, 1989) It can also to gather together and assemble. (GL, G4871) I’m no Greek expert, but I see the difference between eating among friends and eating among people whom you’ve never met. Do you know the thoughts that are generated inside yourself when you go to a restaurant or fast food place you’ve never been?
    The people are professional and the customers are regular people, but you know none of them. You’ve stopped at this place only to satisfy your desire for food. It is not the same when you go to a wedding of a close friend or family. It is the same here. Just as the wedding servants  approached Mary and told her that the wedding hosts had run out of wine, so it is with Jesus who was invited with his disciples to the same wedding feast. He was among familiar people to both himself and his Mother. I think we can also say that the atmosphere of friendship was much more heightened between Jesus and his Apostles after his Resurrection from the dead. After all, they had been with him from the beginning of his public ministry and they tried to understand the great mystery he was telling  them. Now, they were seated with him at table, just as he had sat with the two disciples he encountered on the road to Emmaus: “They gave him a piece of baked fish; he took it and ate it in front of them.” (Lk. 24:42-43) He also appeared to them and brought the disciples together on the Sea of Tiberias. St. Peter recognized Jesus from the boat  and jumped in the water to swim to shore. Jesus told them “bring some of the fish you caught,” and “Come, have breakfast.” (Jn. 21:7,10,12) It is these experiences of the Lord after the Resurrection that St. Luke refers to in the Acts of the Apostles in the preceding verse: “He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days…” (Acts 1: 3)
    Was this the end of Jesus gathering together his disciples? No! Jesus has been gathering together his disciples from the beginning and he will consummate that unity in his Church when he returns again at the end of time. The Gospel says “He will send out his angels with a trumpet blast, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” (Matt. 24:31)Some of those that his angels gather will be placed on his RIGHT and some will be placed on his LEFT. (Matt. 25:33)
May Mary, the Mother of Jesus, obtain for us the grace to live our lives so that we can live in the Kingdom now and stay in the Kingdom until our last breath.
 

[1] St. Luke is believed to be the author of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles.
[2] Louw & Nida 23.13.