Month: May 2015

6th Week of Easter, Monday

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Our Lord warned the disciples, just as he warns us, in today’s Gospel that persecution for being his witness and disciple is part of being Christian. A common belief in modern society is that the two things you don’t bring up in polite conversation are religion and politics. Even today Christians are being put to death, supposedly in the name of God, by radical religious extremists, but Our Lord is clear today that those people have no idea of who God truly is. He reminds the disciples, as he reminds us, that we must testify to him. That means going out into society, into the public square, to speak the truth that he gives us in the Gospel not just for the good of Christianity, but for all of society.

In some cultures today being Christian warrants death, while in others, the death of your reputation. Christians are branded as intolerant, and some of their teachings as hate crimes and offensive, because they question the true good of certain lifestyle and moral choices and suggest a better way. Ideologues want to relegate religious expression of any kind to the private sphere: no public displays of religion, no influence of religion on state or politics. But it’s very hard to be a-religious, because man is meant for God, and it is natural for him to give expression to that need through religion. In the end attempts to be a-religious simply make a religion out of something else–the State, an ideology, individual liberty to the exclusion of anyone else’s, etc. They lash out at anything that would question who God truly is, but as Jesus says today, “They will do this because they have not known either the Father or me.” How will they find out if we do not tell them?

Let’s pray today for persecuted Christians, and also for the strength to not be bullied into leaving our faith in the privacy of our own home, out of the conviction that the Gospel is not just good for us, but good for society.

Readings: Acts 16:11–15; Psalm 149:1b–6a, 9b; John 15:26–16:4a.

Sixth Sunday of Easter

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Over the last few weeks of Easter readings we’ve seen the Church gradually understand that the Gospel was meant to go beyond the confines of Judaism to other cultures and, ultimately, to every culture, including Cornelius. In today’s First Reading we see one of the culminating moments in the early Church: the Holy Spirit helping the first disciples to take the Gospel everywhere.

With this reading we see a glimpse of what we’ll celebrate in two weeks on Pentecost Sunday: God the Holy Spirit gives life and growth to the Church, often unperceived except with the eyes of faith, and even then in subtle ways. The Holy Spirit also helps the bishops, the successors of the Apostles, to bring souls to the Church and to baptism in Jesus’ name, because God’s action, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, always leads to unity.

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us over the last two weeks of this Easter season to take our Christian living to new frontiers in God’s service and sharing the Gospel.

Readings: Acts 10:25–26, 34–35, 44–48; Psalm 98:1–4; 1 John 4:7–10; John 15:9–17.

5th Week of Easter, Saturday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord reminds us that Christianity is not a popularity contest, and that comes down all the way from the top: after he’d spent three years preaching, travelling, healing, and working miracles, he was accused, abandoned, unjustly tried, and executed. When John speaks of “the world” in his writings he refers to all the forces that are opposed to Jesus and his saving work: persons, cultures, temptations, circumstances, and situations. Just as God is love and seeks to spread his love out of pure goodness, a sad response on the part of some of his creatures is, almost like a photo negative to the positive of his love, hate. They’re not on equal footing: God’s love will triumph, the only question is whether we let it triumph in us or stay out in the cold.

The shadow of the cross is always present in Christian life: the world wants to nail us up there as a lesson and as a statement as to what it thinks about God and his love. The Christian, following the example of Our Lord, must humbly and lovingly ask the Father to forgive these people, for they know not what they do. Love is ultimately the best response to the hate and scorn of the world, the true love as taught to us by God in His Son: it means truly always having the good of the other in mind, and a willingness to go even up onto the cross for them. Many times that love has to be tough love: giving testimony to an unpopular truth about marriage, family, morality, and so many issues touching the core of human existence. We cannot shy away from that if we truly love those involved.

Let’s examine the comfort level of our Christianity today: is there something in my way of thinking, speaking, and acting that rubs “the world” the wrong way? Does my concern about what others will think or say keep me from sharing the truth in love about the things that really matter? Ask Our Lord for the strength to love and endure whatever misguided response “the world” might have in store and to never be a “worldly” Christian.

Readings: Acts 16:1–10; Psalm 100:1b–3, 5; John 15:18–21.

5th Week of Easter, Friday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord commands us to love one another. Pope Benedict XVI in his encyclical Deus Caritas Est asked how it was possible that love could be commanded (n.14). Love is one of the freest acts the human person can perform: someone can be very ingratiating to us, but love always requires that moment where we give our “yes,”that inner movement of our heart and will that seeks the good of the beloved because he or she is beloved. The Holy Father’s answer to the question was simple: “Love can be ‘commanded’ because it has first been given.”

Jesus reminds us today that love for him is connected with love for others. We can’t claim either love if we deny one of them. This is the calling card of every sincere Christian. We have been loved by God, who loves each and every person, past, present, and future, sinner or saint, to the point of dying for them on the Cross. If he is willing to go the distance for every soul, it shouldn’t be hard for us to see the need to show our love for him by trying to love others.

If there’s anyone today you consider “off-limits” to your love, either because they’ve hurt you or because you can’t see a way to love them, contemplate Our Lord on the Cross and ask him to help you see the path to loving that person. If you don’t do it for yourself at first, do it for him.

Readings: Acts 15:22–31; Psalm 57:8–10, 12; John 15:12–17.

 

5th Week of Easter, Thursday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord reminds us that there is a difference between love and obligation, but that both love and obligation support each other when one or the other comes under fire. Jesus teaches that we remain in his love by keeping his commandments, just as he’s kept his Father’s commandments. If a parent or a spouse commands you to do something, something that may be difficult for you, love is often the reason in the end that you do it. And in a society where family life comes under fire and is not supported as it should be, and marriages face trials daily not just for difficulties between the spouses themselves, sometimes in a moment when you’re thinking of giving up it is remembering the obligation of marriage that your love led you to freely take upon yourself in a brighter moment that keeps you going forward.

Obligation helps us remember that love is not just feeling good. Any parent who gets up at 3:00 AM to change their infants diapers knows that, or a son or daughter who cares for an elderly and ailing parent. Reminding yourself of your obligations is something that you can hold onto in order to regain your footing in a tough moment. We also know that love goes beyond just obligation or it can become pretty miserable. That’s why we must always remind ourselves that we fulfill our obligations out of love. Some of them have their origin in love–marriage, childhood, consecrated life, ordination–but they’re all a response to a love we have received due to no merits of our own. That’s especially true in fulfilling the commandments of God: we obey God as Our Lord, Our Heavenly Father, out of love and gratitude for all the love he has lavished upon us.

Let’s freshen up our love toward God and neighbor today by remembering all the love we’ve received, and fulfilling lovingly our duties and obligations toward God and others.

Readings: Acts 15:7–21; Psalm 96:1–3, 10; John 15:9–11.