Month: May 2015

5th Week of Easter, Wednesday

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grapevine

Our Lord reminds us in today’s Gospel that the Christian life, like a cultivated vine, depends on the trunk in order to grow and develop instead of withering on the vine. Part of this involves imitating Christ and following his teachings: he reminds us today of the need to have his word remain in us, but also the need for us to remain in him and he in us, a constant flow of divine life. The cultivated vine in today’s Gospel represents the communion of life with God that we must maintain in love. When we stop loving God and loving others this vital flow is cut off, and if everything at first seems the same, soon enough our life starts to wither.

A sacramental life is what fuels a Christian life. Through the sacraments we establish, maintain, and, when necessary, restore this vital communion with God. We’re more fortunate than plants: sometimes they are beyond a little water in order to perk back up. It’s never too late to return to a sacramental life. It’s true that someone cut off from Christ in this way for an extended period of time has a long road ahead to make amends and overcome the vices that can become very entrenched when practiced for a long time, but the vital flow is restored: through our love we reconnect to God’s love, in faith we know the vital flow of grace is opened again to us, and in hope we know that as long as we keep striving to change and remain in Christ we will succeed with his help.

Let’s take a moment and examine our sacramental life today. Are we going to the Eucharist at least every Sunday and Holy Day Obligation? Are we going to Confession when our conscience tells us something is wrong? It’s never too late to reconnect with God through the sacraments as the best way to help us grow as Christians.

Readings: Acts 15:1–6; Psalm 122:1–5; John 15:4a, 5b; John 15:1–8. For another reflection on today’s Gospel, see 5th Sunday of Easter, Cycle B.

5th Week of Easter, Tuesday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord promises to give us peace, but not as the world gives it. Peace as the world understands it can mean so many things: financial security, quality time with family and friends, good health, a lack of worries, domestic tranquility (either as a family or as a nation), a sense of fulfillment in your career, etc. The difference between these kinds of peace and the peace Jesus offers us is that all these things, even if they might last a long time, won’t last forever. Easter time is a time for thinking of eternal life and eternal peace. The peace we experience in this life is often just a glimpse of the true peace that is to come.

The peace Jesus promises today is not just a future peace: Paul in the First Reading was attacked and left for dead, and if a movie was written about such drama today, it’d probably show Paul in the aftermath as traumatized, disillusioned, bitter, or seeking revenge. The First Reading shows something different: Paul gets up, moves on, and keeps working and encouraging others. That is the peace of soul we as Christians strive for: it continues to fill us even when we are persecuted, sick, poor, or reviled. It’s a peace that is willing to sacrifice everything to show that God loves us and has a purpose for us, therefore all the trials and tribulations of this life in the end will seem like so many small inconveniences that are forgotten in the light of the more fulfilling and meaningful things of life that follow.

If we are facing trials today: poverty, illness, a difficult family situation, persecution for being a good person or being Christian, let’s ask Our Lord to help us draw from the deeper well of his peace not only to help us keep moving forward, but to be a source of true peace in others’ lives as well.

Readings: Acts 14:19–28; Psalm 145:10–13b, 21; John 14:27–31a.

5th Week of Easter, Monday

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In today’s Gospel Our Lord promises that he and the Father will come and dwell in those who love them, and that the Father would send the Holy Spirit to remind us about Jesus and teach us. In a mysterious way on the day of our Baptism the Most Holy Trinity came to dwell within us and be with us always and help us. John describes this as being on the condition of our love: the Trinity only leaves our hearts if we radically deny God’s love: by committing a serious sin. Even with our other sins and failings we can be an inconsiderate host to God, which is why we always strive for spiritual perfection.

God is not an inconsiderate guest either. He reveals himself in our heart, as Jesus teaches us today, which is why the world doe not see it. The Holy Spirit reminds us of all the wonders God has done for us and teaches us interiorly in a way that we can understand, sometimes in words and sentiments that’d be hard for us to share with others. Our Heavenly Father sets all this into motion by sending his Son and then his Holy Spirit.

Let’s make an effort today to speak with Our Lord today not as if he is just up in Heaven, but also in our hearts. And if we’ve been a bad host to our guest, let’s not be afraid to treat him with the considerateness he deserves, or, if we’ve kicked him out through our sins, to turn to his mercy in order to invite him back.

Readings: Acts 14:5–18; Psalm 115:1–4, 15–16; John 14:21–26.

 

Fifth Sunday of Easter

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When you look at a wall covered in ivy it’s hard to see the vines and roots underneath and know where each vine in the vast mesh of foliage starts and where it ends. If you see a brown patch, with the leaves dried and curled up, you know somewhere the connection was severed and the vital sap was cut off to all the vines that had spread from it. In our vital communion with Christ, if we cut ourselves off from him we know that our life will start to wither, and the lives of others as well. The Second Reading encourages us today that if we believe in Our Lord and love one another as he has taught us we’ll stay connected.

In today’s Gospel Jesus describes the vital communion that we share with him using the image of a cultivated vine. Christian life is not just like an ivy, where the source is not easily seen, the growth just seems to spread everywhere, almost parasitically, the contribution is not much more than just a weed covering a wall and beautifying it superficially, and the individuals are lost in the green. Like a grapevine the source is seen (the trunk), fruit is expected (grapes), work is needed so that it bears fruit more abundantly (pruning), and the vines, winding and spreading, have an individuality that is all their own.

A Christian life always shows that it is rooted in Christ. It is measured by the fruits of faith, confidence, and love that John speaks of in today’s Second Reading. An in order to achieve abundant and fruitful growth it involves the cultivation of virtue and pruning (self-mastery and sacrifice). At the same time it doesn’t lose something of the wild: a Christian life doesn’t annihilate the personality of the Christian living it, but, rather, helps him or her to grow more fruitfully in a wonderful symbiosis with God. Let’s ask Our Lord today how we can show the world a need for him, and how we can abide in him not only for life, but to bear much fruit.

Readings: Acts 9:26–31; Psalm 22:26–28, 30–32; 1 John 3:18–24; John 15:1–8.

4th Week of Easter, Saturday

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Our Lord promises the disciples in today’s Gospel that whatever they ask for in his name, he will do. We ask Our Lord for many things in prayer, and sometimes its seem that he does not answer. Some people have turned away from him because they asked for something they thought was very important in a crucial moment and it was not granted, including something noble, like a loved one’s healing, freedom from persecution, the ability to provide for your family.

In this same promise in today’s Gospel we can find an answer to why, at times, Our Lord doesn’t give us what we want in prayer in the way that we want it: “so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” When we ask Our Lord for something in prayer, is the asking itself, or having our prayer answered something that would really give glory to God? Would it help his Kingdom to come, his will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, as he teaches us in his prayer? Sometimes we can ask for selfish things, even short-sighted things, in the light of God’s saving plan, but Jesus himself in Gethsemane knew to only ask Our Heavenly Father to take away the chalice of his sufferings if it were possible, and united himself to his Father’s will. We always have to imitate his example.

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pray for what we want and for what we need, but we should also join our wishes in prayer with the desire to glorify God and to do his will. Then we are working together with him to help his Kingdom come and his will to be done. Sometimes we’ll pray for big things and they won’t turn out as we’d like, but like the mystery of the Cross that Jesus himself endured, sometimes bearing our crosses with faith, hope, and love, give glory to God in a way that doesn’t seem so obvious, or in a way that will be revealed in the passing of time. Let’s continue to pray for what we need, and to also to seek to glorify God in everything that we do.

Readings: Acts 13:44–52; Psalm 98:1–4; John 14:7–14.