Appointed as Overseers by the Holy Spirit

“Keep watch over yourselves and over the whole flock of which the Holy Spirit has appointed you overseers, in which you tend the Church of God that he acquired with his own Blood,” Paul says to us in Acts 20: 28-38.  He adds: “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you, and they will not spare the flock.”  In the Gospel, John 17: 11b-19, Jesus says to His Father and ours: “When I was with them I protected them in your name…and I guarded them…But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One…Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.”

Our first responsibility is to “keep watch over ourselves.”  The Evil One, “savage wolves” from within will attack the weakest part of our human nature, that part of ourselves where sin abides: pride, lust, narcissistic tendencies, sloth, selfishness, deceitfulness, wickedness.  The Holy Spirit has appointed each one of us an overseer of this side of ourselves that Jesus “acquired with his own Blood.”  The “world” within us hates the holiness within us that is there at the price of Jesus’ blood.  We live in this world of sin and darkness but do not belong to it by virtue of being adopted as sons and daughters of God. We are now, by virtue of dying and rising with Christ in our baptism, citizens of heaven. While here on earth, while living in this world, however, as Jesus does not ask the Father to take us out of the world, but to “keep us from the Evil One,” to “consecrate” us “in the truth,  we are also citizens of heaven to which the Risen Jesus has returned, sitting at the Father’s right interceding for us and waiting for all of His enemies, and ours, to be destroyed.

Am I aware that I have dual citizenship: that of this world, in my case, of the U.S.A, and that of heaven and that one will last forever and the other come to an end? For which am I building up treasures? This world or the world to come?  

Confidence in Oneself

In the Gospel of today, John 17: 1-11a, Jesus says to His Father:  “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you….I glorified you on earth by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do. Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began.”  Jesus is about to be arrested, condemned to death, scourged, crowned with thorns in mockery of His Kingship, and crucified.  Three days later, death having no power over the Son of God, Jesus is risen—glorified, with the Father,  with the glory that He had with the Father before the world was created.

Like Jesus, Paul, in the liturgy’s first reading, Acts 20: 17-27, is looking back on his life as well and is about to go to Jerusalem, where, like Jesus, he faces hardships and imprisonment.  Paul can testify that, like Jesus, he “did not shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public or in your homes. I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus.”

You and I have also been sent here to accomplish a task, a mission, given to us by the Father through the Holy Spirit, the Advocate sent to us by Jesus.  Like Paul and Jesus, as we bring our wills into harmony with God’s will for us, as we give glory to God by  the Gospel values we embrace,  we will meet hardship, be mocked and ridiculed. We will, from time to time,  be rejected on account of our beliefs in the Lord God, in Christ Jesus.  Disappointments, frustration, pain   are part of anyone’s faith journey.  At the end of our lives, hopefully, like Paul and Jesus,  if we have striven to give glory to God by our lives, if we have come to know the Father, the only true God, and the one whom the Father sent, Jesus Christ (cf John 17: 3),  we can confidently look forward to being glorified with our Father in heaven. 

At the end of this day, will I be able to say, as Jesus did, "Father, I have accomplished the work you gave me to do?"

Conquerers of this World with, in and for Christ

“In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world,”   Jesus says to His disciples before going to Gethsemane to face His betrayer and to us in today’s Gospel, John 16: 29-33.  The trouble we now face in the 21^st century is mind bottling.  Last night at one of the parishes in the area, we listened to a young woman who escaped  human traffickers, recovered from alcohol and drug addiction (used to numb her pain), has now earned a college degree in nursing and has turned her life over to Christ.  She shares her story in the hope that she will alert parents, grandparents and all adults of the dangers children, teens and young people face in the world of today, a dangerous world.  Children, teens and young people are stalked daily by recruiters of the sex industry, a lucrative business earning $32 billion a year. Recruiters of this industry hang around schools, shopping centers, places like Starbucks, looking for at-risk youth,teens and kids with low self-esteem who are easy targets of charmers!  Children and teens using certain online websites are only a click away from pimps seeking a victim  or from those working for the sex trade.

 

We may wonder why Jesus, in the Garden of Olives, sweat beads of blood? Or we may even wonder why Jesus suffered such excruciating torture to save us from the Evil One  when "He was made sin for us" to redeem us from sin; yes, in this case,  from the sin of human trafficking.  

"In the world you will have trouble…” This kind of trouble, Lord? When will we, in your name, Lord, conquer this world of human trafficking?  Please help us bring this issue to the awareness of your flock, to the awareness of persons who take seriously their responsibilities as your disciples to be a Good Samaritan to persons who become victims of human traffickers, are isolated from family and true friends, are told that harm will come to their families if they do not cooperate with their "owners", and  are beaten if they do not reach their quota. Lord, have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord, have mercy! Show us the way to rid the world of this scourge, of this abuse of power, of this horrible

sin against humanity!

Full Maturity in Christ Jesus

Today we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord into heaven.  St. Paul says to us in Ephesians 4: 9-13: "When it says, 'he ascended', what can it mean if not that he descended right down to the lower regions of the earth? The one who rose higher than all the heavens to fill all things is none other than the one who descended. And to some, his gift was that they should be apostles; to some, prophets; to some, evangelists; to some, pastors and teachers; so that the saints together make a unity in the work of service, building up the body of Christ. In this way we are all to come to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God, until we become the perfect ...[person], fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself" (emphasis mine).

Jesus descends to our level, except for sin, and returns to heaven, as He is above all corruption. He takes our humanity with Him. He takes all of life with Him to be transfigured by Him, transformed by grace. He awaits for all of creation to "fully mature with the fullness" of Himself. He awaits for us to "come to unity in our faith and in our knowledge of Jesus as the Son of God. Yes, He awaits for us to become the perfect person that He intends us to be. For that end, St. Paul, in Eph. 4: 1-4, exhorts us to "lead a life worthy of your vocation. Bear with one another charitably, in complete selflessness, gentleness and patience. Do all you can to preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds you together."

In what ways am I heeding Paul's words? How selflessly do I live? How gentle  and patient am I with others and myself? Do I, in fact, "preserve the unity of the Spirit by the peace that binds" me with others, with the Church, with my family or community members, with my coworkers, with persons of color, of other nationalities, other cultures, other religious; in short with my brothers and sisters in Christ throughout the world? In what ways is it evident that I am growing "fully mature with the fullness of Christ himself?

Bringing Strength to Others

In today's first reading, Acts 18: 23-28, Paul is traveling through "the Galatians country and Phrygia, bringing strength to all the disciples."  Today, God has given each of us a "territory," through which to travel: our families, our religious community, our parish community, our civic community.  What will I bring to those with whom I interact? Hope or hopelessness? Joy or sadness? Comfort or misery? Peace or discord? Mercy or mercilessness? Forgiveness or revenge? A humble disposition or a self filled with pride? Love or hate? Warmth or coldness? Acceptance or rejection? My strengths in the Lord or my weaknesses? A God-centered approach or self-centered narcissism?

Paul and those traveling with Him as missionaries encounter a "Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, an eloquent speaker,...[who] was an authority on the Scriptures."   With an ardent spirit, he instructed the people in "theWay of the Lord ," speaking and teaching accurately about Jesus, though he only knew John's baptism.  When Pricilla and Aquila, missionaries with Paul, heard him, they took him aside and explained to him "the Way of God more accurately."

Note the role of women in missionary activity, in spreading the news about Jesus, in explaining "the Way of God."  Also note Paul's inclusion of women in the work of spreading the Gospel, speaking about it, instructing others about Jesus.  And all Pricilla and Aquila did, Paul did, and Apollos did led others "to believe through grace."

All is grace! And all are called to be proclaimers of the Good News! What role are you playing to make Jesus better known? to bring others to Jesus?

Anguish Turned into Joy, a Joy No One Can Take from Us

“He brings people under us; nations under our feet. He chooses for us our inheritance, the glory of Jacob, whom he loves” (Ps. 47).   As we pray this psalm, we might say to ourselves: “Really?  Look at what is happening in the world: people losing loved ones,  sold into slavery, becoming victims of human traffickers and slave laborers, traumatized by earthquakes, floods, tornadoes, hurricanes and other natural  and man-made disasters.”

Jesus says to us in today’s Gospel, John 16: 20-23,  “…you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy. When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. So you also are now in anguish. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away.”

Jesus did not promise us roses without thorns. He Himself did not experience life that way. He, too, wept and mourned losses in his life: the death of his foster father Joseph, the grief of leaving home and embracing his role in life, the loss of John the Baptist and the death of His friend Lazarus, the Pharisees constantly spying on Him and seeking ways to trap Him, arrest Him and have Him put to death, His family thinking He was insane and, ultimately being betrayed by a close follower, arrested, flogged, crowned with thorns, mocked, spit upon, stripped of his clothing and hung on a cross naked with nails through His hands and feet, watched to die and made fun of in the process. All for our salvation and that our inheritance would be secured for us.

Could it be that we, too, make this same journey to our death and, in the process, participate in our own salvation? Could it be that our life here on earth is a dwelling place “in the womb of God,” our coming to birth involving the same pain as when a mother gives birth to a child. Our joy will be complete when we are, in fact, born into eternal life?

Something certainly worth thinking about!

Chosen by God to be Part of His Intimate Circle, the Trinity

“I shall not call you servants anymore, because servants do not know what their master is about. Instead I have called you friends, since I have made known to you everything I learned from my Father” (John 15: 9-17).  

Imagine being a servant in the Whitehouse. You are one of the waitresses/waiters at the elaborate dinner served to special guests/friends of the first family.  Or you are a domestic servant  and you observe the First Family have close friends over to celebrate one of their children’s birthday.  You watch the interactions in awe of the relationship the President and First Lady have with each of their guests. You are not privileged to be a part of the intimacy that exist among their close friends. Oh, how you would love to be, not a servant, but a friend.

Switch now to today’s Gospel.  You and I are not servants but friends of Jesus, of the Trinity. “I have chosen you,” to be my disciples and my friends, one with us in holiness and truth, in love and forgiveness, in justice and generosity to the poor and needy.   “Everything “ , Jesus says to us, “that I have  learned from the Father  shares with you” (cf Jn 15: 9-17).   So why might so many people not experience this friendship, this intimacy with the Lord, with the Trinity, with God?  Like any other relationship, becoming close friends is not magic or automatic. Lots of time is spent with a close friend. Lots of conversation occurs between friends. A friend wants to know everything about his/her friend. So, when this does not happen between us and the Lord, why is that? I might ask myself: Am I taking time to get to know the Lord (He already knows us intimately)? Do I read about Jesus in the Gospels? Do I take the opportunity my parish offers me to study the Scriptures? Do I take time to gaze upon the Lord in love and let the Lord gaze upon me, as wives and husbands enjoy gazing upon one another in this way? Do I take time to show God love by loving, caring about, supporting others—again, husbands and wives do loving things for one another?

Yes, it is my choice to develop this relationship. God stands at the door knocking. Will I open to Him today?