Memorial of Saint Charles Lwanga and his companions, martyrs
One of the things that I've realized as a parent is that I'm more worried about life and death. I'm often wondering: What if something happens to them? What if something happens to me? How can we best make sure that our kids are cared for if something happens? And I worry, too, about this world into which my children have been born: the economic downturn, the world's shrinking access to water, and the wars we wage all figure utmost in my mind. How is it that we bother having children?
Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter
The psalm response for today is “The Lord has revealed to the nations his saving power” (Ps. 98:2b). This theme emerges in the two readings for the day.
The first reading continues the adventure story of the early church, which we have been following throughout this entire Easter season. Today’s passage shares the story of Paul in Corinth, residing with Priscilla and Aquila, who share his trade in tentmaking. While this is Paul’s occupation in Corinth, his more important work is to share the gospel message with Jews and Gentiles alike. Today’s passage ends with a note on Paul’s success: a synagogue official name Crispus came to believe in Jesus, as did many Corinthians who were baptized. The stories of Acts do not always end so tidily, which should make us appreciate this story all the more! Moreover, this story brings out theme of God’s saving power with its emphasis on baptism. Throughout Acts in many different geographical locations, baptism emerges as an important sign of conversion and belief in the Gospel – the beginning of salvation! Notably, baptism often involves an entire household (presumably children, servants, etc.). Today we hear that Crispus’ entire household was converted.
Memorial of Saint Justin, martyr
In recent years, we have had agnostics and even atheists join our RCIA process. They are encouraged to come as they are and participate with an open mind and a willingness to be guided by the Spirit. This past year, we had a candidate who grew up Southern Baptist although he was never baptized. Since then, he became an atheist, an agnostic and a Buddhist. Along the way, he met a Catholic woman and he decided to investigate the Catholic faith. At the beginning of our RCIA process, he still considered himself a Buddhist. This Easter, he was baptized Catholic. Rarely have I encountered such a learned young person who had explored so many theological points of view.
Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
I love reading the parts of the gospel where people meet Jesus and they "just know" that he is the one they've been looking for. Maybe that's because for most people in the Bible, as well as in our contemporary world, seeing Jesus for who he really is, is pretty complicated. The Pharisees and Sadducees sure don't recognize him; even his own disciples have a hard time seeing him sometimes. But in today's gospel lesson (Luke 1:39-56), Elizabeth, and her unborn baby, John the Baptist "just know" that this is Jesus.
Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter
In today's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles we encounter Paul and his companions filled with the Spirit of God and spreading the Good News of Jesus. Paul and his companions find welcome listeners among some women, and Lydia, who is one of these kind women receives baptism and invites them to stay at her home. Just yesterday, in the Sunday gospel reading, Jesus had promised that he would send an "advocate" to help his disciples. We see that promise being fulfilled in the life of the Church.
Sixth Sunday of Easter
During the early years of my spiritual journey, I used a very simple analogy to help me grow in my God-experience. I would often think my heart as my house. Like every other home, I would think of my heart as having a living room, a dining, a kitchen, bedrooms, a basement and even an attic. And in each of these rooms were closets where I stored things and sometimes even hide things that I did not want other people to see or know about. Talking about my heart as my house, it was easy to let Jesus into my living room and I would be happy if he just stayed there. But initially I had restrictions. It was as if I was saying, “Lord, please do not come into my bedroom. It is not always made up and clean. And for heaven’s sake, do not open the closets. You do not want to see the thing I collect. Of all things, do not turn on the channels on TV that I turn on, do not look around the room, or lift the mattress to see what is underneath.” It was as if the Lord and I could live under one roof but lead pretty independent lives. But sooner than later I realized that I couldn’t do that. Can’t mess with Jesus! Gradually I let him into my bedroom, into all the closets of my life. Felt much better because my life was much cleaner. But the Lord seemed dissatisfied even with that. “Lord what more can I do? Is there something more?” There came a day when I wrote my house to his name. My house, my home, my heart, my life was no longer mine but the Lord’s. This analogy helped me take my relationship with God to the next level.
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter
There are several interesting elements in today’s three Readings that are worth noting, all of which link in some way to the Christian concept of discipleship.
In our First Reading, St. Paul encounters Timothy and decides to take him as a traveling companion. Timothy is himself both Jew and Gentile, having a Jewish mother (which is the general requirement for membership in the Jewish community) and a Gentile father. Through his parentage, Timothy seems to represent the Church of this period, which is growing community of both Jews and Gentiles. St. Paul, who will elsewhere argue vehemently against the need for Gentile Christians to become Jews, ends up having Timothy circumcised. This strange decision is presumably reached so that there will be no doubt about Timothy’s status within the Covenant, so that Timothy will be accepted by those to whom he is called to serve as a messenger. As these disciples travel about relaying the decisions of the Council of Jerusalem (that were reached in the previous chapter), the faith of the Christian community grows. The overriding theme of the First Reading, however, is following the lead of the Holy Spirit. According to Acts of the Apostles, Paul and Timothy intend to travel through one region and preach the Gospel only to be “prevented by the Holy Spirit” from doing so. Instead of allowing them to go where they have determined they should go, the Holy Spirit guides these disciples to preach to the people of Macedonia. They receive a vision, which is not necessarily the vision that they wanted, and begin to recognize that they are called in a different way than they have originally supposed. This does not mean that they will never make it to these other regions; it only means that they have other work to do that they must accomplish first.
Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter
Evangelist Billy Graham once said, "Being a Christian is more than just an instantaneous conversion - it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ." I think he's got it right - I find I'm constantly being converted and I'm never done converting. One of the ways I'm being converted is in how I understand love. I think I'm learning, over a lifetime, what it means to love other people and to be loved by other people and of course, scriptures like the ones we've read today help in that conversion.
Memorial of Saint Philip Neri, priest
In this 5th week of Easter, we are continuing to follow the adventures of the early Church and to muse on some of the conflicts and problems that they encountered in trying to figure out how to be Christians. This task became particularly difficult when it came to negotiating the acceptance of the Gentiles into this new faith. After all, although faith in Jesus was new, it was really a fulfillment of a very old faith – the Jewish faith, and the Gentiles as a group didn’t belong to the Jewish faith in any proper sense (although there were individuals who converted to Judaism).
Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter
You may have heard it said by some non mainline Christians, “We belong to a Bible based Church”. And in fact they do. In today’s reading we witness the early church that pre-exists scripture being written. These show the Bible as a product of Church, not vice versa. Unlike the circular debate of the chicken and the egg, there can be no dissension on the order here.
Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter
This week I'm reading a book about a family - including teenagers - that decided to experiment with turning off their cell phones, computers, video games and other gadgets for a year. Whenever they needed to type something, they would arrange their schedule so they could use the computers at work, the library, or school. They learned to deal with boredom by becoming more creative. They learned that life could be a bit more still than they had been used to. At the end of the year, they picked up their technology again - but also made some rules that helped them keep some of the spirit of their year "off" - like having a tech-free day (Sunday) and having meals together without cell phones or other gadgets. They liked the balance they achieved of having the technology when they needed it, but also of connecting with the local people in their lives as much, or more than, the online people.
Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter
In this fifth week of Easter, we are treated with another amazing tale from the Acts of the Apostles. Imagine Barnabas and Paul being identified as Greek gods! While it is certainly a testament to the amazing deeds that they were doing, those deeds were done in the name of Christ – and how the crowd there could be so confused as to think that Paul and Barnabas were gods, rather than that Jesus was God, is really crazy! On the one hand, it is but another example of how we as human beings look for things to worship, whether heroes, miracle-workers, money, clothes or whatever. We love seeing amazing things, beautiful things, and things that flatter ourselves.
Fifth Sunday of Easter
Those of you who had reached the age of reason by 1970, perhaps, will remember the small-pox menace. This deadly virus killed hundreds of thousands of people. And finally, in a global attempt, the virus was eradicated from the known world. Fourty years later, though, a huge debate is brewing about the small-pox virus, which is preserved in two laboratories, one in Russia and the other in the United States. Other countries, especially poorer countries are proposing that there is no merit in preserving a virus as destructive as this one. There are others, though, who say that the virus must be preserved for the sake of science. However, as the discussion heats up, we realize that the decision to either destroy or preserve the virus is more about politics than about anything else. There is tremendous fear on behalf of the Russians and the Americans that the virus could be used as a biological weapon and that the side without the virus could end up with a debilitating disadvantage. This is just one example of how the world, as beautiful and delightful as it is, is also beset with problems. The manner in which we go about solving our most complex issues will reveal the character of the people of our time.
Saturday of the Fourth Week of Easter
“All the ends of the earth have seen the saving power of God,” announces the response of today’s psalm.. We hear these words today immediately after we hear the story of Paul and Barnabas and the great mission to the gentiles. Gentiles, that is non-Jews, were generally regarded by Jews as outside of God’s saving power. Therefore, Jesus’ universal call, including Jews and Gentiles, is one of the most distinctive things about Him. He came from the Jewish tradition and He’s very clearly rooted in it, but His mission is universal.
Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter
An acquaintance of mine, Shane Claibourne, has become a little bit famous recently because he's been writing books about following Jesus. He's got his photo on book covers and he's invited all over the country for speaking engagements. Ironically, just this week I've heard some people denounce him, saying that he's not really following Christ - he's too interested in the glamor of fame.
Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter
In this 4th Week of Easter, we have been following the story of the early Church. Recent readings have emphasized the importance of the inclusion of the Gentiles. But today we hear Paul preaching in a synagogue, at the invitation of local synagogue officials. How interesting! Christianity was now unambiguously open to Gentiles in the eyes of the early Church, and yet, Paul had not given up on sharing the message of the Jewish Messiah with the Jews. Moreover, Paul and companions remained comfortable in the synagogue, which had been their place of prayer for their entire lives.
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Everyone knows that to have a good story you need to start with the words, “Once upon a time...”. The Bible, our collection of stories, has a similar phrase, “In the Beginning…”. This phrase is used to start out the very beginning of the Bible in Genesis and also to start the Gospel of John. On some levels, John calls us to remember Genesis by using these words. Yet where he goes after that can take us off guard. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1) It is this Johannine understanding of the Word which echoed in my heart upon hearing the first reading.
Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
In modern life it is often difficult to remain focused on our task as Christians. This is especially true during those times when we encounter stress, hardship, suffering, struggles, and opposition. At times such as these doubts naturally arise and we may question what the point is of following Jesus. The readings for today help to reinforce the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd in such a way that provides reassurance in times of doubt, suffering, or trouble.
Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Happy Easter! Alleluia, Christ is truly risen! We are now in the fourth week of celebrating Easter. In this season, we have been focusing on the joyfulness of Christ’s resurrection. For, while life is not all about joy, Christ’s resurrection is the greatest source of joy we could have. For our church this is so important that the celebration of Easter lasts longer than the penitential season of Lent.
Fourth Sunday of Easter
One of the most vexing questions that I have been asked in the last two weeks has been about the killing of Osama bin Laden. Clearly, there are people who are celebrating this killing and call his death the victory of Good over Evil. They think that justice has been finally been done. Some even carried out wild celebrations at ground zero in New York. The images of these celebrations will be added to other iconic images of our nation such as the landing on the moon and the eventual destruction of the World Trade Centres. And then there are people who feel clearly uncomfortable about such revelry. They are relieved that Bin Laden is no more, but quickly add that celebrating the killing of any person, including a known enemy, is offensive. The Catholic official voice was perhaps lost in the midst of all the political and patriotic claims. I will come to that in a little bit.