Go, Make Disciples!

Deacon Tom Writes

Go, Make Disciples!

The Ascension of the Lord, Year A

(Note – Most Dioceses in the U.S. transfer the Feast of the Ascension from Thursday to the following Sunday. With that in mind, This Sunday’s reflection is on The Ascension of the Lord.)

It’s hard to believe that three months ago we were just getting ready for the beginning of Lent. Now, as the Easter season draws to a close we have some perspective to reflect on where our spiritual journey has taken us over that brief but spiritually significant time span.

           

Were we able to hear God’s voice in the midst of our Lenten journey through the desert? Or gain a new insight about God’s incredible love for us during this Easter Season? Perhaps we have a better sense now of what God is asking of us than we have when we started out. How successful were we in changing some of those habits and behaviors we needed to change about ourselves - our judging and criticizing attitudes, our negative thinking, our inertia for self- reflection, or our sense of superiority, and our propensity to put others down in order to fuel our own ego? Have we succeeded in elimination gossip from our lives?

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 a lot of progress in the spiritual realm. And yet, that’s, at most, all the time that the Apostles’ had to grasp Our Lord’s revolutionary way of thinking about loving, forgiving, and serving one another… friend and enemy alike. The Apostles 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 the Word throughout the world.

Imagine if you were the one who Jesus told to, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature”. What would you do? How would you begin?

Well, the strange thing is, this command Jesus gave His hand picked “go-to” guys was meant for you and I also? Yes, we who hear the Word of God today are chosen to carry the message in our times. Jesus is telling us to go into the world and proclaim the Good News to everyone we meet along the way.

In his Apostolic Exhortation on Evangelization in the Modern World[1], (or as they say in Rome, Evangelii Nuntiandi- December 8, 1975 – the feast of the Immaculate Conception),  Pope Paul VI wrote:

“Those who sincerely accept the Good News, through the power of this acceptance and of shared faith therefore gather together in Jesus' name in order to seek together the kingdom, build it up and live it. They make up a community which is in its turn evangelizing. The command to the Twelve to go out and proclaim the Good News is also valid for all Christians, though in a different way…. Moreover, the Good News of the kingdom which is coming and which has begun is meant for all people of all times. Those who have received the Good News and who have been gathered by it into the community of salvation can and must communicate and spread it”.

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….to go out and preach the gospel, and when necessary, use words.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom 

Image: Mural from the Church of the Ascension, NYC 

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[1] Evangelii Nuntiandi, 13

Our Reason To Be Hopeful

Deacon Tom Writes

“Our Reason To Be Hopeful”

Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year A

Hope is such an enduring quality. We cling to hope in troubling times as if it was life preserver and we were adrift in a stormy sea. Hope is what keeps people of faith going when our world falls apart. You see and hear it in media reports on the faces and in the voices of people who have lost their homes through floods or wild fires. They inevitably talk about rebuilding not just their homes but also their lives. Hope gives them the courage to face a new day.

Hope fuels our dreams also. We hope to get into the college of our choice; we hope to get that perfect job or that promotion. We hope that one day we will meet the love of our life; we hope that a bad situation will be favorably resolved. We hope others will change their ways… or better yet, that we will change ours! No matter what we hope for, we are not likely to give up hope without a fight.

In today’s scripture Peter advises us, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope”. Peter wants us to pay close attention to those things in which we place our hope…. and to be able to tell others why we hope in them. Key to Peter’s advice, however, is that the focal point for Christian hope is Christ. He is the fulfillment of all our hopes. Peter wants us to put our hope in noble things, “...treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal.” (Mt 6:20)

Yes, we hope for that new job, good things for our children, a good resolution to an illness or bad relationship…but our Christian hope seeks the ultimate goodness that comes from having Christ…. “as Lord in our hearts” (1 Pt 3:15) as Peter says so well.  With Christ as Lord of our hearts, our hope will turn to treasures, relationships, and loves that will last forever and provide us ample opportunity to share the reason for our hope with everyone.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

All Is Well

Deacon Tom Writes,

“All Is Well”

Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year A

The first lesson we hear in today’ readings gives us profound insight into a distinguishing characteristic of the calling we have received. The Apostles find themselves in a crisis. The material needs of some of the members of the fledging community are being ignored. It just so happens (doesn’t it always seem to be the case!) the needs being overlooked are those of a minority group composed of Greek widows. At that time, you may recall, widows were outcasts; they had no standing in the community, and were left on their own to fend for themselves and their children. This was a horrible situation, of course. We read today that this did not sit well with the Apostles. They knew they had to respond in a way that was consistent with the teachings Jesus had left them. Their logical solution...get some help. And thus we read that after some discernment, the Apostles chose the first six deacons upon whom the imposed the laying on of hands. The word deacon is derived from the Greek word diakonos, which literally means “through the dust” and is often translated as  “servant” or “waiter”. This ministry arose out of need to provide for both the spiritual and material needs of the community. Overcoming our worries about our temporal needs provides much comfort for our anxious and troubled hearts.

In the gospel, Jesus aims at soothing a much deeper worry that troubles our hearts that comes with the death of a loved one. I find this particular passage we hear today utterly amazing. This is part of the “Last Discourse” of Jesus we find in Chapter 14 of John’s gospel. Take some time to read it and reflect on it with this thought in mind: Jesus knows he is about to die. His own words to His disciples that He was going to Jerusalem where he would, “suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised”  (LK 9:22) were coming to fruition soon. Yet,

with this unimaginable, overwhelming burden plaguing His own spirit, Jesus comforts His disciples; He tells them “Do not let your hearts be troubled”. These are powerful words from a man on death row whose concern is not about Himself, but about the well- being of His followers. Jesus’ hope is that His words put our troubled hearts at rest. We do not have to worry or be concerned about what will happen to Him...or us when we face the most significant worry of our lives... what lies in store when we die.

There is no taking away the heartache we experience when someone we love dies. These words today are a comfort to east this grief by teaching us that God’s plan is to bring us home. Home, such a comforting word, symbolizes where we are all headed when this earthly life is over. In this Holy Thursday – Good Friday experience Jesus teaches us to follow His example. From His washing the feet of His disciples as an humble act of service to His placing His trust in and surrender to the divine Will of His Father, to his death upon the Cross, Jesus, the consummate teacher, gives us the best example possible on how to live life to the fullest, as we read last Sunday, and how we are to die: by placing our trust in God and living each day with the certainty that we are all on a journey and our final destination is our heavenly home.

So, “Do not let your hearts be troubled”. All Is Well!

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Everything You Ever Wanted And More

Deacon Tom Writes,
"Everything You Ever Wanted... And More"

Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year A

The reason that Jesus came into this world, he tells us, is that we might have “abundant life”. That’s interesting, for who doesn’t want to get the most out of life or to have the greatest possible experiences during this lifetime? We all do! The trouble is that we all have a different idea about what such a life would look like and how we would go about pursuing it. There is a cataclysmic difference of opinion between what we would consider living an “abundant life” and the “abundant life” Jesus had in mind when he spoke these words.

We are living in the most prosperous country ever to have existed. We are living during the most unprecedented expansion of technological knowledge that gives instant access to information to anyone anywhere on our planet or traveling in space above it. We have diagnostic capabilities that are simply amazing, increasing both the quality and duration of our lives. We have countless forms of entertainment; we have access to products made around the word. Just key in a couple of digits, swipe your credit card, and products from around the world will be at your door tomorrow. We have all sorts of toys and gadgets that compete for our time. We have so much food that we throw a quarter of it away! We want for nothing…. Except…. this may not be the “abundant life” that Jesus came to give us.

The “abundant life” Jesus came to share with us has to do with satisfying the deepest desires of our hearts…our need to love and be loved in return; our need to be respected as people who are created in the image and likeness of God; our need for “human flourishing” which means that our purpose here in this life is to become all that God created us to be.  Because of that we possess an intrinsic dignity and worth that must be respected at all times. “Abundant life”, in Jesus’ eyes, envisions a just and peaceful world where we all can achieve the highest and most dignified status possible by the proper use of the gifts and talents God has given us and who one day will ask us to render an account of what we have done with those gifts and talents.

Reading today’s gospel suggests that we need to be doing more in pursuit of the “abundantly life” to which each of us has been called. In order to achieve this richer existence we should strive to rid ourselves of some of our worldly concerns such as our need to be in control of outcomes and others and place our trust in God’s divine plan; we need to overcome our selfish tendencies and resist our prideful attitudes; we need to develop a spirit of generosity and compassion. To grow firmly in the “abundant life” Jesus intended for us means that we need to better prepare ourselves to serve others and to find in them the face of Jesus who calls us to, “deny ourselves, pick up our crosses daily and follow him”. In doing so we become more fully engaged in that “abundant life” to which we have been called.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom