Second Week

2nd Week of Easter, Friday (2)

by

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)

by

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)

by

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.

2nd Week of Easter, Tuesday

by

In today’s First Reading we see the first Christian community united in mind and heart and demonstrating a charity that puts the needs of others first. Even today the Church strives to perform corporal and spiritual works of mercy in many ways: charitable institutions, healthcare, education, counseling, prayer, and so on. While we don’t do it in exactly the same way today (with the exception of certain forms of consecrated life and apostolic life that do pool their resources and make a vow of poverty) it does remind us of the principle behind our giving: making sure everyone gets what they really need.

If we measure up our Church life to that of the first Christians, we realize that unity of mind and heart goes beyond a small donation in the collection basket every Sunday. There are many needs inside and outside the Church today, and addressing those needs is much more complex than in the days of the first Christians. This shouldn’t discourage us; rather, it should inspire us to seek the best ways to truly address the real needs of as many people as we can. It begins at home caring for our own family, but it also extends to finding ways to effectively help the poor and afflicted get back on their feet, not just subsist from one handout to another. This requires a combined effort, which is why the practice of real charity in these cases is the best way to unite the hearts and minds of believers behind a common cause: the cause of the Gospel translated into kindness and concern.

Let’s thank Our Lord for all those people in our life who have helped address our needs, and let’s resolve to help others to identify and address their true needs as well.

Readings: Acts 4:32–37; Psalm 93:1–2, 5; John 3:7b–15. See also Second Week of Easter,Tuesday

2nd Week of Lent, Saturday

by

Today’s Gospel is one of the most poignant parables about not only God’s mercy, but the mercy we should show toward sinners as well. Our Lord’s listeners are those who want to condemn sinners, much like the Prodigal Son’s older brother in today’s parable. Our Lord invites them, and us, through the parable to really reflect on whether those things sinners do to us and God are enough to want them to be forever condemned. The short answer is that it is not about what they deserve, but the potentially dire consequences of their actions.

The prodigal son sins against his father; he wants his inheritance even before his father dies, and then shows right away that he wants nothing further to do with him. He tries to liquidate the relationship so that he can face life on his own and enjoy it as he wishes. That desire leads him far from his father not only physically, but spiritually as well. As far as he’s concerned his father is dead in his eyes, past history. Sinners walk the same path; they see the Father, who has lavished so many gifts on them, as cramping their lifestyle. They want the blessings, but they don’t want the obligations and they don’t want anything to do with the source of those blessings. We describe sinners as far from God, but this really means that they try to keep him at a distance, not that he doesn’t want to be close to them.

When things get tough for the prodigal son, and he sees what a cold an uncaring world it is without love, in his own limited way he realizes how stupid he has been. You can’t liquidate a relationship with someone who gave you life itself and a start in the world. He works out in his mind how he expects to be treated, and decides that even if his father treats him like an employee rather than a son he’d be better off. He knows deep down that he must acknowledge his sin to draw close to his father again. The sinner has to be sorry for what he’s done, and this sorrow has to go from just regretting what a mess he’s made of life to being sorry for how he has treated a Father who has loved him unconditionally ever since he dreamed of him in eternity, created him in history, and blessed him throughout his life.

The father keeps an eye on the horizon hoping his son will return. He leaps into action when he sees his son coming. Our Father does the same thing when we are sorry for our sins; he closes that gap we’ve introduced between us and him and is eager to embrace us again. How often we convince ourselves that he’ll treat us like the older brother, considering us brats and ungrateful selfish children who need to be taught a lesson for all we’ve has done? The father himself responds to that attitude when the older brother shows it: “everything I have is yours.” The older brother could have asked for whatever he wished, and the father would have granted it; instead he trapped himself in an outlook on the father that simply reflected his own: resentful, exacting, and merciless. The father tells us the true reason to rejoice when a sinner repents: someone we love returns from death to life.

Lent is a time to ponder the hardness in our hearts regarding those who have wronged us or wronged others and ask ourselves whether we want mercy for them or eternal condemnation. Our Lord teaches us today that mercy toward them is where our hearts should be. Whether they are sorry for their sins or not, we should want mercy for them and pray that they repent and seek it. If, instead of being the older brother, we’re the prodigal son it’s time to come home. The Father awaits us with open arms.

Readings: Micah 7:14–15, 18–20; Psalm 103:1–4, 9–12; Luke 15:1–3, 11–32. See also 31st Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday.