With the celebration of Pentecost, and the recitation of Evening Prayer on Sunday night, the Church liturgical season has returned to Ordinary Time. One of the key focal points of the season is that the readings from the Gospels will focus on the life and teachings of Jesus. Our series of readings for the next few weeks will be a return to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. In today’s account, Jesus encourages his disciples to be “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (cf. Mt 5:13-16).

This call continues to ring true for us today as his disciples. We too are to be “salt” and “light”. Salt has two major properties, preservation and flavor. Jesus emphasizes the aspect of salt being seasoning that one puts on food, which enhances its flavor. Light allows those to see in the darkness. How then can we be salt and light?

We begin by remembering that we are an Alleluia people, meaning that we are a people grounded in hope and joy because we who die with Christ will rise with him. Also, our faith is not just for us alone, we are to go out and share it with others, we are to bring Jesus to others. Pope Francis, in the very first line of his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, writes: “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept his offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, emptiness, and loneliness.”

The Pope is not saying that when we accept Jesus into our life and develop a relationship with him that all will go our way, their will no longer be conflict or pain, and that our life will now be perfect. What he means is that Jesus is the very embodiment of love, and a light that leads us away from the darkness of our sin. Jesus is present and accompanies us in our pain and sorrow, and assures us that we are not alone. Jesus is the one who fulfills the longing of our heart’s deepest desire, he reveals to us our meaning and vocation in life. Jesus brings us hope and offers his hand to lead us through our darkest nights of despair and trauma.

We who have experienced the healing balm of the presence of Jesus in our life, have grasped his hand for strength, have leaned on his shoulder to cry on, and experienced the joy of our encounter with him, are then to be present to others in the same way. We are to be salt by bringing the joy of Jesus to all those we encounter. Too many who claim to be Christian, walk with a cloud of gloom around them, they have become salt that has lost their flavor. Instead of drawing others to the gospel, they have withdrawn within themselves and push people away.

A simple, yet genuine smile can work wonders for someone who begins to believe that no one cares or has the time of day for them. This is true for the recipient as well as the giver. If you have felt like you have lost some of your flavor, or if you are not sure how to be a light for others, next time you catch the eye of another, smile.

I am not the most extroverted of persons, and was more introverted in my youth. In my freshman or sophomore year of college, I heard a talk on cassette given by St Mother Theresa. She had mentioned reaching out to others with a smile. I still remember the first time of risking to smile at someone after hearing Mother’s encouraging words. I was walking up the side walk toward the parking garage on campus. I do not believe the person I smiled at returned the smile, yet I do remember that day as a key moment in my faith journey. Having heard of how to share the light of God’s love with another, and then to follow through with the courage to do so, filled me with the joy of Jesus, and it continues to make a difference in my life and hopefully, the life of others to this day.

How can we be salt and light in our everyday experiences? I would recommend beginning by smiling at those we encounter. May it not only be limited to those we feel comfortable with or like either. May we share a smile with those we may have had conflicts with, those we may feel a bias or prejudice toward. This is only a small beginning, but it draws us out from our own self centered focus and directs our attention toward another.

In this small act we also say to another person that we care enough to notice them, that they are loved and cared about, that they have worth and dignity just as they are in that moment. A simple, sincere smile can bring a little flavor to someone in a sour mood, as well as a little light to someone in a very dark place.

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Photo: A smile for your day, may you receive it and pass it on!

Mass readings for Tuesday, June 11, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061119.cfm

Today’s feast, Mary the Mother of the Church, was just issued last year in a decree released on February 11, 2018 by Cardinal Robert Sarah of the Congregation of Divine Worship. Pope Francis has called for the Church to celebrate this feast on the Monday after Pentecost. Not only is Mary the Mother of Jesus, but since we as the People of God participate in the life of Jesus as members of the Body of Christ, she is our mother too.

The New Testament records time and again how Mary reveals by word and action that she is the model of discipleship.

Mary, answered Gabriel’s request to conceive and bear Jesus, with her response, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). Mary then went with haste to share the good news with Elizabeth and to assist her in her pregnancy of John the Baptist. Mary, after the birth of Jesus, is visited by the shepherds and upon hearing their news from the angelic host, she “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). Mary and Joseph care for, protect, and guide Jesus in the Jewish faith as he matures and grows into a young man.

Mary was also present at the beginning of his ministry when she says to the servants at the wedding at Cana, “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). Mary was present at the crucifixion, as recorded in today’s reading from the Gospel of John: When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home (Jn 19:26-27). Mary was pierced with sorrow when the lance was thrust through his side as blood and water flowed, and suffered in witnessing the death of Jesus, her Son. Mary was then present as the Church was birthed at Pentecost at the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14).

Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Mother of the Church, is also our mother. We do not worship Mary, but seek her intercession and guidance as we would our own mothers. We also look to her as a model for living as disciples of Jesus. May we follow her examples as outlined in the New Testament. May we ponder the wonders and mysteries of God working in our lives. May we resist the temptation of living in denial, running from our humanity and suffering, but instead face and embrace the sorrow and pain experienced in this fallen world so to receive her Son, Jesus, whose arms are wide open to receive us in the midst of our pain, so that he may bestow upon us his consolation and healing.

But may we not stop there. May we open ourselves to the love and empowerment of the Holy Spirit such that we may say yes to bearing Christ and going with haste to share the Good News of his life with others. May we resist the temptation of indifference and uncaring and instead help and support those we come into contact with who are in need. May we follow the last words of Mary recorded in Scripture and do whatever Jesus tells us to do to make his Church relevant and vibrant in our time.

Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us now and at the our of our death!

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Photo: Statue of Jesus and Mary outside Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, Oceanside, CA, Christmas 2017

Link for the decree ON THE CELEBRATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY MOTHER OF THE CHURCH: http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds/documents/rc_con_ccdds_doc_20180211_decreto-mater-ecclesiae_en.html

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, June 9, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/061019.cfm

There is a list of seven deadly or capital sins. They are pride, lust, greed, envy, wrath, gluttony and sloth or acedia. Acedia may be the least recognized on the list but it is the most dangerous, because it is the most subtle. If it is recognized at all, it is often compared to laziness, but that does not quite grasp the depth of it. The word, from its literal meaning, means a lack of care. This can manifest in our life as cynicism, finding no meaning, a minimalist approach, a resistance to discipline, a disengagement with the world around us, and ultimately a “lack of care given to one’s own spiritual life, a lack of concern for one’s own salvation” (Nault 2015, 28).

Marc Cardinal Ouellet, in his foreword to Jean-Charles Nault’s, The Noonday Devil, describes the affects of acedia on us today this way: “Left to his own devices, man ultimately despairs of ever being able to find a meaning for his existence and runs the risk of sinking into mediocrity that is just the symptom of his rejection of his own greatness as an adopted son [and daughter] of God” (Nault, 2015, 11).

Many of us struggle with just getting by, feeling tired, worn down and worn out, seeing on some far horizon the possibility for our potential but wondering if we can ever fully achieve it. We deny the very gift of our humanity, we retreat into a stance that accepts the unthinkable, as long as it does not directly affect us. We grow in our indifference toward the needs of others we consider not like us. This happens when we listen to the father of lies instead of our Father in heaven.

Today we celebrate the antidote to acedia as well as all those temptations that grasp at our throat to choke out the divine life from growing within us. Today we celebrate the feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and the Apostles to empower them with divine Love.

From our Gospel reading today we read how: The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (Jn 20:21). Jesus, who embraced our humanity, took upon himself our sin on the Cross, then conquered death, rose again, and freed us from our slavery to sin. The Risen One comes to us as he came to his disciples in the locked room and invites us to participate in his divine life, to share in the love he shares with the Father, who is the Holy Spirit. So when the temptations of sin arise in our mind and heart, we are to, in the words of St Benedict of Nursia, “dash them against Christ immediately” (Nault, 2015, 41).

We are able through the prompting of the Holy Spirit through prayers, songs, and words of Scripture to counteract the lies and temptations that seek to lure us away from the truth of our relationship with Jesus, ourselves, and each other. One simple but powerful prayer to use is reciting the words from Psalm 70:2 “God, come to my assistance. Lord make haste to help me.” Another is “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created and you shall renew the face of the earth.” Just saying, Veni, Sancte Spiritus, or its English equivalent, Come, Holy Spirit, reciting the Jesus Prayer or simply the words, Come, Lord Jesus, and/or spontaneous words are all ways to immediately turn away from the temptations that arise and draw on the infinite power and love of God.

We are like diamonds in the ruff. We are unique and special gifts to this world, though wounded and marred by our own sin. We may feel adrift, without direction; we may feel cynical and without hope; we may feel beaten, worn out and worn down; we may feel anxious and afraid, but let us not despair or lose our ability to care, let us realize that we are not overcome or outdone. We may be wounded by indifference and complacency, but we are not defined or set in stone.

Today, on the Solemnity of Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, let us call on the same Holy Spirit that empowered Mary and the Apostles to give us the guidance and strength from our God and Father who loves us and desires for us the full actualization of who we are and who he calls us to be.

God does not want us to settle for a minimalist approach or to live a life of mediocrity that is bogged down by apathy, but instead he urges us to call on the name of his Son, Jesus, who will break the bonds of our enslavement to sin, and through our participation in his life become empowered by the Holy Spirit so to be free to live the life we have been created for; a life of meaning, fulfillment, joy, love and unity with God and one another.

Holy Spirit set us aflame with the fire of your love and burn off the dross of our sin so that we may be precious stones radiating your light and love in such a way that we keep our tongues from evil and our lips from speaking deceit, that we turn aside from evil and do good, that we seek and strive after the peace of God, that peace that surpasses all understanding and that we become more present, understanding and supportive of others.

Veni Sancte Spiritus! Come Holy Spirit!

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Photo: Background video image from LIFETEEN.com – from Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYIIyGcZGqw

Nault, O.S.B., Jean-Charles. The Noonday Devil: Acedia Unnamed Evil of Our Times. San Francisco: Ignatius, 2015. If you are looking for a transformative book for summer reading, I highly recommend it!

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, June 9, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060919-day.cfm

How many times have we looked to others instead of staying focused on what we need to do or be doing? How many times do we compare ourselves to others, assessing what we or others have or don’t have, how others are more or less confident, more or less better looking, more or less intelligent, and even, how our faith life is worse or better?

We get a taste of these questions and what our response ought to be from Jesus in today’s Gospel. The background of today’s reading is a continuation from yesterday’s, in which the author described how Jesus forgave Peter for denying him by asking him not only if Peter loved him, but how he was to put that love into action by feeding his lambs, taking care of and feeding his sheep. Jesus also had just let Peter know that Peter was going die in his service to him.

Today we read that upon hearing the news of his eventual death, that Peter shifts the direction away from himself.  When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?” Jesus said to him, “What if I want him to remain until I come? What concern is it of yours? You follow me” (Jn 21:21-22). Jesus does not definitively say what is, or is not going to happen to the beloved disciple. Jesus is clear with Peter that his focus is not to be on what is going to happen to the beloved or any other disciple, but to direct his attention to following him and his will.

Our orientation as disciples of Jesus is to be focused on his will for our life and to expend our energy in such a way that promotes his will toward building up the kingdom of Heaven on earth. We are to spend less time comparing ourselves to others. This temptation is a very slippery slope that can easily lead us to the devastating sins of gossip, pride and envy. If we are to compare ourselves to anyone, let it be to Jesus.

Jesus calls us to be perfect as his heavenly Father is perfect, which is an impossible task if we seek to go it alone. Yet, we can become perfected through our participation in the life of Jesus the Christ. We begin when we decide to ask for Jesus to help us make a commitment to resist the temptation to compare ourselves to others. Then at the first instant we get a comparative thought, let us replace it with a prayer of blessing directed toward another.

Moment by moment, we then just need to remember that we are not alone, that we walk with Jesus. Together, one thought at a time, one action at a time, one interaction at a time, may we surrender our will to the love of God. By taking these steps to counter the influences of self first, comparative and celebrity culture, we can begin to shift the momentum away from the increasing divisiveness, polarity and growing tide of rampant violence, and instead strive toward embracing the gift of our mutual uniqueness and diversity in which we commit to supporting, encouraging, and uplifting one another.

Let us combine our prayer with action in our realm of influence at the community, state, and federal level so to build bridges of communication, conflict resolution, and dialogue. In so doing, we will begin to curb the fear, prejudice, and violence in our country. We need to be willing to see each other as human beings again, to resist seeing people as other and be more willing to respect the dignity of each and every human life. This will happen when we resist comparing ourselves to others and are willing to see each other through God’s eyes.

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Photo: Working together to life one another up!

Link for the Mass reading for Saturday, June 8, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060819.cfm

When we spend time reading the Gospels, we will encounter in them that the God of Jesus Christ is a God of justice, yes, but a justice that is tempered with mercy and love, a restorative justice, not a punitive justice. God invites us to to be in communion with him and one another, and to answer that call requires a transformation, a change of heart and mind. Jesus meets people where they are, accepts them as they are, while at the same time holding a mirror up to them to show how what they are doing is keeping them from the very reality of communion with his Father that they seek.

One example can be seen when Jesus encountered a Samaritan woman at a well and asked her for a drink. What followed from that simple, while at the same time profound request, led to her humble confession that she did not have a husband to which Jesus responded: “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one now is not your husband. What you have said is true.” Jesus spoke to a woman in public, and a Samaritan in public, two things that were not done in his time as it was against societal norms.

Jesus recognized the distinction, but saw instead and foremost, a human being created in the image and likeness of God. He saw a woman isolated, close to the point of being ostracized from her community, for who else would come by themselves to fetch water in the full heat of the day? What he shared with her was acceptance, as he spoke to her as a person. Because of her honesty, humility, and courage, what transpired over the course of the conversation was not only her transformation, but the redemption of her whole community. This transpired because, with joy and courage, she proclaimed the Good News even to those that kept her at arm’s leg, and on the margins (cf. Jn 4:1-12) .

Another encounter happened with Saul who was present and oversaw the stoning of St Stephen and continued his zealous persecution of the followers of Jesus. On the road to Damascus, Saul encountered the risen Jesus, who met him with the words: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me” (Acts 9:4)? Again, as with the woman at the well, Jesus greeted Saul with a simple but profound question which had a tremendous effect on him. Saul too was transformed from a persecutor of the Way to a follower of the Word. He would not only change his name to Paul and proclaim the Gospel to a community but to the Mediterranean world.

In today’s Gospel, Peter, who had betrayed Jesus three times, encountered Jesus who also posed him a question, but asking it three times: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” (cf. Jn 21:15-19). With these simple, questions of repentance, and Peter’s affirmative responses of love, Jesus forgave Peter for betraying him. Peter went forward to proclaim boldly the life of Jesus at the feast of Pentecost, and three thousand were moved by his words and sought to become part of the Way of Jesus.

In each of the above accounts of the Samaritan woman, Paul, and Peter, we witness an encounter with Jesus in which he met each of them, not with condemnation or judgment, but with love and mercy. He met them on their level and then offered them a look in the mirror by asking a simple question. Jesus sought to draw them out of their own false sense of self and sin, and into the love of God. Each person answered with truth and humility, and willingly looked at their life, turned away from their sin and accepted the invitation of Jesus to lead them to a change of heart and mind.

The justice of God is not about punitive measure, about rubbing our noses in our own sin. Yet, if we choose our own sin over the love of God’s healing transformation, it may feel punitive, because God will allow us to feel the affects of our sin. God gives us another choice. He has sent his Son to show us the path of love, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Jesus echoes Hosea 6:6 when he is recorded as saying, “‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice’. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners” (Mt 9:13). Jesus comes to us, as he came to the Samaritan woman, Paul, and Peter, who were able to receive the healing of Jesus because they acknowledged their sin.

When we make some time for prayer and spend some time in silence today, let us allow ourselves to see Jesus approaching us or sitting with us. What simple, yet transformative question does he ask that reveals to us, that mirrors for us our sin? In what way do we need to make a change of heart and mind? May we repent, choose to leave behind our false self, our pride and our ego, and instead respond with humility and contrition, true sorrow for our sin. In this way, as did the Samaritan woman, Paul and Peter, may we be healed, transformed, and go forth to share the Good News of the love and mercy of God with those we meet today.

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Photo: Close up of Heinrich Hoffman’s Christ and the Rich Young Ruler, 1889

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, June 7, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060719.cfm

Jesus bestowed his love, his grace, upon and acknowledged his Apostles as a gift. The fundamental option, our ultimate end goal, that which we seek, is to experience the same love that the Apostles experienced. The Creator of all that exists, that so transcends our comprehension, that is so beyond our ability to comprehend him fully, has come close to us, become one with us, in the person of his Son and loves us more than we can ever imagine.

This reality, the core of the deposit of faith they received, was not to be hoarded or buried away, or to be shared with a select few. This living gift of grace was to be shared by the Apostles, the ones who Jesus called by name, who he had hand picked to receive his message and then sent forth to proclaim his word. They were to protect it for the purpose of transmitting it accurately to their successors so that it would then be passed on to each successive generation who would receive and make it relevant for their own time.

Jesus said to his Father in his farewell discourse, as recorded by John that: “I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them” (Jn 17:26). Through our participation in the love of Christ we are perfected and we are conformed by his will such that we too can experience and share in the love of the Father.

The Trinity is at the heart of the Gospel, the Good News. The Trinity is a divine communion of three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We have been created with a burning hunger and desire to experience this same communion. Yet why don’t we say yes to this joyous invitation? St Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologiae, or Summa, outlines four substitutes or temptations that we may put in place of our highest hope and good; these are wealth, honor, pleasure, and power. In and of themselves, these are not unhealthy desires, if God is first and then we orient ourselves to them from God’s perspective.

When we assume the posture of pride, believing that we are the center of our lives and we seek wealth, power, pleasure, and/or honor for our own sake and self aggrandizement, they will be distorted and leave us empty, or worse lead us into the crippling slavery of addiction, because in and of themselves they are finite pursuits. How many times have there been reports of someone who has amassed most or all of these four, and then come to a place of such despair and emptiness that they had taken their own life?

Through a properly ordered sense of power grounded in love, defined by St Thomas, as the willing of the good as other, those in positions of power and privilege are called to be a voice for those who otherwise would not have a voice. Those with access to wealth, are to recognize that this is a gift from God, and each of us are to be good stewards of what we have received to help and support others, not only in an immediate limited stance of a hand out, but as a primary means to provide a hand up. To accompany and shepherd those who do not have access such that they can arrive at the point where they can be provided with access, skills, and means to participate in the dignity of meaningful work and gainful employment.

The ultimate goal of pleasure is to embrace the Beautiful, the gift that God provides in which we can have access and enjoy the wonders of his creation. At the same time we can be participants in the expression of creativity through the arts as well as our every day actions by finding joy in our interactions with one another and engaging in our vocations. If honor, fame and glory arise in the faithful, they arise not for its own sake or as to heighten the focus on self. This attention comes with the responsibility to further radiate the light and love of God so to evangelize and draw others to the Good, the True, and the Beautiful, as did Peter when he preached and three thousand came to accept the love of Christ, when Pope Francis visited the United States and the news for a week was filled with joy and hope, and when St Mother Teresa accepted the Nobel Peace Prize and she began her speech by saying, “As we have gathered here together to thank God for the Nobel Peace Prize” and ended with the words, “God bless you!”

Jesus has made the name of his Father known to us and he has made known the love with which his Father loved him with. May we accept the invitation and receive and live in his love, that the love of the Father may be in us and may the very presence of the Holy Spirit dwell within us. May wealth, power, pleasure, and honor, not be a distraction to our embracing of the love of God, but a means to radiate his light to others. With God as our fundamental option, we daily receive his love, are filled with, and experience his joy, so to radiate his presence to others. In this way, we are sent out to be his presence, his peace, his joy for those who are in need of his hope, his presence, and his love.

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Photo: Radiating the love of Christ, one smile at a time, one person at a time

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, June 6, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060619.cfm

“Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one” (Jn 17:11).

Jesus is well aware of the temptations of the world and recognizes that the disciples will need the protection of his intercession, and that they will remain faithful only if they remain in his love and in relationship with him. The unity that the Father and Son share is an eternal communion. Jesus, as the Son of God, continued to be one with his Father, while fully experiencing his humanity. As a human being, Jesus faced the same temptations present in this world that we face. The difference is that with each choice that he made, as a human being with a free human will, he chose to say yes to his Father each and every opportunity, and so their unity remained intact.

Jesus sought the same unity that he shares with his Father for his disciples and he seeks the same for us today, that we may be one as he and the Father are one. Yet, he is not going to pull us out of the world for that to happen. “I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One” (Jn 17:15). The disciples then and us today, are to do as Jesus did. We are to develop our relationship with God, come to know his will, and share it with those we encounter in our realm of influence. We are not to be transformed by the world, but we are to allow God to transform us by the renewal of our mind and heart. In this way, we can participate in changing the world, as God works through us one person at a time.

Following the will of God is not easy to do. Many distractions and temptations pull at us, and attempt draw us away from being faithful and true to God, ourselves, and who God calls us to be. Many times these distractions not only appear to be, but are good things. The challenge is not that we are being good or doing good, but are we doing what God is calling us to do?

I have struggled much of my life because I have had and pursued many interests in many areas, and so I have been pulled in many directions. Since my ordination in 2013, the challenge has increased as I have become more and more aware of the need of others and the many ministries to be a part of. I am not able to do half of what I feel drawn to do because I am only one person, but over the past year especially, I have been praying more persistently and seeking more diligently what God would have me to do. I have been asking him to sharpen my focus and I have been getting better clarification.

We can become one with Jesus and his Father when we slow down our pace, so to become still within and hear his voice. God speaks in the stillness of the heart his will for us and what he would have us do. The Holy Spirit, the love shared between the Father and the Son, will also reveal to us the gifts that he has imparted, and above all guide us to clearly know his direction and have the courage to follow it. If any fear or anxiety arises about what we are invited to do, we just need to remind ourselves that God will provide the means and support. We are not meant to do what he calls us to do alone. God’s grace is sufficient, God’s grace is enough.

We will accomplish that which God the Father requires of us when we turn to him for guidance and he will place the people and the means, reveal to us the temptations and pitfalls, and instill in us the desire for us to complete the task that we have been given. We just need to be willing to change, to be transformed, to grow, and extend ourselves out of our comfort zones, but it will be worth it. Because in the end, as we follow the will of God, trust his support, we will experience his joy, we will find meaning and fulfillment in our life, and ultimately, through the love of the Holy Spirit we will be one with Jesus and the Father and each other.

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Photo: 2019 graduates – One in God

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, June 5, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060519.cfm

“Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ” (Jn 17:3).

This is our goal, to know God. Eternal life or heaven, is not only experienced when we die, but through the life of Jesus, the very embodiment in his person of heaven and earth, we can have a foretaste of heaven now. We can experience this as the joy that rises up from within, that is not merely pleasure, which is a response from the stimulation of our senses and which dissipates once the experience ends. Nor is joy even happiness which comes from the lasting memories of these pleasurable experiences. The experience of joy is not based on external situations and stimulations, joy comes from an encounter with the living God who is present to us, closer to us than we are to ourselves.

We often first experience this joy, this closeness to God when we experience love exchanged between ourselves and another. Even a love that begins in infatuation is a drawing out of ourselves toward another. The hope is that this love matures and develops into a friendship.

We spend time getting to know each other’s interests, goals, and dreams. We experience another as a person, and with time and a continued trust, we begin to risk and allow our masks to be taken off. Inevitably, if relationships begin to mature, they will go through times of miscommunication, misunderstanding, and conflict. The relationship will come to a cross roads, but this does not mean that the relationship has to come to an end. If the relationship devolves into abuse, dehumanization, and self gratification alone, the relationship will need to end. But if there is a willingness to forgive, to work together, to meet each other with humility and a seek mutual understanding, relationships will grow stronger and deeper.

Our first experience of developing relationships is in our families. None of us are perfect, so none of us have had perfect experiences of family life. Familial relationships develop in a similar fashion as listed above. We all go through ups and downs. The more that we can be present to one another, support one another, communicate and love one another, the more likely our familial relationships and friendships will grow.

The level most of us hope to attain is to come to a place within ourselves where we can accept and love ourselves and develop mature relationships with a core group of family and friends. Most of us could be quite happy with that. Yet, as Jesus invites and guides us to reach this point of development, he also continues to help us to strive to love beyond family, friend and tribe. We are all ultimately called to a universal, unconditional love that sees a sister and brotherhood in all of humanity and all of creation. This is not some utopian philosophy, but who we all are created for and desire to be from the very depths of our being.

We will not get to this place alone, or through our own will power or discipline. Apart from God, there is no way. We have seen the atrocities committed time and again in the name of God across all faith traditions. When we place self over God and others, we isolate and disconnect ourselves from the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. God is not some transcendent, impersonal force, nor is he an omnipotent, tyrannical overlord. The God of Jesus Christ is a God of love, who invites us into relationship with him, our self and each other, and when we say yes to this invitation we experience a foretaste of heaven on earth.

Jesus, help us in our encounters today, that we may experience the love of God through coming to know you as we come to know each other. May we see each other as God sees us, as a unique gift that has never been nor ever will be again. Help us resist reacting to the rough edges and exterior projections of those wounded from living in a fallen world, to instead be compassionate and understanding, and to see the truth and fullness of the potential of each person as God sees in us. Jesus help us to see each other as God sees us, to allow God to love us and others through us today, one person at a time and one encounter at a time.

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Photo: Happiness for the last day of classes or joy of the Holy Spirit?

Link for the Mass readings for Tuesday, June 4, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060419.cfm

The disciples are beginning to have a better understanding that he is who he says he is, that “he came from God.” Jesus does not rest on or savor this insight and affirmation, but shares with them how, they still do not fully comprehend. He shares with them that each will leave him alone in his most desperate hour. Those he takes to be with him in the Garden of Gethsemane will fall asleep. When Jesus asks them to watch and pray with him, to be a support for him as he receives the will of the Father, they are asleep when Jesus hears he will be sent again, sent to do the Father’s will by giving his life on the Cross for them, for us and all. The disciples then all fled when the guards, led by Judas, come to take him into custody. Peter will betray him three times.

Jesus then shares with them, that even though they, his most intimate followers, his closest friends would betray him, he is not alone. Jesus said: “I am not alone, because the Father is with me. I have told you this so that you might have peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.” 

These words are words of comfort and hope for us today! No matter if we betray or are betrayed ourselves, we let others down or are let down, we see and experience the devastating effects of our fallen world and fallen human nature, from without and within; no matter what conflict, challenges, or tribulations we are faced with, we do not need to succumb to cynicism, hopelessness, and despair.

We are not alone! Jesus gives us the way because Jesus is the Way! Let us not be shaped by the culture or the world, but by his loving God and Father. Let us build our relationship with Jesus, who will lead us to the Father so to experience the Love of the Holy Spirit! When we acknowledge the presence of Jesus in our lives, when we turn to him for help and support, there is joy, there is peace, and all things are possible.

Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness, and he will not be overcome by it, for he has conquered death, and overcome the world. We are an Alleluia people because through our participation in the life of Jesus the Christ we will overcome as well. As an Alleluia people let us not be shaped by our culture and world but shape it by living the Gospel, by being and sharing the light, joy and peace of Christ in every aspect of our life and interactions with one another.

Photo: We are not alone!

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, June 3, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060319.cfm

For many of us, when we hear about the Ascension of Jesus we are just as beguiled as the disciples who as recorded in the Book of Acts were standing around, looking at the sky. Also, depending on where you live, will depend on when you celebrate this solemnity. If you live in the ecclesiastical Provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Omaha, and Philadelphia you already celebrated Ascension Thursday on its traditional day, this past Thursday. For the rest of the country it is a holy day of obligation celebrated today, on Sunday. The reason for Ascension Thursday is that the Ascension of Jesus took place 40 days since the Resurrection and 10 days before Pentecost. The point of concern for moving to Sunday observance was lack of attendance on Thursdays.

Regarding what the Ascension of Jesus is, sometimes, we can understand a term better by saying what it is not. The Ascension was not an event where Jesus went up, up, and away in my beautiful balloon, or Superman zipping away to destroy an asteroid hurtling toward the earth.

The Ascension is the culminating event of the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ. Jesus who as the Son of God became a human being like us, lived among us, experienced the joys and suffering of life like us in all things but sin, yet took our sins upon himself on the cross. Jesus then died, entered into the utter godforsakeness of death and conquered death. He rose again through the Love of the Holy Spirit, not as a ghost or a spirit, but still fully God and fully man, yet his body was transfigured. Jesus became the first born of the new creation.

After the forty days that he spent gathering his disciples, eating with, teaching, and empowering them to continue his work of making the will of his Father known, Jesus Ascended back to the Father with his humanity still intact, and so with our humanity too.

As Bishop Robert Barron explains: “The Ascension is the translation of this earthly reality into a heavenly reality.” Jesus is no longer limited by the time and space of our present temporal reality. He transcends our recognized third dimensional reality, and now exists at a higher pitch of existence. Just as Jesus was able to pass through a locked door, he is able to be present to us at Mass on Thursday or Sunday or any time that the Mass is celebrated anywhere in the world. Jesus is present to us where two or more are gathered in his name and he is present when we call on his name. Jesus is present to all of us everywhere because we are united as one in his abiding love!

Through the event of the Ascension, Jesus brings something of our humanity to heaven and at Pentecost, which we will celebrate next week, he sent something of heaven to us in the descent of the Holy Spirit. And who is the Holy Spirit, but the Love that is breathed, that is shared between the Father and the Son.

What the Ascension means for us is that we are separated no longer from the reality of heaven. St Irenaeus wrote that, “Jesus opened up heaven for us in the humanity he assumed.” We can see this biblically, as the sky was torn open at the baptism of Jesus, as the veil was torn in two outside the Holy of Holies in the temple at the moment of his crucifixion, and as Jesus Ascended with our humanity, to the right hand of the Father. Heaven and earth have been wedded. We become part of the Church, the bride of Christ through our Baptism, we are nourished and empowered in receiving the Eucharist, and Confirmation. We are not alone, separated from God, but grafted, conformed to, we become an organic part of the Mystical Body of Christ through our participation in the life of Jesus.

We are transformed, divinized, made God through our participation in the life of Jesus. We are made holy, and our commission, the same as the Apostles, is to continue the work of being a bridge for the communion of the human and the divine. We are to work to follow the will of God, on earth as it is in heaven, “to go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature”.

Having heard this Good News of the Ascension, let us not, as the two angels said about the disciples, just “stand around looking at the sky”, but go forth and share the love of his very being that we receive in the Eucharist and invite all to participate on earth what is celebrated in heaven, the love of the communion between the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen! Alleluia!!!

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Photo accessed from pexels.com

The Mass readings for Ascension Sunday, June 2, 2019: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/060219-ascension.cfm