Theme For The Year 2005: Fellowship with God, self and others.
The Experience of Eternal Village: Fellowship with God, self and others
Human beings are social beings. We live in relationship with each other, without which our life is miserable. The human relationships are shaped and formed by the divine relationship that each person has. We grow, only in relationship with God and others. For that we need to be in conversation with God, ourselves and others. In relation to God, our alienated nature calls for a return to God with a heart of repentance and renewal. Our alienated nature with our own self calls for deep self reflection, purification and acceptance of our own broken nature. Our alienated nature with others calls for reconciliation with others and revitalization of interpersonal relationships. For all these we need the grace of God and the continuing presence of the Holy Spirit in our life.
Koinonia is the Greek word for fellowship, which means an association or partnership. In a Christian perspective, this word means: sharing of friendship and an abiding in the company of others (Acts 2:42, 2Cor: 6:14), a practical sharing with those who are less fortunate (Rom 15:26, 2cor 8:4, 9:13, Heb 13:16), a partnership in the work of Christ (Phil 1:5), fellowship in the Spirit (2Cor 13:14, Phil 2:1), fellowship with the son of God (1cor 1:9), fellowship through the sacrament (1Cor 10:16), and fellowship with His sufferings (Phil 3:10). We need all these fellowships to grow in the love of God and of others.
Koinonia is that bond which binds Christians to each other and to the Lord Jesus Christ. When people lived in villages, they had a deep bond between themselves. The postmodern culture of alienation has almost killed the villages in all sense. When the small villages disappeared, national villages and the global village emerged at the cost of relationships. What we need today is the revitalization of the village experience in the estranged societies, and to allow Jesus to walk through the length and breadth of those villages. The new heaven and the new earth are possible through the tabernacling of God with human beings in such villages. The ‘eternal village’ has to become a reality in the daily life of Christians: living in communion with God, self and others. May God help us to have this experience in the New Year and forever! .
![[Home]](../../../images/rzlogo.gif)
