Tuesday of Fifth Week of Easter
Our first reading today sounds familiar; nearly the same passage was read this past Sunday. There must be something there worth repeating! It’s a very historical reading. Paul travelled here, did this, and then he went there, met with these people, etc. But between the itinerary, we read that Paul was thrown out of the city and stoned, but got up as the disciples gathered around him, and went right back into the city! This is a person without fear! Paul goes on to tell the disciples that “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.” This is what strikes me in the first reading. Paul and the disciples are not delivered from hardships and persecutions, but they are freed from the power that such coercive acts have over normal people.
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.
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Prince died this week. This musical legend who is somewhat of a mystery, has fans spanning decades. Listening to a coverage of him on NPR, I was intrigued by one commentator talking about Prince’s song, “Purple Rain.” There are as many explanations about the meaning of the song as there are websites about him. The commentator understood “Purple Rain” as a love song in which Prince sings about his devotion to a girl. When “Purple Rain” was released, the commentator said, he could not wait for his heart to be broken just so he could sing “Purple Rain.” Now, that’s devotion!
Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter
I don’t like sin. I think that is a good thing. However, what I really don’t like is owning up to my own sinfulness. It is a piece of cake to hate sin in another person’s life, but difficult to hate my own sins.
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.
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
So much of our life is driven by growth. As children we grow physically as our bodies mature. Our minds expand as we learn both academically and from experience. As adults we seek growth temporally through careers and employment, and personally through our interpersonal relationships. Most of this growth is something we can see and measure.
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
In the recent daily scripture readings, we have been working through the book of Acts. This book has always intrigued me. It is full of lively accounts of the activities of the first Christians and their attempts to live out the gospel. It also recounts the astonishing ways that the Christian faith spread through the action of the Holy Spirit. Although I find this book fascinating, I also sometimes wonder what this book can have to say to us in our times, since our world is very different than the world which Jesus’ apostles and early disciples inhabited. It seems to me that the scripture readings for today provide an answer to this question.
Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter
We are now one month past Easter and Scripture is keeping us fully involved in the daily lives of the Apostles. Amidst all the controversies and persecution we are privileged to have Luke’s insight as witness to the fledgling Christian community. There are disagreements. There are opposing views. It is not an easy trek, even amongst the leaders such as Peter and Paul. Their personal experiences and the power of the Holy Spirit compel them to proclaim the Lord Jesus and lead the early Church. All they speak and feel and express is founded upon their personal experiences of Jesus...they recognize of the voice of their ‘Shepherd’.
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Pope Francis was in Lesbos, Greece, yesterday. He went there to visit the migrants who are now in camps as their flow into Europe has slowed down. Many of these migrants are now being sent back to Turkey, which in turn sends them back to Syria. The Pope visited the migrants there to show his solidarity with them. His visit is more than a symbolic visit. It is his hope that world leaders will follow his example and work diligently to come to the aid of the migrants. Yesterday he tweeted, “Refugees are not numbers, they are people who have faces, names, stories, and need to be treated as such.” The Pope went one step further. On his way back, he took twelve migrants back with him to the Vatican on the same plane that he was returning.
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 aswell, because all of us have room to grow.
Friday of the Third Week of Easter
Today’s scriptures cause me to reflect on the fact that Christianity is quite a bit strange. What we celebrate during the Easter season – Jesus’ resurrection – is odd in itself, but then add in everything else we believe: the virgin birth, the ragtag band of followers that wander around Judea, the disciples that proclaim Jesus in the face of persecution and death, all the various permutations of Christianity that exist in our world today. In the words of one of my students, “Christianity is entirely weird” and that is sometimes a stumbling block for people who find the weirdness to be anti-rational. But perhaps it is also the very weirdness of the Christian story that can cause us to have faith, as well.
Thursday of the Third Week of Easter
April showers… I’m sure all know the saying. As spring begins to surface I always get anxious to get out into the garden and begin preparing and planting vegetables. Amidst this excitement, I always have to give myself a reality check and make sure that everything is timed correctly. Compost needs to be laid out early enough that it can settle and be completely broken down. Tomatoes can’t go in too early or they won’t survive the chilly nights. Planting needs to be spaced out so that veggies are come to harvest at different times. On top of all this, one of the biggest reality checks is waiting to fill the rain barrels so that in the drier summer months we have a good supply of rain water to nourish the plants. Fill the barrels too early and the pipes could freeze, start them too late and we’ll be playing catch up once planting does happen.
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
Today we hear the story of the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen. We also hear Jesus calling himself the “bread of life,” as he references the life-sustaining bread given by God to the Israelites in the desert. The writer of the Acts of the Apostles is commonly thought to be the writer of the Gospel of Luke. Acts is like “Chapter 2” of the two-part series. The writer does something remarkable with the story of Stephen. As Stephen is being stoned, the writer quotes him saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He also quotes Stephen saying, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Anyone who has read or heard the Passion narratives knows what the writer is doing: he is comparing what Stephen is undergoing to what Christ underwent. Furthermore, when Christ calls out to God the Father, Stephen cries out to God himself.
Memorial of Saint Stanislaus, Bishop and Martyr
When reading many of the gospel passages, I often wonder what it would be like to be present for the many signs and miracles that Jesus performed during his ministry. And yet if we believe that Christ is risen and alive with us today, we should have the same opportunity to witness His power among us. God’s love and power is not any less alive than it was when Jesus walked the earth almost 2000 years ago. If we look, we can find Christ in many parts of our lives, and if we allow Him to work in us and through us, then His miracles can continue to occur.
Third Sunday of Easter
Early March, news shocked the Christian world that in a militant attack on a convent in Aden, Yemen, four nuns (Sr. Anselm, Sr. Reginette, Sr. Judith, Sr. Marguerite) from Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity were among the 16 people who were killed. The four sisters, two from India and two from Africa worked in a nursing home attached to their convent. It was also reported that a Salesian priest from India, Fr. Thomas Uzannalil was handcuffed and kidnapped. To date, there is no news about him. Around Holy Week, there were rumors that Fr. Thomas was to be brutally crucified on Good Friday. Thank God that this was only a rumor, but not having any information about him is worrisome. As I read today’s readings, particularly the first and second reading, I could not help but think about Fr. Thomas and the sisters. I find it amazing that people choose to be in places of conflict and preach the “good news” of Jesus Christ. I almost feel guilty that my life is so secure.
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
In the past month, I’ve found myself reflecting deeply on the nature of the church and what it means to be church. The ongoing political climate, a polarized country and church, the division between progressives and traditionalists makes me ask the questions: what does it mean to be in a church that is so patently fallible and yet which claims to be Christ’s body, and an eternal institution? Good and evil, divine and human, fallible and infallible, are all intermixed: how can this be?
Memorial of Saint John Baptist de la Salle, Priest
Throughout the Gospels, the apostles are often presented as somewhat slow, struggling to really understand the message that Jesus is teaching them. But in today's first reading we see a whole new depiction of these men of God. They suddenly become determined, convicted, focused and unrelenting. They finally get it.