The Ascension of the Lord - Imitation / Seventh Sunday of Easter - We Are All In This Together_060219

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

The Ascension of the Lord, Year C

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. Much easier said than done!

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!”

Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year C

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

Sixth Sunday of Easter_C - Keeping God's Word_052619

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Keeping God’s Word”

Sixth Sunday of Easter, Year C

In today’s gospel Jesus tells His disciples, “Whoever loves me will keep my word and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him”. It sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? If we keep God’s Word, the Eternal, Almighty, Divine Presence will come and be a part of our lives forever, through the good times and the bad, through thick and thin.

The problem is there are many of Jesus’ words that are really troubling to us; words that we choose not to believe, let along want to keep; words that challenge us,  like...

   “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness”… Matthew 6:33

     “Love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you”…Luke 6:27

       “No one can serve two masters”… Matthew 6:24

          “Go and sin no more”… John 6:11

We dismiss the hard words of Jesus, the words that are at the core of his teaching…to love one another – as I have loved you. Loving one another, showing respect to everyone because of one’s intrinsic worth, one’s divine essence, one’s very nature as a child of God, is how we reflect the love of God in our lives. This love is an active, conscious act of the will; it is how we cooperate with God, allowing ourselves to be transformed by God and in turn helping bring about the transformation of the world. This is what it means to keep God’s word. We just can’t pick and choose which words of Jesus we will accept and which ones we will ignore if we want to have an authentic relationship with Jesus and grow in his love.

In all reality there is another question we need to ask ourselves, “Do we really want God living within us?” Within, well, that may be too close for comfort. It’s better when he’s living some distance away like the “In-Laws” whom we can invite over whenever we have something they can do for us. Far enough away that they can only come over when invited. How much God enters our life is pretty much our choice! We can keep God’s Word and look forward to the promises he has made to us, or we can go it alone and see what the world has in store for us. It’s…. all our call.  

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Photo attribution -  Pinterest.com

Fifth Sunday of Easter - Glory Days_051819

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Those Glory Days”

Fifth Sunday of Easter ,Year C

Today’s gospel has all the makings of a great Hollywood movie that begins on the night before Jesus dies. Jesus and his companions are nearing the end of their last meal together. Judas had just taken “the morsel… and left at once”. “The morsel”, we know, is the Eucharist, Jesus’ legacy to remain a “real presence” for his followers. Judas takes the Eucharist…then leaves.

When Judas leaves, Jesus brings this extraordinary Passover celebration to a dramatic close saying, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him”. What intrigue! Jesus seems to infer that what’s about to happen, his betrayal, torture, and death, will somehow bring Glory to God! How unimaginable!  Yet for God, all things are possible, even turning these horrific events into something that can reveal God’s glory!

How much our faith depends on this Truth, that “…with God, all things are possible”. That includes the fact that God took upon himself our human nature and all of our limitations and experiences to teach us how we might become like him in all ways. Jesus suffers the betrayal of a friend, gets convicted on trumped up charges, suffers beatings and humiliations of all sorts that no one, let alone him, deserves, knows all of this ahead of time and still accepts his suffering and death to teach us to love and forgive one another. And, because he sees what lies ahead as God’s Will, he accepts it all. In fact, he embraces it all knowing that doing God’s Will was all he desired to do in this life.

Jesus leaves his followers with the command to “Love one another as I have loved you”. He sets our hearts and minds on God’s Will….that we love one another as he loves us….completely. Christ held nothing back. He emptied himself on our account…. That’s the standard he set, if we are to be disciples…. to embrace the disappointments, betrayals, broken promises and relationships, sickness and death…to take it all in, the good and the bad, and accept all that comes our way as Christ did, and to do so while remaining faithful to God’s promises that he is with us always, till the end of days. And yes, he sustains us through each and every one of them, through all the glory days of our lives... this one and the one to come.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Fourth Sunday of Easter - Hearing Voices_051219

Deacon Tom Writes

“Hearing Voices?”

Fourth Sunday of Easter, Year C

Jesus often used everyday examples from the pastoral settings that surrounded Him. He drew upon them because they didn’t need any explaining. People knew that all a shepherd had to do was to call out and his sheep would follow his voice. It is said that shepherds would graze their sheep in different fields during the day but when night came the shepherds melded the sheep into one sheepfold so they could have safety in numbers. At daybreak, the shepherds would simply call out and, amazingly, each sheep would instinctively follow the voice of its own protector and guardian… What a beautiful image of this dynamic relationship between the sheep and the shepherd.

We may have lost the pastoral setting that the shepherds enjoyed back then, but we are still able to understand the message Jesus wants to communicate when he says, “My sheep hear my voice”. This is what Jesus expects of his disciples….Not only the hearing but also the following too. So, a disciple is one who hears and follows the voice of the Good Shepherd.

Today there are many voices competing for our attention. Whose voice are we attuned to? Jesus is calling us to “eternal life”. He is promising us the safety and security that comes from the Father, a joy and happiness that is “not of this world”. He is calling us to be his disciples and to live our lives according to his teachings on love, forgiveness, and on how to have a genuine relationship with him and one another. Other voices are calling us to focus our attention on ourselves, on getting as much as we can here and now, no matter the cost. Many paths of life to choose; many different flocks to be a part of, and many  different shepherd voices to follow but only one will lead us to green pastures. 

Today’s Responsorial Psalm reminds us of some of the additional benefits we receive from the hands of the Good Shepherd… we are filled with his joy and gladness; we share in his unending kindness and enduring faithfulness. God cannot be outdone in generosity to paraphrase Scripture. He loves each of his sheep; our safety, earthly well-being and eternal destiny are his only concern.

May the voice we hear this Easter Season be that of the Good Shepherd, calling us to grow in love, in holiness and service to our brothers and sisters in Christ, the Risen One!

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Third Sunday of Easter - How Do I Love You? Let Me Count The Ways_050519

Deacon Tom Writes,

“How Do I Love You? Let Me Count The Ways”

Third Sunday of Easter, Year C

It takes real courage to admit your mistakes. It takes more courage to move foreword and not be paralyzed or held back by mistakes of the past. Peter appears to have resumed his prior way of life as a fisherman after the death of Jesus, perhaps trying to forget those last days: Jesus’ brutal death, his own cowardly denying his friendship with Jesus, his inability to comprehend Jesus’ mysterious presence in the midst of his disciples. It was just too much for Peter to grasp!

It is understandable that Peter and the others would go back to a way of life that was most familiar to them, fishing. They could pick up where they had left off before Jesus called them and now put their ambition and energy back into rebuilding their business. But their flight to the safety of the past is short lived as we read in today’s Gospel.

This is more than an encounter with Jesus. And it is more than a story of Peter’s reconciliation with Jesus. At it’s deepest level it is the story of Peter’s coming to terms with himself, with his own failures and shortcomings, with his own fears and doubts. In confessing his love for Jesus, Peter is able to put to rest his sins from the past and his own weaknesses, to accept them for what they are, and to move beyond them to a new and heightened mental and spiritual life that awaited him. He is able to forgive himself and embrace the work that Jesus gives him to do, “Feed my sheep”. Peter embraces this new mission from Jesus with a renewed enthusiasm fueled by the power he has received from the Holy Spirit. He is now willing and able to assume his role as first among the Apostles and leads them on their mission to “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…” MT 228:19.

Like Peter, many of us have had our “ups and downs” in our relationship with Jesus. We have had our share of doubts and fears and have often disappointed Jesus by our sinful behavior, by our bad choices, by “what we have done and by what we have failed to do.” Over time these actions become like a wedge and sever our relationship with Our Lord. But today’s gospel gives us all hope that we can never be far from God’s abundant mercy and forgiveness. Jesus will always come looking for us, to nourish us physically and spiritually and to bring us his healing presence and compassion so that we can begin again, renewed and restored.

Easter is a time of God renewing the whole world. And renewal is what we need now give the present state of our world. Let us embrace Our Risen Savior’s love and forgiveness and be renewed ourselves so that we may be able to experiences the newness of life brought about through Christ’s suffering and death.

Enjoy the day!

Deacon Tom

Image Credit:  2.bp.blogspot.com/jesus-peter-reconciliation1.jpg