Fifth Sunday of Easter_B - Simple Abundance_050221

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Simple Abundance” 

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year B

In the gospel we hear the story of the “Vine and the Branches” that, not surprisingly, contains a message quite suited for us today. That message is this: if we live our lives trying to discern God’s Will for us and see ourselves connected with and dependent upon one another, a life of simple abundance awaits us. Not an abundance entirely of the material “stuff” this age of consumerism has spawned upon us, but rather, an abundance of those necessities that matter most for our overall “well-being”: mental, physical, spiritual, emotional and yes, even some of the material blessings that surround us!

We begin our journey to pursue the rich abundance the gospel speaks of in earnest when we realize that it is lacking in our lives. Simple abundance is a matter of choosing to live well-balanced lives that contribute and enhance the “well-being” of others. It is what Jesus taught His disciples to do when He said they must put others first and be the servants of all. This is the hardest challenge Christians face and, make no mistake about it, it is in actuality a… “dying to self”.

For most of us this doesn’t describe the current state of our spiritual journey. John’s gospel today reminds us that God calls us to “bear much fruit”, but we settle for so much less. Think about it!!! Would our God, who through Christ promised to raise us from the dead and share eternal life with us not also want us to experience some simple joy and happiness during this life that has more than its share of sadness and sorrows? I am sure that God wants us to share in the blessings this world has to offer, but we often settle for the glitter and trinkets, far lesser “stuff” while foregoing the spiritual riches we should be the focus of our lives.

God has truly set a banquet before us. It starts in this life and comes to completion, perfection in the next. We know that we can do nothing without Him, nor should we want to. For God desires to be a part of our life’s journey so He can fill us with His joy and peace, fruits that matter. And, He waits for us until that day comes when He, the harvest master, gathers to Himself the rich harvest of the fruit of our lives.

May our harvest be abundant and may the harvest master welcome us into His kingdom as His good and faithful servants at the end of the harvest.


Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom

Fourth Sunday of Easter_B - Wait, There's More_042521

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Wait, there’s more?”

 

Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year B

If you watch any television at all, you are probably familiar with those nagging commercials that bark the mantra… “Wait, there’s more”! The announcer then chimes in, “If you call now, we will double your order…That’s right, there’s more”! I’m sure they must sell a lot of their gadgets; otherwise, they wouldn’t be spending all that money on advertising. One technique that makes them so successful, I suspect, is that they are savvy marketer appealing to the consumer’s appetite for getting something for nothing… that is, “for free”. It seems that St. John had a touch of that Madison Avenue mindset too by the approach he takes in today’s Second Reading. John is promoting “God’s love for us”. He tells us that God’s love enables us to think of ourselves, “as children of God. But wait, he seems to say, not only are we children of God now, but wait, there’s even more…. “What we shall be has not yet been revealed”…..but when it is, “we shall be like him”.

Over and over again in John’s writings we discover this theme of God’s love for us and that God’s love transforms our very being, our very essence, our very identity. As John says today, we are God’s children now! And what we shall become later on, although not known now, is even greater in that “we shall be like him”. God continues to mold us into His likeness.

As I read this passage I recalled being in Amsterdam at the Rembrandt Museum. On exhibit were many of his paintings along with some self-portraits. This passage from John is beautiful imagery that expresses God, the master artisan, doing a self-portrait on the canvas that is our lives. We are made in God’s image and likeness and God, who John tell us “is” love, is always bringing out the best in us so that we reflect the Divine Love that is His gift to us.

If we could just begin to understand the gift of love we have been given, we would realize that it is something that we cannot keep to ourselves. We are God’s self-portrait. We are images, reflections of the artist. We cannot hoard or squander the outpouring of the divine essence we have been given; we can only reflect that love to those in need... the lonely, the brokenhearted, the fearful, the forgotten. God’s very presence is with us, forming and shaping our world and filling it today with His love. And that is sufficient reason for us to be grateful today and to give thanks to God… But wait…. there’s more to come……!!!

May the Risen Lord continue to bless us with His peace and Joy so that we may enjoy the many blessings that He freely bestows upon us.


Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom

Third Sunday of Easter_B - We are Witnesses Too!_041821

Deacon Tom Writes,

We Are Witnesses Too!  

Third Sunday of Easter, Year B

Today’s readings remind us how incredulous the resurrection is to the logical mind. That’s perhaps why both the first reading and the gospel mention that there were eyewitnesses to Christ’s death and resurrection. There were people who saw Jesus die a horrific death on Friday and then saw Him in the flesh walking along the shores of Galilee and with His disciples on the road to Emmaus soon afterward. So alive, in fact, that in the gospel today Jesus is asking His disciples, “Have you anything here to eat?” 

Hearing the personal narratives of eyewitnesses to history is powerful. Recall some of the stories you may have heard first hand from people who landed on the beaches of Normandy or were at or near the World Trade Center on September 11th. So many perspectives, so many details, that when we encounter people with rich experiences we tend to capture these memories and save them for future generations. 

Our readings today do just that. For 2000 years believers have benefited from hearing the story of Christ’s death and resurrection directly from eyewitness accounts detailed in the scriptures. Does the eyewitness testimony we read in the gospels carry the same weight for us today as it did for those first believers? No matter how strong our faith, we tend to have a little Thomas within us; we tend to believe and yet there remains some doubt echoing in our mind. Who wouldn’t like a little sign from above; who wouldn’t like as sign from above, an answer to a heartfelt prayer that brings about reconciliation to a bad relationship or perhaps a healing to a chronic illness for a loved one or just a moment of peace in the troubled waters of our lives. In different ways we carry that same doubt that Thomas experienced when he made it known to Jesus’ other hand picked disciples, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nail marks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe”. After all, “Seeing is believing” as the saying goes, and wouldn’t we all like to see, that is, to comprehend this mystery for ourselves!!!

We all face this struggle. If we are honest with ourselves, we all struggle with real belief in the mysteries of our faith. St. Paul tried to teach the Corinthians that the real nature of our faith is summed up by the statement, “We walk by faith, not by sight”. 

While we today have no personal eyewitness experience of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are witnesses to the death and resurrection He brings about in us, the death to self, and His raising us to new life in every difficulty and struggle we face over the course of our lives. These trials and triumphs represent our eyewitness testimonies, those stories of our living faith and how Christ has remained present to us and has continued working in our lives. These are the eyewitness accounts that we bequeath to the generations to come. All who embrace the faith continue to believe in what our faith professes now as it has over these past 2000 years: Christ has died! Christ is Risen! And they believe Christ will do the same for them..”  

Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom 

Previous reflections can be found online at: www.deacontomwrites.com

Image Credit: cliftondiocese.com_Braking of the Bread

Second Sunday of Easter - Divine Mercy Sunday_B - In The Beginning_041121

Deacon Tom Writes,

“In The Beginning”

Second Sunday of Easter - Divine Mercy Sunday, Year B

The Acts of the Apostles chronicles the early days of the church as it came to understand its purpose and mission. It describes individuals coming together and struggling to understand the profound mystery they had recently witnessed. Today’s first reading from the forth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles says that, “…the community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common”. It appears that the death and resurrection of Christ touched their lives profoundly and so they made a conscious choice to live their lives according to the spirit of Jesus’ teaching… and to care for one another… “so that there was no needy person among them”.

What’s happened over the centuries? Has the mandate Jesus gave us to “love one another” changed? Has it been enhanced or modified or made conditional so that we…love others only IF they love us in return, or IF they hold the same ideological position as we do, or IF they are the same color, ethnicity, or culture as us! God forbid that we define “neighbor” as used in the Golden Rule as only those who are just like us. Jesus had a much wider interpretation in mind as to who is our neighbor.  

It seems that on the most basis level we fail to understand that Jesus loves the victim, no matter what side of the fence they are on. The Risen Jesus is not concerned about nationalism, borders...ethnicity, etc. He is with the suffering of every race and creed. He is an outcast with all those who are disenfranchised; He mourns with all the broken hearted no matter the color of their skin…He is shunned along with all those people we run and hide from...that we are afraid of…that we can't look in the eye, perhaps because we helped contribute to the way they are. Christ suffers want, rejection, isolation, poverty and humiliation with all who experience those pitiful states of existence.

We hear the rhetoric: we can’t afford to pay for everyone to have health insurance… or let them work like the rest of us and become "self-made men" - whatever that means - or send them home where they belong! And so Jesus wanders the streets today, sick and uncared for. He sits in an ICE detention center waiting to be sent back "home". He’s chronically unemployed, under educated, invisible, losing hope, forgotten, a victim of hate crimes, discrimination, exploitation. He is despised and rejected to this day.

Didn’t Jesus have something to say about these things? How we have twisted and distorted His words to make them to our liking? I guess the Romans weren't as brutal as history or we might judge them to be. Sure they beat Jesus...They tortured him…They made him drag the instrument of his death across town...They nailed His hands and His feet to the cross so He couldn't move. And, they even stuck a lance in His side to make sure He was dead. BUT, they never silenced Him! No, they never did shut Him up! We do that !!!..We silence Jesus when we choose to ignore what He taught us…about love, about being servants, about what it will cost to follow His lead.

In these joy filled days following His Resurrection, let us pray to be filled with the Spirit of Christ so we may follow His example and His teachings as those early followers of his did in the beginning, when all the community “was of one heart and mind".



Enjoy the day and the Blessing that is now!
Deacon Tom

Image Credit:123RF.com Hands in a heart #17810429

Easter Sunday The Resurrection of the Lord_B - The Mass o Easter Day - Rise and Shine_040421

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Rise and Shine”

Easter Sunday - The Resurrection of the Lord - The Mass of Easter Day, Year B

One of my lingering childhood memories is that of my mother calling from the bottom of the stairs, “Tommy Joe, rise and shine! It’s time to get ready for school.” It’s a pleasant memory. To this day there are times when I can still hear those words echo in my mind, especially on those rainy days when I just want to roll over and go back to sleep…. and then, softly in the back of my head, I hear these words, “Tommy Joe, rise and shine! It’s time to get ready…”.

As people who profess Christ’s Resurrection as central to our faith and lives, we realize that we who have been baptized in Christ also share in His death and that we, like Him, will one day also rise, as He did, to eternal life. There will come a day when we all will “rise and shine” forever. There will come a day when we will possess the fullness of life that Christ has promised to all who believe in Him and follow His ways.

Yet, I do not think that the promise of rising to new life is one that is entirely reserved for the next life. We are meant to “rise and shine” today because we participate in the Mystical Body of Christ. We “rise and shine” today because God has chosen us to be the stewards of all of creation and, if we are truly His disciples, we have said “yes” to that call. We “rise and shine” today because we have committed ourselves to follow “the firstborn from the dead” in the way of peace, in the way of humility, in the way of self-denial, in the way of choosing to follow in His footsteps.

We “rise and shine” every time we chose to imitate Christ by forgiving others who hurt us; when we offer up our sufferings to be a part of His suffering; when we embrace others’ sorrows as if they were our own; when we persevere to the end as He did.

On this most wonderful day, may we, like Christ, awaken to God’s call to “rise and shine.”

Happy and Blessed Easter to you and your loved ones!
Deacon Tom