“But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you” (Jn 16:22). Jesus continues to prepare his disciples for his horrific death by offering hope that he will see them again. That he will see them again is not a typo. We can read about the exchanges between Jesus and his risen disciples. Jesus appeared to Mary of Magdalene at the tomb, he appeared to Cleopas and his companion on the road to Emmaus, and he appeared to the ten and then the eleven with Thomas. Jesus sought out those he commissioned to proclaim his Gospel message after his Resurrection, just has he had done during his ministry before his crucifixion.

When Jesus did appear to them again, at the moment of recognition, there was great joy! It is hard for us to even imagine these early Resurrection accounts. The disciples witnessed his brutal death, lived in fear because of the very real possibility of their own persecution, and then they encountered the risen Jesus. St Paul would also shortly thereafter encounter Jesus on a different road, the one to Damascus en route to continue his persecution of the followers of Jesus. All of their hearts rejoiced and it was this joy that they proclaimed with boldness. The Apostles, like Jesus, led with joy and love to embark on their evangelical mission. They lived a difficult and challenging life that for many ended in their own brutal deaths, yet their joy carried them through and into eternity.

Life is hard, even in the best of circumstances. There is evil present in this world, not of God’s creation, because all that he has created is good. Though, through corruption of the good that he has created bad things happen to good people, and good people do bad things. Suffering, disease, violence, natural disasters, division, corruption, hatred, and dehumanization abound. It can be easy to succumb to the overwhelming tide of negativity and assume a stance of cynicism, detachment, denial, defensiveness or indifference. Yet this is not the response Jesus modeled nor has infused his followers through the ages with.

Our response to the evil and darkness of this world, as was the Apostles, is to be bearers of the joy of Jesus! We are to be as lights shining in the darkness, providing hope for those in despair, accompanying those in their struggles, and being willing to receive help when we are ourselves are in need. We cannot do any of this alone and on our own but it can be done in participation with Jesus. The Apostles, disciples, and saints that have gone before us, have shown us that it is possible to be beacons of hope in very dark places. They were all able to radiate joy and to empower and encourage because they said yes to Jesus and were infused with his power, his divinity, through participating in his life. They trusted in Jesus, may we trust in him also.

In our small group last night, I heard from the video series, “Divine Mercy in the Second Greatest Story Ever Told”, the final words of St John Paul II, which were read as the homily for Divine Mercy Sunday the day after his death. These words can be of help to us today as we seek to live a life infused with the joy of Jesus. St John Paul II wrote:

“‘Jesus, I trust in you’. This prayer, dear to so many of the devout, clearly expresses the attitude with which we too would like to abandon ourselves trustfully in your hands, O Lord, our only Saviour.
You are burning with the desire to be loved and those in tune with the sentiments of your heart learn how to build the new civilization of love. A simple act of abandonment is enough to overcome the barriers of darkness and sorrow, of doubt and desperation. The rays of your divine mercy restore hope, in a special way, to those who feel overwhelmed by the burden of sin.
Mary, Mother of Mercy, help us always to have this trust in your Son, our Redeemer. Help us too, St Faustina, whom we remember today with special affection. Fixing our weak gaze on the divine Saviour’s face, we would like to repeat with you: ‘Jesus, I trust in you’. Now and for ever. Amen.”

May we trust in Jesus, trust that Jesus is with us, closer than we can ever imagine, filling us with his love and joy so that we can stand as a light in the darkness. Let us accept and receive the joy Jesus offers us today, assured in the reality that no one can take this joy away from us, and let us share this joy with all we encounter today.

Photo: Ordination day 2013, ordained to share the joy of Jesus!

Link for the text of the entire homily of St John Paul II:

https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/homilies/2001/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_20010422_divina-misericordia.html

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, May 11, 2018:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051118.cfm

Jesus continues his farewell discourse, and appears to be speaking in riddles to his disciples saying that “A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me” (Jn 16:16). We who know what is coming for Jesus understand what Jesus is talking about, but the disciples, not so much. Jesus will be crucified and rise again from the dead. Jesus then goes on to explain further that: “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices; you will grieve, but your grief will become joy” (Jn 16:20). Jesus is speaking about the same two points of reference, his Crucifixion and Resurrection.

The most brutal sign of oppression during the reign of the Roman Empire was the cross. It was a weapon of terror, torture and an extreme case of punitive justice or capital punishment. The person would be stripped of all their clothing, would be nailed by the wrists, or palms and wrists tied, nailed by the feet and then lifted up for public display. Then would begin their humiliation, dehumanization, and long agonizing death; a sign for anyone to think twice about challenging the authority of Roman authority.

The disciples wept and mourned, their hopes dashed, they were stunned, ashamed, and demoralized, while others rejoiced as Jesus and the two others beside him were lifted up. The centurions flaunted their authority and prowess. Others gathered around and jeered at the false prophet dying on, Golgotha, the hill of the skull, where so many had gone before. Where other hopes and dreams had been crushed under Roman dominance and oppression.

Jesus was sometimes described as being hung on a tree in some letters of the Bible, the word cross was not even used because the device of torture was still so vivid in people’s minds.  Yet, this was not the final chapter. The grief of the Apostles would turn to joy because of the Resurrection. The cross, the instrument of torture would become a sign of victory over death and the grave.

For many Christians today, the Crucifix and Cross are no longer a sign of oppression and fear, but are displayed as a sign of the triumph and victory that Jesus won for us. They are not magic talismans, but they are sacramental signs, concrete objects that are tangible, that we can see, and that we can hold on to, that reminds us that we have a God who understands our humanity because he lived life as we do. He cried as we cry, he laughed as we laugh, he faced family conflicts, as well as enjoyed table fellowship, he faced trials and tribulations, he overcame conflict and rejection, he died as we die, and he conquered death so through participation with his Resurrection we can rise again in Christ as well.

May we spend some time meditating in front of a crucifix or cross today. If you are going through a rough patch, hold it in your hand, feel the wood, allow your gaze to fall upon his face to remind you that Jesus understands because he experienced what we experience, he loves us as we are. Jesus is and will continue to be present with us, closer even than the crucifix we hold or look upon on the wall. If all is going well, or you just received some great news, do the same! We don’t only go to Jesus with our trials and tribulations, but our joys and celebrations as well. Simply share with him your heart and allow him to share his with you.

Photo: My grandparents crucifix that hung over their bed now hangs over ours.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, May 10, 2018:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051018.cfm

Benjamin Franklin is quoted as saying that, “Wise men don’t need advice. Fools won’t take it.” I think most of us fall somewhere in the middle. Hopefully, we are less foolish and moving more along to path of wisdom. Jesus continues his best efforts in today’s Gospel to offer guidance and assure to his disciples that the Holy Spirit will continue to be their guide. “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth” (Jn 16:12-13a).

Surely, Jesus could see the lamps turning off in the eyes of his disciples. As discussed yesterday, comprehending the death of the Messiah, his Resurrection and return to the Father was a bit much to digest. Jesus, though, still needed to share what his Father gave him to share, and the disciples were to take in what they could. Jesus’ death and Ascension was not to put an end to their learning, deepening of their understanding, or further developing their relationship with Jesus and his Father. The Holy Spirit would continue what Jesus started, to lead them to all truth, the fullness of the foundational relationship that is the source of all, the Holy Trinity.

Anyone involved in teaching anyone anything or regarding learning something ourselves will know, that just telling someone something does not mean that learning has happened. There is a process of introduction, integration, practice, review, mistakes, corrections, adjustments, until mastery is achieved. With the disciples this is the same. Jesus did not just present things once and move on to the next order of business. That is why John declared at the end of his Gospel that: “There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written” (Jn 21:25).

I am sure a part of what John was talking about were the lessons, corrections, and guidance Jesus offered. Just as Joseph modeled for and guided Jesus in his trade in carpentry, so Jesus learned from him through observation, practice, mistakes, adjustments, and corrections. Jesus guided his disciples in the same way, as a mentor with his apprentices. He was now assuring them that even though he would be leaving them, the guidance and leading would continue with the support of the Holy Spirit.

The lessons about the immanence of God, God within himself as a Trinitarian communion, that Jesus taught were not as concrete a sawing, hammering, and planing boards though. God is not a being, not even a supreme being, meaning that he transcends our ability to comprehend the fullness of his reality. We will never fully comprehend God or exhaust the richness and the depth of our relationship with God.

On the human level, we are guilty of malpractice in our relationships when we assume that we know everything there is to know about someone else. The gift of the person, the human being, is that we are ever developing and growing in the mystery and wonder of who we are and who we are called to be. We can always surprise each other. If this is true for us in our relationships with each other, it is much more so in our relationship with God. Once we get to one level of understanding, we plateau for a time, but that is not the end of the journey, that is only a time to savor, to ponder, and contemplate until we are ready to go ever deeper into the truth that the Holy Spirit will reveal to us.

Our tradition teaches us that the fullness of God has been revealed in Jesus Christ, which is true, yet to comprehend that revelation will take a lifetime and an eternity just to scratch the surface. St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the Dominican Friar, is considered the Angelic Doctor of the Church. He was one of the top theological influences during the Scholastic Period, yet close to the end of his life he had a mystical encounter with God in which he came to realize that all of his intellectual achievement, all that he had written, mattered no more than a pile of straw compared to that which God had revealed to him.

Arguably one of the wisest persons of his time, and some would say one of the most brilliant minds ever, was steeped in a daily life of prayer and continued to be open to the majestic wonder of the glory of God. May we too continue to embrace the gift of wonder, the gift of learning, and never settle, rest and savor yes, but continue to learn and grow, to seek and hunger for the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, to continually have our hearts and minds open to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us to all truth!

Photo credit: pixabay.com

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, May 9, 2018:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050918.cfm

If we live long enough, we will experience the death of someone we have loved. If we live a long life, we will experience even more of the pain of death. I remember my maternal grandfather sharing with me when he was around ninety that he had outlived most of his siblings and friends. Unfortunately, for too many death is a daily event. Grief during this time of loss is a natural human response. It is certainly not an emotion to be suppressed.

Yet, in today’s Gospel, when Jesus shared with his disciples about his imminent death, he said, “But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts” (Jn 16:6). Jesus was preparing them for his suffering and death, but also letting them know that they would not be left alone. He would send the Holy Spirit to be with them. The Apostles were not able to understand what Jesus was talking about. Who can blame them? They had no point of reference for someone dying and rising again, ascending and sending the Third Person of the Trinity to be with them.

The Apostles would not only feel the grief of the loss of Jesus, they would also experience the fear of the same persecution that took him. They betrayed Jesus, abandoned him, yet, except for Judas because he had taken his own life, Jesus came to them again after his Resurrection, and forgave them. Jesus would in a short time ascend, and the disciples, with Mary, would experience the love and grace of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, they faced what was before them head on, even unto their own violent deaths, except for John. The fear of death had no more power over them, their grief and their fear were turned into joy from their encounter with the Risen Jesus and the Love of the Holy Spirit.

For us too, as with the Apostles, grief is real, because death is a loss, it is a change in our present reality. Though we need to remember that we celebrate this Easter Season for fifty days for a reason. Death has lost its sting, death does not hold the final answer. Jesus has died, entered into the fullness of everything that death threw at him, and conquered it. Jesus has died for us all, that we can also rise with him, and be with him and our loved ones again for eternity.

Although good news indeed, this may be all a bit too much to take in. We can believe in our minds that death does not have the final answer, yet we may still feel the grief and the pain of loss. Let us be honest with our emotions, and not stifle them, thinking by showing grief we are in some way less of a person of faith. We need to feel the pain of our suffering. In allowing ourselves to enter into our pain, we will experience the Risen Christ who is waiting to embrace us in the reality of the truth that he has conquered death, just as he did with the Apostles. Jesus has welcomed our loved ones home with him and is preparing to welcome us home when it is our time as well.

Jesus will bring us healing and hope. To experience our grief is healthy, but we must resist holding on to our grief or being attached to it. The time of grief is different for each person. There is a time to grieve and a time to begin again. Our hope and our faith is that we come to believe and trust that death does not have the final answer, but Jesus does.

Photo credit: Flo Maderebner from Pexels

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, May 8, 2018:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050818.cfm

What is common to all of us is our loneliness. We all experience some expression of loneliness to varying degrees consciously, or mostly unconsciously. We are social beings, we want to belong, to be part of, we are communal at the core. We will do, say, or turn a blind eye to behaviors that go against our conscience to be accepted, acknowledged, or noticed. This behavior further feeds our loneliness, because though we may indeed be accepted, we become more alienated to our self.

At the core of our being, what we all seek is to be loved and to love. We strive from the moment of our conception not only to exist but to actualize the fullness of our potential. Through our time of gestation we are not potential human beings, we are human beings actualizing out potential. The only difference between me typing this now and me in my mother’s womb is that before and after my birth, I was smaller and more vulnerable.

We as human beings are a living, craving hunger and desire to be in communion with God and one another from the moment of our conception until our natural death and continuing on into eternity. This is true to the believer and the atheist alike. Until we embrace this deepest of needs and desires, we will be restless, anxious, unfulfilled. We will feel isolated and alone, even in the midst of a hundred people or daily likes on social media.

God has made us for himself, and constantly invites us to be in relationship with him and with each other because he is the foundation and source of our being. Sin is the turning away from that invitation. It is also the unwillingness to bother, to reach out toward another in need. For what we do to the least of our brothers and sisters, we do to God. We are not just pro birth, we are pro life, and we are invited to promote a consistent ethic of life.

Jesus came to show the importance of the dignity of the person and that it is grounded in our relationship with God our Father, meaning we are all brothers and sisters. Jesus was not plan B, but he was always the primary plan. In the fullness of time, when God so willed, he sent his Son who became one with us so we can become one with him. Jesus is the face, hands, and body of God. He came that we might see and experience God. Jesus experienced all we experienced except for sin, because he never in any act rejected the Father. His whole life was a yes to the will of God. Jesus is the bridge, the way to love and be loved, authentically.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus continues his farewell discourse. He prepares his disciples that he will be returning to the Father, and that he will not leave us alone. He will be with us for all ages. This is so because as the Son of God made man, in his Ascension, he returned to the Father not just in his divinity as the Son, but also in his humanity. God created all of humanity and his creation as being interconnected, and because of that, we all experience this transcendent act of the Ascension.

Jesus shared with his disciples: “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning” (Jn 15:26-27). Jesus is talking about the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, the embodiment of infinite Love experienced and shared between the Father and the Son. We become sharers in this divine love and communion of the Holy Trinity through our participation in the life of Jesus.

As we experience and enter into the love of God and develop a relationship with him we begin to feel alive, we begin to heal and to feel whole, because we have experienced the love we have been made for. We have experienced being loved for who we are as we are. We no longer have to say, do, or accept those actions that we don’t agree with that go against our conscience, to belong. Blessed John Cardinal Newman has stated that our conscience is the Aboriginal Vicar of Christ. Jesus dwells within us, to guide and lead us. He encourages us to say yes to his Father as he has and continues to do.

This Trinitarian love that we share because of our participation in the life of Jesus, this great gift, will continue to grow as we testify to this love and share it with others, give it away, and the more we give, the more we will receive. We share the love of God by being willing to accompany one another. That does not mean fixing others or their problems. We are to be present, to accompany, and journey with others, meeting them as Jesus met others and meets us, as and where we are. We are to laugh with, to cry with, to encourage, empower, and support, but above all to be present, to allow God to happen through us.

Jesus has not left us orphans. His return to the Father has given us access to the Holy Spirit, the love shared between the Father and the Son. By saying yes to his love, trusting in his love, we free ourselves from the tendrils of fear and anxiety. We are not alone when we say yes to God and develop our relationship with him. As we do so, we continue to actualize the fullness of our potential, we become who we were created to be, and we become truer to ourselves. We experience that peace that surpasses all understanding and develop relationships with others based on authenticity and integrity, regardless of external pressures and experiences. We are loved and we love in return, which is what we all seek, which is who we are called to be.

Photo credit: luizclas from Pexels

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, May 7, 2018:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/john/15:26

Jesus makes clear to his Apostles that: “It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you”. This is no power play on Jesus’ part, just a way of asserting his authority. Only a few verses earlier we can read that Jesus called his disciples friends. Jesus’ claim is a reminder that God is the center, initiator, and prime mover of all that exists. His disciples were invited to a deeper relationship with God through their participation in the life of Jesus. They lived and traveled with him, they were his closest companions during his public ministry. He guided, mentored, and taught his disciples the deposit of faith that he wanted them to pass on. And at the Feast of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, would empower them to do so.

The Apostles were not chosen for their own sake, what they received from Jesus was not to be for themselves alone. What they were to pass on was no secret knowledge for a select few. Jesus appointed them “to go and bear fruit that will remain” (Jn 15:16). The Kerygma, the Gospel message to be proclaimed, was to be for all the nations. By reading the Book of Acts, the second volume of the Gospel of Luke, we can witness that the Apostles laid the foundation for that to happen. The core of the deposit of faith that has been passed on generation after generation and which we proclaim every Sunday in the Nicene Creed, is that we believe in one God; one Lord Jesus Christ who is consubstantial, of the same substance as the Father; one Holy Spirit, who with the Father and Son is adored and glorified; and one holy catholic and apostolic Church.

We who call ourselves Christians, believers and followers of Jesus Christ, are part of a tradition in which each generation, each person has encountered Jesus for him or her self time and time again. Jesus continues to choose us to serve with him, he invites us each and every day to participate in his life and his mission to come to know him and through him to know his Father, our God and Lord of all. In the humanity that the Son of God assumed, he opened up heaven for us. We have access to building a relationship with God through the Love of the Holy Spirit and in doing so we become sanctified, holy; not so people look at us, but so that they can see the service we offer and the love and joy we share, such that others no longer see us, but Jesus, and so too can receive the invitation to come and know Jesus.

Is the history of the Church from the time of Jesus perfect? No. Are we perfect? No. But in surrendering our life to Jesus each day we become more and more conformed to him, we are being perfected in our participation in his life, such that we can have a foretaste of heaven now in this life. We are chosen to go and bear fruit that will last, we are invited to receive and share the love and life of Jesus with others. May we renew ourselves in the love and forgiveness of Jesus on this Lord’s Day, and serve him as we serve one another, with thoughts, words, and actions embodied with his love, joy, and mercy.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, May 6, 2018:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050618.cfm

With the opening words of today’s Gospel of John: Jesus said to his disciples: “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first”, Jesus is not proposing an us verses them mentality. It can be easily taken that way, and certainly has been lived out in many ways in our society and world. An us verses them mentality is usually a defensive posture assumed by those who feel or are actuality being persecuted. It is an understandable posture. It is just not the stance that Jesus proposes us to take. We are to love our enemies, we are to love those who hate us.

Jesus is just making it plain to his disciples that they need to be prepared, that what is coming is the same that has been happening to him. They will be persecuted, mocked, imprisoned, and give their lives just as Jesus did. The gospel message is a challenge. We are challenged to have a change of mind and heart, to be more conformed to the love of Jesus the Christ. This means that our focus must shift from our self as first and foremost to God who is to have the primary sense of place in our lives.

We know we are putting God first instead of our fallen nature when we react less. Reactions are based in an us vs. them mentality. They and them are responsible for the state I am in, they are taking my jobs, they are not allowing me to worship or speak in the way I want to, it is all their fault, they made me do it, are all reactive thoughts that lead to uglier statements and actions. Jesus invites us to assume the disposition of mindful action not reaction.

The way we can be more mindful and less reactive is to be people of prayer and meditation. Much of our reaction comes from our harried pace, keeping us from being in touch with our deep seeded fears and prejudices. We run from the mirror Jesus holds up to us. We need to stop and pray regularly. See the sin in our heart so we can admit it and let it go. We begin by taking some deep breaths, asking Jesus to be present in our lives, asking him to shine the light of his love so to see what we have hidden, so we can bring the hate to the surface, let is go, be forgiven, and be set free.

We can then be in a better place to ask for the healing to continue, for Jesus to help us to be more patient, understanding, truer to who he calls us to be, which is people of love, willing the other’s good, accepting and encountering each other as fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus on our journey together, recognizing that the common denominator for each of us is that we are wounded, lonely, and just want to belong.

Many children in our area are receiving their First Holy Communion today. A wonderful gift we can give them is slowing down a bit this Saturday to rest and renew in God’s love, turn to his Son for support and guidance and embrace the love of the Holy Spirit, so to tear down walls of hate and separation, and instead build bridges of love and mindfulness. In this way, when we experience hate, dehumanization, and defamation, indirectly through multiple media platforms and directly in our own life, let us greet each with a breath, and a turning again and again to Jesus for assistance so we may resist the easy and impulsive reaction, and instead respond with mindful thoughts, words, and actions. We are to hold people accountable, not with hate though but with love. Living love with courage in a world filled with hate is a better model to provide for our youth.

I will leave you today with a quote from someone who understood from direct experience how Jesus wanted us to respond to hate:

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive our hate; only love can do that.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Photo source: http://multiculturalministriescentral.org/monday-january-19-national-observance-martin-luther-king-jr-day-will-celebrate-holiday/

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, May 5, 2018:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050518.cfm

Jesus said to his disciples: “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you” (Jn 15:12). This verse is foundational to our faith as we seek to live as disciples of Jesus. Love is what Jesus lived, modeled, taught, and commanded. By becoming human as one of us, embracing the Paschal Mystery: his suffering, crucifixion, death, Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven, the Son of God opened up the reality that we can participate in the very same love he shares with his Father.

We are capable of loving others because Jesus has loved us first. How did he love us? We are blessed in that Jesus gave his life for you and me, each and every person, for those who believe in him and those who don’t, he gave his life for the good and the bad alike. Jesus was willing to suffer the scourging, agony of his procession and crucifixion and death. He was not just going through the motions, his divine Person was not somehow hovering over his body. Jesus felt the rejection, the betrayal, the physical torment of the nails, because, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13).

Some of us may have heard this verse so many times that we do not fully embrace the impact of it. The gift of the liturgical seasons is that the readings of Scripture are offered again and again so we can experience the telling again and again. May we sit with and breath in the reality of this passage, so that it becomes the living Word of God, not just a dead letter. May we resist taking our life for granted, the life we have been given at such great cost. In coming to realize the gift that Jesus gave for us, and meditating on that reality, hopefully we can see others in our life who we may have taken for granted. Those who have loved us, have been there for us, have been there maybe when no one else has been.

What is our response to the love of Jesus that we have been blessed with? Jesus answers: “This I command you: love one another” (Jn 15:17). Jesus ends today’s Gospel reading as recorded by John where he began at the beginning, he invites us to love. Jesus loves us more than we can ever hope or imagine, we are to love others as well. May we spend some time in prayer today opening our heart and mind, meditating on the gift we have been given, the highest love imaginable, the life of Jesus, given for us. Let us savor and appreciate the fullness of his act.

Let Jesus know how much you are grateful for his sacrificial love, embrace his invitation of friendship, and with a heart full of gratitude, maybe just maybe, today we can love a little more than yesterday, and tomorrow a little more than today. Let us love one another, one conflict at a time, one interruption at a time, one inconvenience at a time, because in each instant, we are willing to love one person at a time.

Photo: Close up of the crucifix in the chapel at Cardinal Newman HS

Link for the Mass reading for Friday, May 4, 2018:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050418.cfm

In our growing global and increasingly interacting world, a sense of pluralism, the recognition and affirmation of diversity and peaceful coexistence has become more and more of an ideal. In and of itself, the embracing of diversity is good. Especially when we have and continue to experience and see such atrocities committed in the name of “tribalism”. What can be a dark side of pluralism though, is that for the sake of getting along we are not true to who we are, we limit our public discourse so as not to offend.

Identity is also not to be held up as the sole model either. Because identity has a dark side as well in that we can easily slip into a defensive posture when we feel our identity is threatened. This is why we are told that if you want to have a conflict free conversation you may want to avoid speaking about politics, religion, and I forget the third. The reason is that in these areas we identify ourselves with our personal beliefs and if someone critiques or criticizes our beliefs we feel personally threatened, and more often than not the dialogue devolves into talking at and over each other.

These thoughts lead me to the opening verses in today’s Gospel from John: Jesus said to Thomas, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him” (Jn 14:6-7). This may not appear to be a pluralistically sensitive comment if wanting to keep calm at the dinner table. Though it is a statement of truth.

The statement that could raise the hackles of those who are not Christian is “No one comes to the Father except through me.” This may appear at face value to be a very arrogant statement. Unless, Jesus is who he says he is, the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity. If Jesus is God, then of course to get to God you will be going through Jesus. Jesus does not say that you have to be a Christian to get to God.

Regarding interfaith dialogue the Catholic Church has come far regarding some dehumanizing stances from the past to embrace a truer interpretation of Jesus’ statement. The Vatican II document, Nostra Aetate, meaning in our time, the first lines of the document, states that the Catholic Church “rejects nothing of what is true and holy… She has a high regard for the manner of life and conduct, the precepts and doctrines which, although differing in many ways from her own teaching, nevertheless reflect a ray of that truth which enlightens all…”

The place to enter dialogue is not to avoid sharing about the truth of our beliefs, but to be able to reclaim the ability to share clearly what we believe and be willing to allow someone else to do the same. We have lost the ability to have a good argument or debate that is founded in the respect and dignity of the person first, an openness and understanding for different and diverse opinions and beliefs, grounded in the ultimate goal of learning and growing from one another.

We can reclaim the gift of dialogue if we are willing to let go of the need to talk at others, to be right, and entrench ourselves in our positions, and instead seek to be more grounded in integrity instead of identity. To grow as a person of integrity means developing the ability to think critically and with a more nuanced outlook, resisting absolutes and black and white thinking. Another line from Nostra Aetate states: “Let Christians, while witnessing to their own faith and way of life, acknowledge, preserve and encourage the spiritual and moral truths found among non-Christians, also their social life and culture.”

Being a person of integrity means we stand up for the dignity of another person because they are a human being, not because they belong to the same gender, political party, religion, or tribe. This is what the parable of the Good Samaritan was all about. Being a person of integrity means we have the courage to hold someone accountable and refuse to look the other way just because they are of the same gender, political party, religion, or tribe. Being a person of integrity means saying what we believe, while at the same time allowing another to do the same and respecting our differences while at the same time being able to share them, agreeing to disagree, and finding common ground where we can. In this way we are more open to growing and broadening our understanding of the people and wonder of the world around us.

Being a person of integrity is not easy. To mature in this way demands courage to speak in the midst of our fear of conflict, of offending, of being wrong. Though to strive for it is worth the effort, for we resist the slow death of cowardice that eats at our soul and experience the soaring heights of joy when we are true to who we are and can be. Let us pray for each other today for the discernment to see what ways we have not been true to who God calls us to be and be willing to risk striving to be people of integrity.

Photo: Far to go but striving to be a person of integrity

Nostra Aetate, Declaration on the Relation of the Church to non-Christian Religions, October 28, 1965. Tr. in Vatican Council II: Vol. I: The Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, Costello Publishing, 2004.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, May 3, 2018:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050318.cfm

In today’s Gospel reading from John we return again to the imagery Jesus used this past Sunday, that of the vine and the branches. As the branch of the vine matures, it begins to look more like the vine itself. As it remains connected, is sustained by the nourishment provided, and protected by the vine grower, the branches become more and more conformed to the vine. This is also true in the event that a branch not originally attached to the vine is grafted to it. Over time, the branches are almost indistinguishable from the vine itself.

Our hope, as disciples of Jesus, no matter what our background, culture, gender, ethnicity, or race will be the same. We are to be one as the Son and the Father are one. As St Paul has written to the Churches in Galatia and Collosse: In Christ there is neither Jew or Greek, circumcision or uncircumcision, male or female, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free because we are all one in Christ (cf. Galatians 3:28, Colossians 3:11).

We are not to be automatons, cyborg, ants, all following mindlessly. It means the opposite, the more we are conformed to Jesus, the more we come to know him and so know our self. We begin to let go of the pressures to conform to that which stunts our growth and begin to embrace who we are, the truth of our reality and dignity. That sense of being fully who we are that sometimes just wants to burst out is allowed to be free when we die to our false self and live in Christ.

Let us resist turning in on ourselves, for if we are disconnecting from the vine, we are detached from the very source of our life. Just as the body will suffer without water regularly, so our soul will suffer if we are separated from the source and foundation, the living spring of our sustenance. Remaining attached to Jesus the vine, means more than just surviving  but maturing and living our life to the full, with joy that reaches out beyond ourselves to others, bearing fruit to share.

We can do so by putting the words of St Paul into action today. “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do. And over all these put on love, that is, the bond of perfection. And let the peace of Christ control your hearts, the peace into which you were also called in one body. And be thankful” (Colossians 3:12-15).

Photo accessed: https://www.pexels.com/photo/abundance-alcohol-berries-berry-357742/

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, May 2, 2018:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050218.cfm