Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter
I often comment, “I wish I knew what God wanted me to do!” There seems to be so many possible options of chores that need to be done, or good works that could be accomplished, or ways that I could enjoy my day. All of these possibilities are good options, but what is the next best thing I should do? Part of the issue with this dilemma is the fact that I sometimes feel completely alone and unsupported in my decision making. In today’s gospel, Jesus reminds us that we are not alone. Jesus and the Father will dwell with us, and the Holy Spirit will teach us everything we need to know to live our lives with purpose and joy.
Fifth Sunday of Easter
There is a story my second-grade teacher told us in religion class that I strangely still remember. One day, Michelangelo walking through a garden in Florence, saw a block of marble in a corner protruding from the earth. It was half covered by grass and mud. He stopped suddenly as if he had seen someone. He exclaimed: "An angel is imprisoned in that marble; I must set him free." Armed with a chisel, he began to work on that block until the figure of a beautiful angel emerged. The teacher continued, “Each of us is an angel in the making. God is the artist. The chisel is the Word of God. God uses his word to bring out the best in us.” Later when I got older, I verified the truth of Michelangelo’s story. It turns out, that my teacher was correct. The angel is now in the Basilica of St Dominic in Bologna, Italy.
Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter
“The disciples were filled with joy and the Holy Spirit.” This is the closing line of today’s first reading. It is optimistic and uplifting. Thinking back on the days that I’ve been filled with joy, I can recall my wedding, the days my children were born, and a number of other special occasions. My list of joy filled days includes achievements, milestones, and celebrations. My list, however, does not include rejection, persecution, failure, and expulsion from a region I was trying to help. So what provided joy despite the circumstances for the disciples? I want to propose three things that that might allow us to face seeming failures with joy and grace.
Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Recently, I read a book called Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis by Lauren Winner. Winner describes a mid-faith crisis as the realization that the newness, excitement and joy of faith has worn off and that the end goal of spiritual life (that is, life in God) seems quite far off. How do you make it through the middle of faith, when God seems far off, and nothing ever seems to change? Winner describes the slow, sometimes painful process of going through a mid-faith crisis - from her vantage point, it involves a lot of prayer (even when sometimes you're not sure that God is there), a lot of discussions with trusted spiritual friends, and a lot of simply being in the loneliness that a mid-faith crisis sometimes involves.
Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter
In both today's first reading and the Gospel I was struck by the presence of feet. Paul speaks of John's pronouncement of Christ's coming, that John would not be worthy to untie the sandals of Christ's feet. And Jesus speaks his words after washing the disciples' feet. In both readings (as is often true in life) the feet seem inconsequential but bear great weight.
Feast of Saint Mark, evangelist
Humility is not an attribute that people in our culture find appealing. And yet, I believe that humility is an essential part of being a disciple of Jesus. Some people think that being humble entails feeling worthless or being self-effacing, but I do not think that this is humility, and behaving this way is not what God desires. In order to be humble in the eyes of God, we must recognize that who we are and everything we have are gifts from Him. We do not deny our goodness or blessings, but give credit to God who showers us with His grace. When we are able to openly accept that we are nothing without Him, then He is able to use us completely to do His works as we help to build His kingdom.
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Close friends I have had who grew up in Protestant traditions will talk now and again about a practice they often encountered in their youth. They would be at church or, more likely, at one of a series of “revival meetings” specially designed to bring those who had not been saved into the church. At the close of the meeting or worship service the preacher would issue an altar call. That is, he would invite all those to come down to the front of the church who, thanks to the revival, had encountered Jesus in a powerful way and were ready to commit themselves as Christians for the first time. The stories I have heard of those conversions are powerful but also unsettling because they often include stories of youngsters going forward not because they felt touched by Jesus but because they were afraid of the hell that the preacher promised if they failed to commit.
Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter
In today’s reading from Acts, Peter relates to his community a personal vision from God. This vision convinces him that, despite long established traditions/laws, nothing controls the coming of the Holy Spirit upon a people. Indeed, Peter witnesses, “God gave them (the Gentiles) the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ…”. In St. John's Gospel—the beginning of the Good Shepherd passage—Jesus tells us he is the ‘gate for the sheep’ and that, although some try and enter in other ways—trying to steal or destroy the fold—it is only through Jesus, the one and only Good Shepherd, that one may enter and be saved. There is nothing human beings can do to control this. Still, we find ourselves thinking—most assuredly—that we have all the answers. We think we know better than our neighbor, better than our pastor, or anyone else. Unconsciously, we may even think we know better than Jesus.
Fourth Sunday of Easter
As you can imagine, Holy Week is one of the most demanding weeks in a priest’s sacramental life. Not only was I ill this Holy Week, but Fr. Dave’s illness and hospitalization made the week even more demanding than it generally is. Nevertheless, to say, by the Easter Sunday 6pm mass was over, I was overworked, exhausted, and hungry. I said to the congregation, “Jesus is risen, but I am dead!” I was looking forward to kicking my shoes off, having a glass or wine or three, some dinner and crawl into bed. I also said this to the congregation: “I don’t care what you are doing tonight, but I know what I am going to do.” I Left the sacristy, entered the kitchen and had barely poured my glass of wine, and my phone rang. There was a call on our emergency line that somebody was actively dying at hospice. This person was not a parishioner at any of our local parishes. Hospice had been trying to reach priests at many of our neighboring parishes, but they were not available. Most probably they probably were visiting family. I looked at my wine glass and then I looked up… and said to Jesus, “You are really not funny!” I also said to myself, “You think you know what you are going to do next. You don’t!”
Saturday of the Third Week of Easter
St. Peter gets a lot of credit in today’s scene from the Gospel for his response to Jesus’ question about whether the Apostles are leaving or not him. He said, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” The irony in Peter’s confession though is that despite his great faith now, he will find himself tested as well, because all of us have room to grow.
Friday of the Third Week of Easter
A poster about discernment in my parish growing up read, “there aren’t always trumpets and burning bushes.” A friend of mine speaks of spiritual two by fours as those moments where God communicates what you are being called to take on in His plan with such unexpected certainty and clarity you feel as if you have smacked in the face by a long plank of wood. These are few and far between in my experience.
Thursday of the Third Week of Easter
The New Testament reading about Philip’s encounter with the eunuch is a story that we can all relate to. In this reading there are four important parts: First, Philip is nudged by the Holy Spirit to go and share his faith. Then Philip listens to this nudging and approaches the man. Philip shares all that he knows and believes. Finally, both Philip and the eunuch’s lives were changed by this encounter.
Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter
Losing someone you love is difficult at best even if it might have been expected. Everyone grieves differently and that is okay. Occasionally, in both the person dying and in their family there is a level of what almost seems unusual acceptance. Faith often is the reason for their peace. I have seen dying patients look up as if they were seeing heaven and reach their open arms to the heavens. It is as if, like Stephen, these people could see Christ welcoming them home. For those left behind there is still a process of letting go. We may not feel it, but these times are when the Lord is trying even harder to remind us of his desire to feed us and lead us to from death to new life.
Tuesday of the Third Week of Easter
The crowd in the passage from John has a very short memory, makes a lot of demands, and understands little about Jesus. Just sixteen verses ago, they witnessed Jesus turn five small loaves and two fishes into enough food to feed five thousand people. Yet here, they dare to ask Jesus what sign he will give them so that they may believe him. Rather presumptuously, they even tell Jesus what sort of sign they’d like to see. How about some manna from heaven? Couldn’t Jesus give them a sign like Moses delivered to the Israelites in the desert? And if he did, why then maybe they would believe. Poor Jesus! How many signs do they need? When will they get it?
Monday of the Third Week of Easter
I have always wondered about today’s first reading. The story tells about St. Stephen and how his face “was like the face of an angel.” What was it about Stephen that made his appearance so striking? As disciples we are also called to follow Jesus, so that when people see us the grace of God shines through for all to see.
Third Sunday of Easter
In preparation for a weekend homily, I read the scriptures the prior Monday. I let a few themes revolve around my small brains for a couple of days, and finally by Wednesday, I have a more defined theme. This week things worked very differently. I chuckled when I read this statement in the second reading from the 1stletter of John “My children, I am writing this to you so that you may not commit sin.” My instinctive reaction was, “Yeah, right!” Over the next couple of days, the thought just would not leave my head. And even though, the gospel reading is a much more attractive passage and perhaps easier, I decided that I would reflect on John’s letter.
Saturday of the Second Week of Easter
I get the impression that the events of today’s gospel -- Christ walking on water -- weren’t shared openly until later in Christ’s ministry, if not after his death and resurrection. I have no concrete scriptural evidence for this, but the precedent exists. All throughout Mark there is the Messianic secret and after the transfiguration the apostles are sworn to secrecy. But why this passage?
Friday of the Second Week of Easter
How difficult it is, sometimes, to see the significance of the things we do on a repeated basis. When we first moved to Ohio, all my surroundings were new and it was exciting to venture to new places and get to know the town of Dayton. We visited several of the MetroParks and the Boonshoft Discovery Museum and attended the wonderful festivals downtown and tried out some new restaurants. In doing all that, we made new friends, good connections, and most importantly, began to feel that Dayton could be a home for us, and not just a random place on the map.
Thursday of the Second Week of Easter
What inspiring readings we have today! Here we have one of the great power plays of the Bible; The apostles and Peter are brought before the authorities (again), and are in trouble for teaching about Jesus. In their day, teaching like this wasn’t just a religious opinion or freedom of expression. It was undermining the authority structure of their society. They were enemies of both the ‘church’ and the state. But the power of the resurrection has freed the apostles from those who talk about ‘earthly things.’ “We must obey God rather than men!” proclaims Peter. As Jesus promised, the Holy Spirit is not rationed out in subsistence portions; instead, the power of Christ compels the apostles to courageously stand up to every possible obstacle.
Memorial of Saint Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr
I met someone who could speak to me only in metaphor. The imagery they conveyed described how they were locked in prison and needed help to get out. Through our discussion the jailer seemed to be his own sin. It was like this person realized that their own actions led them to a tomb of their own making. What became clear was how desperately the person wanted the Lord to roll the stone away so that they could be set free. The desire of this persons heart was to be unshackled so that they could proclaim the gospel.