Living the Christian life--Paul's example

In today’s first reading, Acts 14: 19-28, we read further about the problems Paul encountered in his efforts to spread the Good News about Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension.   Some “Jews from Antioch and Iconium arrived and won over the crowds. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside of the city, supposing that he was dead.   …[When]the disciples gathered around him, he got up…[and] on the following day left with Barnabas for Derbe.  …[T]hey… proclaimed the good news to that city,…made considerable…disciples [of Jesus and then] returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, …[where] they strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in faith, saying, ‘It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.’”

Wow! What inspiration and instruction for us Christians today!  Living the Christian life has always involved obstacles to be overcome, misunderstandings to address, and, yes, persecutions, martyrdom, a dying and a rising with Christ to new life to be endured in faith.  Like Paul, to get up after being down, whether downed by others or by ourselves, we need other disciples, others persons living their faith in Christ, to help us up!  Getting up from whatever problem or tragedy we’ve encountered in being faithful to the Gospel, we, in turn, are called to “proclaim the good news,” make “considerable disciples,” and strengthen “the spirit of [other disciples].  That is what my mother and father have done for me, and, hopefully, for you as well. That is what Mother Frances, the Foundress of the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother and many of my fellow religious have also done for me.  Who does that for you and for whom are you a strengthening companion in the faith?

The Power of the Spirit at Work

In today’s first reading, Acts 14: 5-18, Paul and Barnabas are in a dangerous situation and consequently relocate.  That is an important message for all of us. We need to be alert to times when we, too, are in a situation in which we are in danger or stuck. Are we where we will be able to meet our goals? Are we where we will thrive in the Lord, doing that to which God is calling us?  And, if not, what is holding us back from taking action?

The “dangerous” situation could be coming from within, that is, from negative attitudes, from a critical, judgmental self, attitudes of inferiority and low self-esteem. To accomplish what we are capable of becoming because of Baptism—dying to sin and rising to new life with Christ—and Confirmation in which we were given the same Spirit that transformed the disciples from cowards into bold men and women, from “I-can’t” to “I-can” persons.  Following the descent of the Holy Spirit, the disciples boldly assumed their responsibility to spread the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection, even though, around them, was the threat of imprisonment and death.  They knew what they could do empowered by the Spirit of Christ, the Power that raised Jesus from the dead.  What about you and me? Is our faith that strong and active in our lives?  Or are we cowering from that of which we are afraid?

In this same reading, Paul and Barnabas challenged a cripple not to be afraid but to stand up and walk. May we stand up to our potential as followers of Christ.

Connected to our Source

“Remain in me as I remain in you” (John 15:4).  As we walk through parks or even around the properties where we live, invariably we see branches broken off trees.  Their leaves quickly fade. The branch dies. It no longer is capable of bearing fruit or fulfilling the purpose for which it was created.

Like  branches on trees, we, too, are connected to Someone and Something bigger than ourselves, to all of creation, to everything that moves and breathes and has being from the Creator of all.  “For by him (Christ) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him” (Col. 1:16). Apart from Christ, from God, we are incapable of accomplishing the good for which we were created.  “Whoever remains in me,” Christ tells us in today’s Gospel(John  15: 1-8),  and I in him/her will bear much (emphasis mine) fruit, because without me you can do nothing.  The things we do without Christ, disconnected from God, self (our true self) and others in love is not life-giving, not community building, is not of God.  Disconnected, we spread discontent, confusion, chaos and we deepen our emptiness, blow out “smoldering wicks” (Is 42:3) stamp out “budding seedlings,” crush broken spirits and, “yes,” bring death.  Do I want to live isolated from Christ, the Source of my Being? Or do I want to stay connected through the Scriptures, the Eucharist, through striving to love others as God loves me,by showing compassion towards others as God shows compassion toward me?  The choice is mine!

The mighty works of God

We open today's liturgy with the prayer: "O Chosen people, proclaim the mighty works of God, who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light, alleluia."  God has called each one of us out of the darkness of sin and selfishness, fear and hatred, including hatred toward oneself that can be learned from those in our lives who are jealous of us, put us down, reject us, a hatred we can easily internalize.  We have been called into the marvelous world of light, of God's unconditional love, God's justice and peace, God's mercy and forgiveness.  In faith, we know that God waits for the moment that His free gift of redemption is fully realized in each one of us. In faith we also know that Jesus will return to take us up into heaven to reside where He and the Father reign, where there is no more pain and sadness, no more chaos and confusion, no more put downs or rejections, no more self-criticism or harsh rebukes from others whose self-disdain can easily be projected onto us.  O how God longs for that day when we will occupy that special  place that Jesus has gone up to heaven to prepare for us.  O happy fault of Adam that revealed to us God's marvelous love for His Chosen People!

Jesus is King of all the earth

The psalm of today’s liturgy reads:

“I myself have set up my king

 on Zion, my holy mountain.”
I will proclaim the decree of the Lord;
The Lord said to me, “You are my Son;
This day I have begotten you.”

“Ask of me and I will give you

The nations for an inheritance
And the ends of the earth for your possession.
You shall rule them with an iron rod;
You shall shatter them like an earthen dish.”

And now, O kings, give heed;

Take warning, you rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before him;
With trembling rejoice.  (Psalm 2)

That king is Jesus, to whom the Father has given the nations for an inheritance. All the ends of the earth belong to Jesus, who is the ruler of all that exist. All that is not of God shall be destroyed. All that denies God shall not survive the grave!  Evil will not triumph.  The powerful and the arrogant, the proud and the greedy of this world, those who deny justice to the poor, to the widow and to orphans, to the sick and impoverished, the infirm and the needy, those who treat others with disdain and prejudice shall be shattered “like earthen dishes.”    Those, however, who serve the Lord with reverence by serving the poor and destitute, righting  the wrongs of society in which they live, confronting injustices and untruths, proclaiming liberty to captives—in short, living as Jesus lived, obeying the commandments of God and fulfilling the will of the Father—will rejoice with the Lord for all eternity!

Recognizing God in our midst

In today’s Gospel, John 14: 6-14,  Philip just does not get it.  Jesus has just said that to have seen Him is to have seen the Father. Yet Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father and that will be enough for them.  Do you ever run here and there looking for Jesus, looking for the right church, the right homily, the right book,  the right Bible, the right lecture, the right experience, the right person, the right priest and say: “Then I will know what I want to know.” “Then I will have enough.” “Then I will believe.”  And the fact is, God is right in front of our noses: in the people we meet, in the events of our days, within the very depths of our own being and we do not see Him, do not recognize Him, or do not know Him! Jesus works through us and through our neighbor every day. To have seen the good another does, to recognize the good God does through us,  is to see God, as truly as  seeing the work Jesus does is seeing the Father.  

Living with our questions

In today’s Gospel, John 10: 22-30, some Jews corner Jesus on the Portico of Solomon and ask Him bluntly: “How long are you going to keep us in suspense. If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”  We are not that much unlike those people wanting their questions, their confusion, their doubts cleared up once and for all.  We do the same thing.  Do we not ask, for instance, how long we have to put up with a distressing situation without any clear cut answers.  Do we not badger each other about how long  we have to wait for better times, for answers to questions about the economy, about war, about terrorism. Do we not corner our spouses and/or our children demand an answer to something about their lives that have been bothering us for a long time.

We want to trust God. We want to have faith. We want to grow in or fall in love. We want to reconcile, or whatever.  But we want “it” instantaneously.  Jesus’ response to the questioning Jews is: I’ve told you already. If you would be observant and pay attention to the works I do, you would know the answer to your questions.  Is it possible that if we would be listening to one another, to innuendos in each other’s behavior, to hints around us, to  the Lord in the Scriptures, to  the Sunday homilies and liturgies, to the events of the day, to the quiet of nature,  to the whisperings of our hearts that we would find the answers to that which throws us into asking a frenzy of questions of each other or of ourselves.  Jesus, I believe, asks us to weigh the evidence before us and not get into forcing answers.  God Himself will not force an answer from us, as He waits for our total self-giving to Himself as Savior and to each other in love and forgiveness.  He waits! He know when we are not ready and respects readiness. Can we do the same?