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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.

4th Week of Easter, Friday

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Readings: Acts 13:26–33; Psalm 2:6–11b; John 14:1–6.

In today’s Gospel Our Lord describes Heaven not just as his home, but as a place for us to call home as well. Thinking of home evokes so many warm sentiments–rest, security, peace–and it also invokes the memory of the people there waiting to be with us. Many people today live a difficult situation at home, if they have a home at all, but they all dream of that peaceful place where they can be together with their loved ones forever. A simple family dinner, where everyone sets aside work, school, etc., to spend time together becomes a glimpse of Heaven as each rests with the other and there are no worries that can dampen the evening.

Our Lord has prepared a place for each of us with Our Father in Heaven. How often do we dream of that? How often do we dream of the day in which life’s journey, with all the fatigue and trial, will be over and we’ll finally and permanently be home with the ones we love? How often do we see the need to remind others of our true home as well so that one day we’ll all be there together?

Let’s ask Our Lord today to help us always keep our true home in mind. If we know he’s shown us the way, no burden or obstacle of this life will rob us of our hope in getting there.

4th Week of Easter, Thursday

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Readings: Acts 13:13–25; Psalm 89:2–3, 21–22, 25, 27; John 13:16–20.

In today’s First Reading Paul is winding up to pitch to the Jews listening to him in the synagogue that Our Lord is the fulfillment of all the promises and events that came before him: tradition means handing on something, and Jesus brings that tradition to fullness and asks us to hand on his message to the generations that follow us.

In the Gospel he describes the role of the disciples: servants and messengers. The original Greek for the word “messenger” in today’s Gospel is the same root word as apostle: an apostle, whether we’re talking about the Twelve or any Christian, is someone who is sent, someone who bears a message. As apostles we bear the message of Our Lord, just as he had brought it from Our Heavenly Father. It is not only the message that matters; how we deliver it also affects how it is received. That’s why our service as bearers of Christ’s message must by characterized by humility and a desire to serve the recipient of the message. In today’s Gospel Jesus has just finished washing the disciples’ feet, a menial service. As his disciples we too should not be afraid to do things we consider menial in order to transmit the message Our Lord has entrusted to us; sometimes that gives greater witness to Christ than anything we could say.

Let’s make an effort today to serve others with humility out of love for Our Lord and a desire to transmit his message in the best way possible: through our charity.