In the Father's Hand

In today’s Gospel, John 10: 22-30,  Jesus says to me and to you:  “You are my lamb; I know you, and you follow me.  I give you eternal life, Dorothy Ann (insert your name), and you shall never perish. No one can take you out of my hand. My Father, who has given you to me, is greater than all, and no one can take you out of my Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

“I give you eternal life, and you shall never perish!” Lord, the ultimate goal of my life is that I make it to eternity  as a faithful disciple, as a Christian,  to be with you forever. With You, Lord, and no one else. You and You alone. On Your part, Lord, You sacrificed Your life so that I might have eternal life with You. May I not disappoint You and choose otherwise.  Steer me on the path that leads to You and to You alone, as You did for each of Your apostles and 1000s of disciples since then. Following Your resurrection and in the midst of persecution, the disciples scattered to various parts of the world at that time.  They continued to make You known and 1000s of people came to know you, the one true God, the Redeemer of the world.  May, I too, no matter what the circumstances of my life, make you known, work for Your Cause, that all people may come to know you the Way, the Truth and the Life.   May I truly proclaim the Gospel with my life, as did the disciples in today’s first reading, Acts  11 19-26, because your hand is with me, as it was with them.  I ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

God's Design Unstoppable

In today’s first reading, Act 4: 23-31 Peter and John, having been reprimanded for speaking in Jesus’ name,  return to their own people and reported what the chief priests and elders had told them.  Everything done to stop the spread of Christianity and the work of the Spirit failed. Those against Jesus would not prevail then or now, any more than Pharaoh and the Egyptians thwarted God’s  plan to free the Israelites from slavery.  In our day, no one will stop God’s plan to save us from the forces that rise up against Truth, against Christ and His presence in the world. The Holy Spirit cannot be contained  or silenced by humans. 

In today’s opening Scripture reading, Luke quotes the words of King David, God’s servant, “Why did the Gentiles rage and the peoples entertain folly? The kings of the earth took their stand and the princes gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed….Indeed they gathered in this city (Jerusalem) against your holy servant Jesus whom you anointed, Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do what your hand and your will had long ago planned to take place.”  As then, so, now, persons  who gather  to voice their opinions against God’s servants, against those doing good in the world, those standing up for the poor and oppressed, those seeking justice and right relationships will, inadvertently, be helping to forward God’s plan of salvation. 

I have a choice to be a “Peter or a John,” a” Mary Magdalen or a Veronica,” actively and knowingly witnessing to the Risen Christ by word or deed or one of those who rant, rage or entertain folly in the world of today. What choice will I make today?

The Glory of God Shining through Darkness

In today’s first reading, 2 Cor 3: 15-4: 1, 3-6, we read:  “…[W]henever Moses is read, a veil lies over the hearts of the children of Israel, but whenever a person turns to the Lord the veil is removed. ”  How true it is that “a veil lies over” our hearts until we “turn to the Lord.”  When Jesus died on the cross, “the veil was torn in two,” (Lk 23:45)  and we now are able to “see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”    

Our faces are unveiled and we are enabled to gaze upon the glory of God when we follow Jesus’ challenges and invitations  in today’s  Gospel, namely, when we refrain from abusive language, when we leave our gift on the altar and go first to be reconciled with our brother and sister and then return to give praise to our God, to receive the Body and Blood of Jesus.  Our eyes are opened whenever we turn to the Lord  and bare our souls to Him, as did the woman caught in adultery, the blind man on the side of the road, the lepers calling out for pity, the hemorrhaging woman who touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, the man by the pool of Siloam, the man born deaf, the woman who encounters Jesus at the well, and so many others.

How am I preparing myself to encounter the Lord and know the freedom that only God can give? Do I even realize that I need to be transformed by the Lord who is Spirit? How often do I sit at Jesus’ feet to experience what it means to gaze upon the face of God and be changed in the process into the image of Christ in today’s world. In fact, I might ask myself today: whose image am I, whose image do I reflect upon the world in which I live?  Does the “glory of Christ,  who is the image of God” shine through my actions?