thoughts and observations on the daily readings
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter Readings may be found here Hatred and violence burn hottest from a distance. When people divide into camps and distance themselves from the “other,” they have an easier time of convincing themselves that the other side is evil or unworthy. When, by contrast, people recognize common humanity or common struggle, it gets much more difficult to fan the flames of division. Perhaps this is why Pope Francis has frequently called upon believers to “build bridges.” The early Christian community struggled with questions of identity: did the Gentiles belong? If so, would they have to keep Jewish ritual custom in order to live the Christian life? Paul certainly became the most public and insistent proponent of a new kind of People of God, one that joined Jew and Greek in the communion made possible by the grace of Christ. It is curious then that Paul has Timothy, son of a Greek father and Jewish mother, circumcised. Did Paul recognize that Timothy himself might be a bridge between communities? Perhaps Paul recognized that hatred requires distance and that getting to know this man, a child of both worlds, would encourage understanding, empathy, and compassion across that divide. In the passage from John, Jesus is speaking to His disciples about rejection and persecution. The words are intensified by their place on the eve of His passion and death. And Jesus warns these frightened men and women that they will experience similar suffering. The warning contains the seeds of consolation in that He is assuring them of His solidarity with them in that suffering. And here is a great irony, the trusting, uncomplaining suffering of the Lord will in fact change hearts. The soldier at the foot of the cross will marvel at the “Son of God.” Many of the people that called for His death will repent and believe at the preaching of the Apostles. As Jesus prophesied, they and many other disciples did more than preach, they offered their lives in witness to the Lord. Again, that strange transformation happened as crowds baying for blood were shamed into compassion by the peace and fidelity of the martyrs. The hatred could not stand before the truth of love. Suffering and solidarity built the bridge that bode countless men and women into the communion of the Church.
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Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter Readings may be found here In Christians settings, we talk a great deal about love, and rightly so. After all, at the heart of our faith is the conviction that God is Love. In the gospel passage today, Jesus sums up the life of discipleship with one command: “love one another.” That command has a context in Jesus’ own stance of loving, unselfish, gift for us. He reveals the depth and breadth of the command by His life and ministry and in the nature of His sacrificial death. Saying all this still leaves the challenge for each of us in discerning the call of love daily, and in every kind of circumstances. Too often, popular culture reduces love to sentiment or desire. The love we imitate in Christ risks, gives, sweats, and bleeds for the beloved. It is a way of living, not a passing fancy. Look to those early Christians in Acts as they struggle with the everyday challenges of a small and vulnerable community in a world of violence and oppression. Their love for one another expresses itself in so many concrete ways. Today, we hear about the ongoing struggle to unify a multicultural body of disciples. They work with each other to find solutions that are charitable – meant to strengthen their bonds even if each must sacrifice in some way. In the midst of the pandemic, all of us can give witness to the way in which friends, neighbors, and strangers have adapted to extraordinary circumstances with generous hearts. The everyday ordinary and extraordinary deeds, risks, and care one for another is a wonder to behold. It is the mystery of love unfolding in our midst. “Do ordinary things with extraordinary love…” Saint Mother Teresa. Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Feast of St. Matthias Readings may be found here After the reign of King Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel and its twelve tribes divided in civil war, producing a Northern Kingdom (10 tribes) and a Southern Kingdom around Jerusalem (the tribes of Judah and Benjamin). This now divided people fell to invasions. The northern tribes were exiled and dispersed by the Assyrian Empire (the “lost tribes”). The southern kingdom experienced conquest and exile at the hand of the Babylonian Empire. These exiles, however, were returned to Judah and Jerusalem when the Persians in turn conquered Babylon. For some 500 years before Christ, the returned exiles struggled to reestablish themselves in the face of foreign invasion, conquest, and oppression by Persians, Greeks, and finally Romans. In this now reduced land of Judah, they dreamed of the Golden Age of King David and the restoration of the fullness of Israel and her twelve tribes. When Jesus called twelve apostles, He was signaling that the moment of restoration and renewal had arrived – albeit in a form very different from previous expectations. The reign of God now revealed will not be an earthly power like that of Israel of old, but the Person of the Son of God. And as we hear today, this Jesus brings a restoration of the human heart, summoned into the communion of love between Father and Son. Remember that when the ancient people had called for a king, the Prophet Samuel had warned them that an earthly king would lord it over them, taxing and working them for his own benefit. They would have been wiser to remain with the Lord as their Sovereign for His interest was ever and own their own well-being. Thus we hear Jesus today say that His own are not servants, but friends. Now as He loves them, He commands them so to love. In the passage from Acts, on this Feast of Matthias, we see the body of Apostles restored to the fullness of twelve after the betrayal and death of Judas. This Divine intervention again signals restoration to the longed for twelve tribes – a people made whole once again. You and I are called to holiness and in a very real sense, holiness is “wholeness.” The grace of Jesus Christ restores us to what God intended and made us to be: beings who love and are loved. Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter Our Lady of Fatima Readings may be found here Human beings are frequently transactional in their interactions. I am not commenting here on economic systems, but the way in which people will enter into, or make use of relationships to secure some benefit; social, financial, or emotional. It’s no surprise that wealthy, famous, talented, or high raking persons attract friends and followers easily. Consciously or unconsciously, people are drawn to these qualities and the perceived benefits that flow from such connections. It’s also no surprise that the powerless, the poor, the sick, and the strange are so often overlooked, ignored, or forgotten. Now you may be thinking that some relationships are not really a “transaction” - it is possible for us to unselfishly love so much that we want the good of the other even more than any benefit to ourselves. And you would be right. Jesus Himself models this kind of relating. Today, in John, we hear the Lord use a beautiful image, that of the vine and the branches, to express the truth of His unselfish gift if Himself to and for others. He is drawing His disciples and all of us who hear His voice in this passage into a deeper, life giving way of relating to Him and to one another. On this day when we remember the miracle at Fatima and the appearances of Our Blessed Mother to three poor children in rural Portugal, I am reminded of how Mary, the first and best disciple of the Lord, leads us in this new relating. Is it not true that in her appearances over the centuries, she invariably offers her consolation and wisdom to those who have been forgotten or ignored? Over and again, the upstanding have rejected the first accounts of such appearances because those who received the gift of her presence seemed so unlikely. Even in the life of faith, it is possible to fall into a “transactional” kind of relating – God as the ultimate dispenser of benefits. Even in the faith setting, we look “up” too much and “down” too little. I find Pope Francis’s repeated calls for the Church to pay renewed attention to the “periphery,” challenging and compelling. He wants us to live this mystery of the vine and the branches and to see the mysterious presence of God at work in unexpected people, places, and ways. Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Readings may be found here As we continue to live through these very challenging circumstances, there are some very strange effects of social isolation. On the one hand, we miss being with family and friends – on the other hand, weeks of lockdown can leave us frustrated and impatient with those close at hand. Is it possible to want to be together and need to get away all at the same time? In the passage from John today, Jesus continues His address to His disciples regarding the coming events of His passion and death. As He describes it today, He “is going away.” Throughout this chapter, He has been reassuring them that this departure is not a disaster but a change that will bring new possibilities. He has spoken to them of the ways that He will continue to be with them, and the ways in which they will come to do His work and carry His word to others. More than once He has told them not to be troubled and here He promises them His peace. In the biblical understanding, peace is not the absence of conflict, it is an active reality – right relationship with God and neighbor. The events that are about to occur, as overwhelming as they may be for the disciples, will be the moment when peace, right relationship, is restored by Jesus’ self offering. For this reason they must rejoice even if they feel bereft and broken-hearted. In a moment when we might be getting fed up with confinement and impatient with those that share our space, this passage is a good reminder of the agony and the glory of relationship. We can indeed be petty and cruel. We betray and hurt those we love. But the deeper, lasting truth is that our lives are meaningless without each other. In relationship, in forgetting ourselves, in loving one another, we find a purpose and joy that no suffering can overcome. As Jesus reveals the face of the God of love, He reveals to us the truth of us, made in the image and likeness of God. Near or far, together or apart, He speaks His love and His peace – “do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Readings may be found here Today in our Psalm, we pray, “not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give the glory.” This Psalm of humble praise acknowledges our dependence upon Divine mercy and providence. In the passage from John, we hear from Jesus about the promised gift of the Spirit. Here Jesus is speaking of His approaching departure and He is reassuring the disciples that He will remain present to them. The Spirit will continue to teach and guide them. This is exactly what happens in the early Church as revealed by the Acts. Peter and Paul, among others, receive guidance by the Holy Spirit - and they teach, heal and minister by that same power. As Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians also indicates, claims regarding gifts of the spirit also caused challenges to the early Church. Paul had to correct zealous individuals claiming the authority of the Holy Spirit for words and actions that enhanced their own reputation. Paul rejected these claims because they divided rather than united the Church. Even in our own time, the nature of this gift of the Spirit may appear puzzling. There are sometimes tensions between what an individual might believe that they have learned by the power of the Spirit and the larger Church. How are we to reconcile that tension? We might begin by noticing that when Jesus addresses His promise today, he speaks not to an individual, but to a plural “you” (“Y’all” in Southern parlance and “youse guys” in my native Brooklynese). He is speaking of a gift to the Body of Christ that is the Church. Among the Saints, there are certainly individuals who have been inspired by the Holy Spirit. But even these individual gifts, when authentic, work to build up rather than divide that Body of Christ. Even as Jesus makes His promise today, notice that the promise is linked to those who “keep His word.” Consider this rather strong assertion from #738 of the catechism: “the Church's mission is not an addition to that of Christ and the Holy Spirit, but is its sacrament: in her whole being and in all her members, the Church is sent to announce, bear witness, make present, and spread the mystery of the communion of the Holy Trinity.” We are all, I pray, open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but the discernment of the authenticity of the Spirit belongs to the whole Church. For all gifts of the Spirit exist not to assert us or our authority, but the presence and goodness of God to Whom belongs glory forever and ever! Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter Readings may be found here My dog Agnes is a Labrador. She is built for one purpose, retrieving. She has a wide chest and big lungs for buoyancy and a double coat to stay warm in the water. She has a thick tail for steering, and webbed feet for paddling. It’s not just what she does, it’s who she is – and you can see it in her when there is a ball or frisbee to about. She comes alive with purpose and a kind of joy that all is as it should be. Today in the Acts, we hear Paul and Barnabas summoning Israel to remember its purpose. When God called Abraham and established the family of Abraham, He told Abraham that this family of faith would be a “blessing to the nations.” Even as God called this one man, God’s purpose was the reconciliation of all. The prophets reminded the people of this vocation over and again, but somewhere in the cruelty of history, invasion, conquest, exile, and oppression, some of the people lost this sense of purpose. They did not want anything to do with the foreign oppressors let alone devote themselves to being a blessing to them. Remember that Saul was one such. He was persecuting Christians precisely because they welcomed Gentiles into their communities. The converted Paul, however, becomes the Apostle to the Gentiles. He remembers the reason for which this People of God were made: to participate in the Divine purpose of reconciliation and healing. As Jesus speaks to Philip and the others today in the passage from John, notice that His mission and purpose flow from His identity. It is the communion between Father and Son that underlie Jesus’ own mission. And Jesus is speaking here also of their identity. He is remaking them in His image, entrusting His work to them, giving them a renewed purpose in communion with Him. While we are more than capable of inauthenticity and sin, we were not made for such. We were made to love and to be loved, to participate in God’s own mercy and compassion for the world. Our purpose flows from this truth of our identity. And when we embrace that identity and that purpose, we know the gift promised by the Lord: that His “joy may be in us, and that joy may be complete.” Home
Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter Readings may be found here In these extraordinary times, most of us are spending a good deal of time at home. What used to be a refuge has become a place of confinement. None too many of us might like to run away from home just now. So it may not be the best moment to meditate on what “home” means. On the other hand, maybe there is no better time. Today we read from the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John. In this chapter, Jesus is preparing his disciples for His departure - the coming events of His Passion. His address to them is deeply personal and emotional and follows on the foot washing. He repeatedly reassures them of His care for them and His presence with them always. In this opening passage of chapter 14, he uses the image of His Father’s house and the many “dwelling places” there. He assures them that He goes ahead to prepare a place for them. This passage concludes with the very personal “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Here is the key to understanding the Lord’s meaning – the issue is that He is with them and that they will be with Him. Carpenter though He may be, this is not about building a house, it is about presence and communion where He dwells. Your house might feel somewhat confining just now. You might be impatient and anxious to be “liberated.” But think back to the start of the crisis. You wanted to be with those you love and that love you. Houses become homes because they become that sacred ground for family life. Whatever the challenges of the moment, our hearts always long for communion and a true home is a dwelling place of love. That is the truth that Jesus speaks to our hearts this day – just as he reassured those disciples with their troubled hearts, He reminds us that He is with us and that we will be with Him. How did Elvis put it? “Home is where the heart is, and my heart is anywhere you are…” Perga in Pamphylia, Antioch in Pisidia – sometimes you have to feel sorry for the lectors! The Acts of the Apostles and the Letters of Paul are filled with recitation of the name of places and individuals and many of them are unfamiliar tongue twisters for our good lectors.
Challenges of pronunciation aside, I like all these names. They remind me that these events happened to real people in ordinary places. I think sometimes that it is easy to forge this when reading Scripture. The events described happened so long ago, that it may seem like another world. But the fact is that the first proclamation of the faith happened to people just like us in the midst of all the challenges of making a living, getting through illness, educating the kids, and surviving all the large and small challenges of daily living. Those folks heard the testimony of Paul and opened their hearts and their lives to a relationship with Jesus Christ. We remember so many of those places and people because that same faith has been passed, person to person, generation to generation across a vast amount of time and space. They made it possible for you and I to hear that word and open our hearts. In the Italian tradition of the “presepio” the scene of the birth of Christ is depicted in a replica of the town where the family lives – a reminder that Christ is just as present here and now as He ever was in Bethlehem. So today I am hearing about Perga, but I am praying for the believers in Patchogue and Huntington, Massapequa and Smithtown, Oyster Bay and Riverhead, and so many other places on this island of ours where Jesus Christ is risen and where His Word is spoken to our hearts. I pray that all of us receive and pass that life giving relationship to the next generation. Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Readings may be found here The word apocalypse is often misunderstood in popular culture. In the biblical setting, the word means revelation. It is an unveiling of the formerly hidden purposes and/or presence of God. The presumption is that there are some truths that we human beings would not arrive at by our own reason or powers of observation. For example, the prophets revealed the will of God to the people in particular circumstances. And we call the Scriptures themselves revelation because the Holy Spirit inspires the authors for the purpose of revealing God’s presence among us and His will for us. Today, the Gospel of John points to the ultimate Revelation of God’s interior life and that Revelation is the Word Who is Jesus Christ. The Lord Himself cries out “whoever sees Me sees the One Who sent Me!” This powerful truth is difficult for human beings. Just look to Jesus’ ministry to see how this revelation also lays bare the heart and provokes a very mixed response. It is never easy for us to surrender our own limited view of the world and trust in the God of Love. In a moment that feels apocalyptic in the Hollywood sense of the term, it is good to be reminded that even now it is possible with the eyes of faith to see the unveiling of God’s presence and purposes. Like those first disciples we know the grace of Jesus Christ. May our hearts be laid bare, and transformed, by the true Apocalypse - Jesus Christ the Revelation of the Father. |
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