This
weekend’s liturgy is quite unique. Most dioceses in the U.S. have transferred
the Feast of the Ascension to this weekend. Other dioceses, mostly in Northeast
will celebrate the Liturgy for the Seventh Sunday of Easter, having celebrated
Ascension Thursday several days ago. To accommodate readers in both areas, I
have prepared a reflection on the readings for each of these liturgies
beginning with the Ascension of the Lord followed by one for the Seventh Sunday
of Easter.
Deacon Tom Writes
Imitation
It’s
hard to believe that three months ago we were beginning the Lent. Now, as the
Easter season draws to a close, this may be a good time to reflect on where our
spiritual journey has taken us.
Were
we able to hear God’s voice in the midst of our trials and struggles we
encountered on our journey through the day-to-day events of our lives? Were we
able to gain a new insight about God’s incredible love for us during this
Easter Season; perhaps we have a better sense of what he is calling us to do as
we emerge into Ordinary Tine. How successful were we in changing some of those
habits and behaviors we needed to change about ourselves - our judging and
criticizing others, our negative thinking, our inertia for self- reflection and
sense of superiority, and our gossip?
Three
months is not a long time when you think about it, especially if we are trying
to measure such things as spiritual growth…. It just not a lot of time.
I
suspect that three years isn’t a lot of time either, to make much progress in
the spiritual realm. And yet, that’s, at most, all the time that the apostles’
had to grasp Jesus’ new way of thinking and His new emphasis on of loving,
forgiving, and serving one another, friend and foe alike. The disciples really
were, when you think about it, on the fast track. Once Jesus was gone, that was
it. It was all up to them to spread Jesus’ teachings throughout the world.
Imagine
if today we were the ones who were responsible for preaching repentance and the forgiveness of sins
in Jesus’ name. Where would we begin? How would we do that?
Well,
guess what? You and I, yes, we are the ones upon whom the responsibility of
preaching forgiveness and repentance falls. And the best way to approach this
task is by example.
We
all have experienced deep hurts and sorrows in our lives caused by others. How
have we handled them? Do we hold grudges? Do we retaliate? Do we seek revenge?
Do we follow the ways of the world and “Don’t get mad... get even”? That’s not
the way Jesus teaches us how to handle the suffering others bring into our
lives. Forgive... “Not seven times but
seventy-seven times” (Mt 18:22).
Imitation is the best method to spread the faith.
My brothers and sisters, there is a saying that
goes, “Faith isn’t taught, it’s caught.”
Jesus’ work of salvation has been accomplished. What remains is our
participation in that work that calls us to spread the Good News, to be living
witnesses of the faith that we profess, to do as St. Francis was fond of
telling his followers…. “Go out and
preach the gospel, and when necessary, use words.” May our example in forgiving others for
the wrongs they have done to us be a powerful sign that the teachings of Jesus
have taken root in our hearts and lives.
Image Credit: Ascension of Christ Mural –
NYC.jpeg
Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom
Deacon Tom Writes,
“We Are All In This Together!”
The
words of today’s gospel challenge anyone attempting to live as disciples of
Christ amid the disunity that troubles our world. Jesus finishes the last
Passover meal he was to share with his friends before heading across the Kidron
Valley to the Garden of Gethsemane. His final words spoke of his burning desire
that “they may all be one”. Jesus calls us to share the same unity with
one another and with him as he has with the Father so that we may know, “…that the love with which you loved me may
be in them and I in them”. Recall that when Jesus spoke these words he too
was in the midst of a fractured world… Roman occupation, tension between the
Jews and the Gentiles, slaves and free, rich and poor, religious leaders and
the people they were supposed to shepherd. Unity was far from the reality.
Yet,
Jesus calls his followers to a different worldview… one of unity. Jesus’ last words emphasize that we
live in God’s love just as Jesus lives in Father’s love. The Son of God calls us
to a mutual love, loving him as he loves us. It is an invitation into this
mutual love, a love that leads us into union with the Divine Godhead, the
Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier – the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
With
even the slightest awareness of this reality, we begin to see ourselves as one
with God, united to him as children to their father. We all should be working
as one big family seeking to remove all the barriers that divide us, that
separate us from the love of God and each other. And so, as people so
intimately united with one another through our mutual, loving relationship with
God, we are called to surmount all the barriers to God’s love, the barriers of
hatred and discrimination, the barriers of poverty and ignorance, the barriers
that has one group thinking they are superior to another group. And,
furthermore, we are called to shun all the voices calling us to disunity,
factions, division. All these barriers attack the central reality of our faith
– that we are made in the image and likeness of God and that we possess a
dignity of person because of God’s love and indwelling in us.
God
loves all his children, without exception and he calls us to be like him in
this regard. Let our lives be spent living
Jesus’ farewell prayer to his disciples by seeking to be one with him and with
each other by reconciling our differences, by being moved with compassion in
the face of suffering, bigotry, violence, and ignorance. In the face of the
rampant divisiveness we witness today, do we dare pray with Jesus, “Holy Father… may all be one, as you, Father,
are in me and I in you”. May
the Almighty Father hear our prayers and give us the grace and courage to
overcome our fears so we may live as true disciples of the Lord who prayed that
“we all may be one”.
Enjoy
the day!
Deacon
Tom
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