Sunday May 4, 2008: Acts 1: 1-11; Ephesians 1: 17-23; Matthew 28: 16-20

Jesus Christ in today’s readings gives his farewell speech to his Apostles. In this speech, he challenges them to go out and make disciples of all nations. The disciple cannot draw other people to become disciples if they themselves are not good disciples. You will not want to apply to a law school where majority of their graduates cannot win a case. For us to be able to convince other people to become disciples of Jesus, we must first be good disciples. People are tired of hearing us tell them what they need to do, but they want to see it in our lives. We must embody the life of our Master, Jesus Christ. Our lives must become a school of discipleship for other people. This morning, I want to share with you the four characteristics of a good disciple.

A disciple of Christ must be one filled with the Holy Spirit. In the first reading of today, we are told that, we will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon us. At baptism and confirmation, we received the Holy Spirit. Like the Holy Spirit led the apostles to become witnesses of the gospel, the Holy Spirit must lead us also to become witnesses. Jesus Christ tells us in Luke 24: 49 that, “I am sending the promise of the Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” You need the power from on high to clothe you and lead you towards becoming an effective disciple. The command to “stay in the city” is very important. Jesus Christ knows that allowing his followers to go out there and trying to do it on their own with that power will only lead to failure. You cannot be an effective disciple if the power of the Holy Spirit is not alive in you. The Holy Spirit is the oil that lubricates your discipleship. Without the Holy Spirit, you are running dry. It is never good to run dry. What you can do if you are running dry – pray sincerely for a new Pentecost in your life.

A good disciple of Christ must be a person of prayer. Prayer is simply a relationship with Jesus. In prayer, we speak to God and he speaks to us. It is in prayer that we come to discover the Will of God. Almost every parish I know has different wonderful “programs.” These programs are usually well developed by intelligent people with good ideas. However, when you put these programs to work in a parish or diocese, they work for a little bit and then die or the results over a long time are not encouraging and then they eventually drop them. Like computer programs, they have developed bugs or they are not doing what they were supposed to do. No wonder every now and then we keep getting software updates and then after some time they come up with an entirely new program. I can guarantee you that there is not a single good Christian ministry that is grounded in sincere prayer that is unsuccessful. The disciple realizes that God is first. The disciple trusts the wisdom of God more than his own wisdom. The disciple does not do things because he thinks they sound good or look good, he acts based on discernment. Prayer is a place of discernment. We all have family members that we have been working so hard to bring them back to Church. Yes, you are working too hard. Pray for them. There is no amount of human wisdom that St. Monica would have used to convince Augustine to come back to Church. Her most effective tool was prayer. Prayer is the master key that opens the door to success where failure is the expected result. In Mark 9:14-29, a man brought his son to the disciples of Jesus to cure him of a demon. The disciples could not cast out the demon. Being frustrated, the man brought the son to Jesus and told him about the failure of the disciples to cure the son. Jesus Christ commanded the demon and it left. In private, the disciples of Jesus asked him, “Why could we not drive it out?” Jesus answered them, “This kind can only come out through prayer.” Our ministry can only be successful with prayer.

Jesus’ disciples are grounded in the Word of God. Jesus Christ says to us in John 8:31, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” To be a disciple of someone, you have to know the person very well. It is in scriptures that we get to know Jesus very well. The bible is not a novel or a text book. It is the living word of God. Whenever I read the bible, I get to know Jesus Christ in a way that I did not before. The disciple should always be learning from his master. The moment he stops learning, he has ceased to become his disciple and he is trying to become his own master. Jesus Christ tells us in Matthew 10: 24-25 that “No disciple is above his teacher.” If you do not know about Jesus, how can you teach about him? How can you embody his life? Remember who a Christian is? A Christian is someone who is Christ-like. What you can do. Devote a few minutes every day going through the daily Mass readings or reading a few verses of the bible. You don’t have to read the whole bible.

A true disciple must courageously embrace the cost of discipleship. He is not only a disciple on Easter Sunday and at the Ascension, he is also a disciple at the garden of Gethsemane, on the Way of the Cross and at the foot of the crucifixion. In Luke 9: 57-62, Jesus Christ spells clearly the cost of discipleship. The disciple must look forward to the crown and abandon anything that detracts from that crown. Even family is not a good enough reason to stray away from the path of discipleship. A disciple need not be politically correct even with his family, he must always hold on to his Christian beliefs even if they are unpopular. He must embrace the persecution that comes as a result of his Christian beliefs. Jesus Christ reminded his followers in the gospel of John that they will weep and mourn while the world rejoices, but they should not lose sight of their crown, for when they attain it, they will rejoice and no one can take their joy away from them.

As the disciples of Jesus, we have been given the mission to share what we believe with others in the way we live our lives. Do not forget that God does not give us a mission we cannot accomplish. He has made a promise to us today that he is not leaving us as orphans, but he will always be with us until the end of time.