Month: April 2016

3rd Sunday of Easter, Cycle C

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The Lamb in today’s Second Reading, surrounded by everyone and everything falling down in worship before him, is the same person who makes breakfast for the disciples in today’s Gospel after a long night fishing. Do we let that sink in? Peter and the disciples did, which is why in today’s First Reading they were happy to have suffered dishonor for the sake of Jesus. You cannot pigeonhole Our Lord in once place and role or he other: if you try to either just place Our Lord in Heaven or on the shore cooking breakfast, you cannot understand what motivates him. He doesn’t just want our adoration; actually, he deserves that and woe to us if we don’t give it to them. He wants our love. He doesn’t need our love, but he wants it.

We can all stand in Peter’s place in today’s Gospel. A burst of enthusiasm has us running toward the Lord, but also, after the initial emotion, in our hearts, he asks us, over and over, “Do you love me?” We have the same hesitation in responding as Peter; we know there are moments when we haven’t loved him and moments where we haven’t loved him as much as we should. They are moments where we wouldn’t have adored him in Heaven or stood up for him on earth, but he never stopped being there for us, and he never will.

Put yourself in Peter’s shoes today and respond to Our Lord’s questions from wherever you’re at regarding your relationship with him. Just like Peter, he will coax a greater love out of you if you let him.

Readings: Acts 5:27–32, 40b–41; Psalm 30:2, 4–6, 11–13; Revelation 5:11–14; John 21:1–19. See also 2nd Week of Easter, Thursday (2), 7th Week of Easter, Friday and Easter Friday.

2nd Week of Easter, Saturday (2)

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In today’s First Reading the Church is faced with wonderful problem: too much work and not enough people to do it. The Twelve see a pastoral need that they don’t have time to fulfill, so they ask that seven men full of Spirit and wisdom be chosen to help them in their ministry. In Luke’s Gospel we see, even in Jesus’s earthly ministry, the sending of the Seventy-Two to help the Twelve fulfill their mission. Now the men in today’s First Reading, known as the Seven, are also entrusted with a participation in the mission of the apostles and in tradition are believed to have been the first deacons.

The Church’s mission is not just for the clergy. Everyone is called to help according to their possibilities and state of life. As needs increase, each member of the Church must be dedicated to doing his or her part: bishops shepherding their dioceses, helped by priests and deacons, consecrated persons contributing according to their charism, and laity, ordering the world’s affairs in accordance with the Gospel and helping the Church in matters where they may have more expertise.

Let’s pray today that every member of the Church heads the call to spread the Gospel however and wherever the Lord has led them.

Readings: Acts 6:1–7; Psalm 33:1–2, 4–5, 18–19; John 6:16–21. See also 26th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday and 2nd Week of Easter, Saturday.

2nd Week of Easter, Friday (2)

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The lesson of today’s readings is simple: if God wants something to happen, we just have to do our part, big or small, and it will happen. A group of uneducated fisherman will teach the religious authorities of their time, preach the Gospel and expand the Church. Five loaves and two fish will feed thousands of people. Our efforts to be holy and share the Gospel will bear fruit.

If something doesn’t seem to be working out, today’s readings teach us to ask whether that’s because we’re working with God or working against him. Sometimes we have to let things play out a little in order to truly know. The Sanhedrin, at Gamaliel’s recommendation, freed the apostles with a light, albeit unjust, punishment and a warning. Within a few decades the Temple they were sitting in would be in ruins, they would be dispersed, but the Church would continue to grow.

Have you ever asked God what he wants you to do today? What he wants you to do with your life? If something seems off in the way you’re living your life, ask Our Lord to help you see the way forward.

Readings: Acts 5:34–42; Psalm 27:1, 4, 13–14; John 6:1–15. See also 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B and 2nd Week of Easter, Friday.

2nd Week of Easter, Thursday (2)

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Today’s Gospel warns that, for whomever disobeys the Son, “the wrath of God remains upon him.” Peter in today’s First Reading explains to the Sanhedrin that he must obey God, not them. They never believed in Our Lord, so when reports start coming in of what Peter and the other apostles are preaching they filter it, out of a lack of faith, and see the apostles as simply seeking to incriminate them for the injustice they’d done. They don’t want his blood on their hands, but it is already there. If they have to face the wrath of God it will be for their lack of faith in the Son.

The Sanhedrin is doing a partial reading of the message. The Lord was crucified due to their machinations, but they didn’t succeed: God raised him up and placed him at his right hand for Israel’s salvation. Even the Sanhedrin can receive this salvation if they believe in the Son and strive to obey him. It’s lost in history, but someday we’ll know whether any of those men did abandon their tragic and evil pattern of killing the messenger whose message reflects badly on them and turned to the Son.

However, it’s not too late for us. If we believe in the Son and obey him we can enjoy the fruits of a new life right here, right now, whether we’ve been committed Christians or enemies of Our Lord. Let’s accept his message and his messengers for what they are: guides to a renewed and spiritual rich life.

Readings: Acts 5:27–33; Psalm 34:2, 9, 17–20; John 3:31–36. See also 2nd Week of Easter, Thursday.

2nd Week of Easter, Wednesday (2)

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People who don’t agree with the truth or are afraid of being exposed by it try to lock it away or cover it up. The Sanhedrin in today’s First Reading tries in vain to lock up those now entrusted by Christ with spreading the truth. It’s a truth that profoundly impacts the way we see ourselves, God, and the world, and is poignantly summarized in today’s Gospel: “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” God has acted in our regard out of concern and love; Jesus didn’t come to condemn, but to save. The Father handed him over to us, and those who didn’t believe in him made a concerted effort to kill him, the truth, because he condemned what they were doing. They weren’t successful, just as the Sanhedrin wasn’t when the early Church started to also proclaim the truth.

Our Lord doesn’t just want to come into the world; he wants to come into our hearts and shed light on what we’d rather not see. Turning from him is turning from the truth. We all have that fear from time to time of being exposed for what we are–not as virtuous or holy as we could be or should be–yet Our Lord doesn’t come to expose us in order to condemn us; he comes to lead us back into the light, his light, the light of truth, and to save us from all the evil destructive things contained in the darkness of ignorance and falsehood. Advocates of keeping things in the dark, of doing evil, will try to lock us away too if we strive to live the truth and reflect it’s light, but like the first believers, Our Lord will watch over us as we try to live the life he’s shown us and teach it to others as well.

Ask Our Lord today to help see whether you’re jailed or the jailor. No matter which one you are, or both, he has come to set you free.

Readings: Acts 5:17–26; Psalm 34:2–9; John 3:16–21. See also 2nd Week of Easter,Wednesday.