Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter
I’ve started reading Robert Barron’s And Now I See…, which has sparked my own reflections on how my ego has become a dominant factor in my life, hindering my ability to put my trust in God and embrace my role as a disciple. It’s challenged me to think of the many ways that I think of myself first when I should be thinking of others. Most of all its motivated me to reflect on the ways I might be able to acknowledge God with me on my journey and in my everyday experiences instead of allowing my ego to take over and ignore God’s grace in action. I will admit these reflections aren’t easy because they call me to dwell on the times when I fall short because of my humanity. However, I believe my faith calls me to engage in these reflections so I might embrace God more fully and allow myself to live a faith-filled and joyful life. My hope is that these reflections and the pursuit to embrace God more fully help me to bear witness to my faith and allows it to bear fruit in my life and our world.
It’s this same sort of integration that shows itself in today’s readings. In the first reading we find the story of Paul being persecuted for his belief in the resurrection of the dead. His persecution does not end on a note of closure, but rather Jesus encouraging him to have courage and telling him, oh by the way, he’s also going to go an evangelize in Rome. In the Gospel, Jesus prayers that he might help God’s love be known and that they may be drawn into a deeper relationship with God.
These stories allude to the fact that, for Paul and Jesus both, the integration of joy and evangelization were quite challenging since both were met with opposition and hostility to their belief in God. Amidst this resistance, both are called to persist, to embrace their call to faith and push aside their ego, which, I believe, would have been telling them to change their approach or give up. Perhaps this is a sense of hope that we too need to embrace in our world today.
In what ways might your ego be overshadowing your commitment to living a joy and faith filled life? What other forms of resistance have you met amidst your efforts to evangelize? How might you embrace an element of hope and better integrate joy and evangelization into your everyday living?
- Mike Bennett