Renewal
Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Readings may be found here
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Last year, on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, our group had the opportunity to visit the Basilica of Saint Peter in Gallicantu, built over the ruins of the house of the High Priest. Jesus was brought there on the night before He died. With great emotion, we prayed Psalms in the pit where Jesus was imprisoned. Just outside, in the courtyard, Peter had denied the Lord. That deeply painful moment in the gospel evokes an awareness of our own fears and limits when it comes to the call of discipleship. 
 
The passage we hear today is equally emotional. Jesus greets the disciples as they are fishing. Peter, with that characteristic enthusiasm, jumps from the boat and rushes to the Lord. On the shore of the Sea of Galilee there is a deeply moving exchange. Peter had denied the Lord three times and fled from the terrors of Good Friday. Now, he appears to want to reclaim his place at the Lord’s side. Jesus is seated by a “charcoal fire” and addresses him by his old name – Simon – allusions perhaps to Peter’s failure? Three times the Lord asks “do you love me?” While this is a moment of deep distress for Peter, it is also a moving moment of renewal. The Lord is healing the wound of Peter’s denial. Jesus is also teaching Peter that his devotion to the Lord will now be directed to His new family of faith: “feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep.” The Lord Who prophesied Peter’s denial now prophesies Peter’s faithful witness even to death. Peter is forgiven and renewed and drawn back into friendship with the Lord and a share in His mission of mercy. 
 
Never forget this redeeming merciful love of the Lord Jesus for His own. Wherever life has taken you, whatever your sins and failures, however many times your words or actions may have denied Him, He is waiting by the shore, gazing upon you with love, and thirsting to draw you back into His Friendship and the life of grace. 

​Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Readings may be found here

​The conversion of St. Paul fascinates me for the way in which Paul is genuinely changed on the road to Damascus even as his personal qualities remain. Before his conversion, Paul was willing to use violence to enforce his beliefs; after he became a man of service who sought to persuade free hearts to come to faith. Before he was tribal in his focus on Judaism; after he became a man for all nations. The whole of his life was altered by the encounter with the Lord, yet his passion and conviction, his knowledge of the scriptures, and his devotion to mission all remain in his new life as a disciple of Jesus. We see these qualities on display in the reading from Acts as the intrepid Paul outwits his opponents and unwaveringly follows the directions of the Lord.
 
In order to understand this mix of a man changed and still himself, we need to consider Jesus’ prayer in the gospel passage. Here, Jesus is speaking of the communion of love that exists between him and the Father – a love that the Lord opens to His disciples. Divine love is not about control or domination, but willing the good of the other. In this way love changes us at the same time that it empowers us to become our truest selves. The Lord’s love for Paul and His personal call to Paul did not oppress Paul. That love liberated Paul from his anger and hatred and saw his gifts expand as Paul participated passionately in that invitation to the communion of love. 

Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Readings may be found here
 
People often equate holiness with morality – holy people do and say the right thing. This is not wrong, but the biblical notion of holiness runs deeper. In the Old Testament worldview, holiness is about separation – being set apart for the things of God. Consider the example of the chalice in the Holy Mass. It would be unthinkable to use the chalice for anything other than the celebration of the Mass – it is set apart, consecrated to the service of God. 
 
In the prayer of Jesus in John 17, the Lord speaks of His own consecration for His disciples (and us) and His prayer that they (and us) be consecrated. He is making them holy, set apart to be vessels of His presence and work. Each one of us, baptized and anointed, have been consecrated to the Lord, set apart for Him alone. We too are vessels and though we may be unworthy, He offers us the grace of participation in His life and mission. 
 
When you pray at Mass in person or by the distance means of the moment, look at the chalice and know this: you and I are called to be the chalice, vessels of the very presence of Our Lord. And if that truth touches your heart, consider watching this spectacular address on “Old Pots” from venerable Archbishop Fulton Sheen:
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Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Readings may be found here
In the passage from Acts, Paul offers a “farewell” address to Christian leaders. He reminds them that he has lived and preached the faith among them. Compelled by the Spirit, he must now go to Jerusalem, knowing that hardship awaits him there. Paul has given witness with words and deeds, but now another kind of witness emerges – Paul’s life follows the pattern of the Lord’s own ministry. Jesus had “set His face” towards Jerusalem (Luke 9:51) knowing that He would experience rejection and terrible suffering. In the passage from John today, we hear from Jesus’ prayer for His disciples on the night before His passion. The “hour has come,” but Jesus does not hesitate. He is concerned more for the disciples than for Himself. His suffering will reveal the glory of God as it will accomplish the work of redemption – the plan alluded to by Paul in the first reading. 
Paul is not the only character whose life follows the pattern of Jesus’ own. Paul himself had been present (as Saul) when Stephen prayed for his persecutors “forgive them for they know not what they do.” Peter and John performed miracles of healing “in the Name of the Lord Jesus” that mirrored miracles from Jesus’ own ministry.
The Spirit empowers us as disciples to proclaim the Word and to live in a manner that gives witness. Some among us, noted for their holiness of life go further as the shape and pattern of their lives begin to give witness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. And that kind of witness is not limited to the Apostolic age. Today we celebrate St. Philip Neri who lived in an age when serious Christian life was often relegated to monastic settings. Philip made the choice to walk with people along the “way” in just the way that Jesus had formed His disciples. Philip’s simple, generous, and authentic living of the gospel among ordinary people brought about a remarkable revival of faith by words, deeds, and a life patterned on that of the Lord.

Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter
​Readings may be found here

Repentance is itself a gift of the Lord. The foundation for our repentance and for forgiveness is the person of Jesus Christ. It is our relationship with Him that brings us to regret sin and desire the grace He offers. In the Acts today, Paul encounters believers who had responded to the call for repentance – the baptism of John. Paul now confers upon them the gift of the Spirit, drawing them into an active, ongoing relationship with the Lord Jesus.
 
In the gospel passage, we see the same focus on relationship with the Lord Jesus. Even as Jesus faces the hour that will look like defeat, His passion, He asserts that He has the victory. No power, not even death, will overcome the love and grace of God. 
 
It is a good thing when our conscience calls us to repentance, but we are mistaken if we imagine that we have the capacity to change and put our sin behind us by our own efforts to reform. True repentance begins with the Good News of the Lord’s love for us – His victory and His mercy. Repentance is a response to grace. 

Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Readings may be found here
The Gospel of John speaks frequently of Jesus’ intimate communion with the Father. The poetic prologue to the Gospel introduces this truth: 
“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. 
He was in the beginning with God.” (John 1:1-2)
In the course of its narrative, we hear Jesus communicate this as well: He has come from the Father (6:29); He does the work of the Father (5:19-20); the Father testifies to Him (5:37); He does the will of the Father (6:38); He speaks the message of the Father (7:16); to see and know Him is to see and know the Father (8:19). 
Now in Chapter 16 as Jesus offers a farewell address to the disciples, we learn that this departure is a return to the Father. As the passion looms, the story has come full circle and Jesus returns to the Father Who sent Him. In this same passage Jesus acknowledges that the disciples “have come to believe” that Jesus is from the Father. 
Consider the verses that follow in the prologue immediately after the introduction of the Word: 
“All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be. 
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light of the human race…” 
What is true of Jesus, that He comes from the Father and that He returns to the Father, is true of us. As Jesus reveals the face of the living God, He also reveals our truest selves, made in the image and likeness of God and called into communion through Christ Our Lord.

Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Readings may be found here
 
Today is the feast of Saint Rita of Cascia. She was married at too early an age to a cruel and violent man. Amid great suffering, this woman of faith devoted herself to changing hearts. In an age of vendetta, she taught forgiveness and reconciliation. She demonstrated tenacity of faith in some of the worst experiences that life can throw at us: abuse, betrayal, violence, and illness. And for that tenacity, she remains revered by Catholics. On her feast day in the Basilica where she lies beneath the altar, the faithful come in great numbers and receive a rose. On her deathbed, Saint Rita asked for a rose. Even though it was winter, the sisters found one perfect rose in the frozen garden and presented it to her, a rose who had been beauty amid the thorns.
 
Saint Rita gives witness to the truth spoken by Jesus in the gospel passage today. As he continues to prepare His disciples for the terrible events of His passion and their future suffering, He speaks to them of the image of a woman in childbirth. She endures the suffering knowing that her purpose is a thing of joy. He reassures them, and us, that the anguish will pass and joy will endure.
 
During this pandemic when there is universal suffering, I wonder if we are all learning to be more aware of each other, deepening our capacity for empathy and compassion? Is it possible for us to understand with new insight that so many were suffering before anyone heard the term Covid-19? In light of Saint Rita, patroness of abused wives and impossible causes, today might be a moment to see the suffering that was often hidden or ignored. As we desire to see that joy promised by the Lord, might we need to be renewed in our commitment to do the “labor” of bearing that joyful life into the world?

Wednesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Readings may be found here
 
St. Paul had gumption. He went right to the cultural heart of the Greek world and announced to the brightest and best that they had missed the truth of God. His message here differs significantly from other instances of his preaching in Acts. In those other settings, speaking to Jews and to new Christians, Paul focused on the Lord Jesus and the Holy Scriptures. Here in Athens, Paul speaks in philosophical arguments so familiar to the Greek schools. He speaks “their language.” He draws on their own tradition to point out the absurdity of worshipping idols made with human hands while ignoring the Creator of all. While the response was mixed, Paul’s conviction and his argument hit home for some and the door was opened for Paul to go further and introduce them to the Christ. 
 
In the gospel passage today, Jesus speaks about the gift of the Spirit and the role of the Spirit in teaching the disciple and empowering him or her to speak the truth of the Lord. There is the foundation for the whole ministry of Paul and his creative, courageous visit to the Areopagus. 
 
I love the word “gumption,” defined as “shrewd or spirited initiative and resourcefulness.” (Lexico.com) “Spirited” indeed! What was true for Paul is true for every one of us empowered by the Spirit. So where’s your gumption? 

​Tuesday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Readings may be found here
 
Every loving parent knows the truth that even as you would do anything for your children, one of the most important things you do is help them to grow and thrive as mature adults. When young, you must protect them; but that same protection can become oppression if it lasts too long. An “empty nest” might bring strong emotions, but it should also inspire satisfaction in a job well done.
 
We have a parallel to this truth in the passage from John. Jesus has been preparing his disciples at great length for the events of His passion and death. Even as they grieve at the news of His departure, He has been teaching them that this moment is actually for their good and the good of the mission. His departure will open the gift of the Spirit to them – the gift that will teach, strengthen, and empower them to take up His work of healing and reconciliation. Whereas Jesus own earthly ministry was limited to the range that His own two feet carried Him on the roads of Galilee and Judea, these disciples will seed a new family of faith that will carry the Gospel and the presence of Jesus Christ across vast distances and through the years to come. 
 
God Who is all powerful, never exercises that power to dominate or control. The Spirit descends “like the dewfall,” the Servant of the Lord does not break the “bruised reed” or “quench the smoldering wick.” God’s power, the power of love, seeks only the free and loving response of the beloved. Even if the disciples struggle to understand in the moment, He is loving them in a way that will bring from their free hearts the best of responses. They will grow and mature in the faith and become more and more the men and women made in the image and likeness of God. They will “bear fruit” (15:8, 16), their “joy will be complete” (15:11), they will love as they have been loved (15:10), they will testify (15:27). All these things belong to the disciples of Jesus Christ - all these things belong to you and I should we make a similar free and loving response to the call of the Lord. He would have us grow, mature, and “take flight” in the life of grace.

Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter
Readings may be found here

Hospitality is a gift. When offered freely and fully it blesses the guest and the host. Welcoming one another binds friends and family, lightens the burdens of life, encourages joy and creativity, and consoles those who feel lonely or bereft. During this time of pandemic, the loss of everyday hospitality has been painful for all of us. We all miss those family dinners, Sunday afternoons at the beach or a BBQ, and sharing a drink without the use of facetime or zoom. 
 
Hospitality is a universal value in every age and in every culture. It seems to flow from somewhere deep in our humanity and it is a beautiful thing. Early Christians found great blessings in hospitality. In a time when travel was dangerous and difficult, the mission could only go on with the help of those who would open their homes for refuge, worship, and to support evangelists like Paul. And along the way, we learned that the exercise of hospitality was itself a kind of mission and preaching – one that built up the Church and strengthened her bonds of communion. We have a beautiful example today in Lydia. The baptismal water was not yet dry and she was already inviting the evangelizers into her home!
 
And Lydia is an early pioneer of a long chain of hospitable disciples. From those early days flowed the hospitality of the monastic movement and the Christian commitment to the housing of the traveler, the refugee, the homeless. It’s the same instinct of joyful generosity that staffs the soup kitchens and works in this pandemic to get supplies to the homebound and unemployed.
                           
Even if we must still wait for those Sunday dinners with family and friends, we can still exercise that gift of hospitality today. There’s a neighbor who could use some human warmth, a parish social ministry that needs volunteers, a program for the homeless or hungry in need of resources. Hospitality is a gift: “Do not neglect hospitality, for through it some have unknowingly entertained angels.” (Hebrews 13:2)
 
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