“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you” (Jn 15:12). This is how God created us, to be loved and to love. The love that Jesus is talking about is unconditional and not just relegated to those closest to us, although, hopefully, in our families and friendships is where we first experienced being loved and learned to love in return.

The love that Jesus commands that we are to participate in as his followers, is a going out from, a giving of ourselves to others. We are not to seek in return, but to seek to empty ourselves. The return we get is from the infinite well spring and source of the Holy Spirit. The more we hold back, the less we receive, the more we give, the more we receive. We are to be tapped into the living stream, not separated and isolated, so as to become a stagnant pool.

The love Jesus commands cannot be done on the fly. To love is to be present to another. To love is to stop, to put our agendas and thoughts on the side and be willing to accompany another. Love is also not coercion and manipulation, it is accepting another as they are and where they are and sharing the journey of life together. Love, as I have also written before, is as St Thomas Aquinas has written, to will the good of the other as other. This means that we seek to will another’s good. This may mean saying things that others may not want to hear, or guiding them away from actions, relationships, and habits that are detrimental to their highest hope and good.

The reality of living in the love of Jesus is not exclusive but universal. We are to love those in our family, community, place of worship, tribe, political party and nation, while at the same time we are not to be limited to our common group. We must be willing to go out from our protected spaces to risk to love, to direct our thoughts, words, and actions toward those who are different, those who do not see the world as we see it, and even those we consider our enemies. This does not mean we have to agree or even like someone else, but we are commanded to love, to respect the dignity of the person as our starting point.

We can and ought to state clearly our beliefs, our thoughts and dreams, but also allow others to do the same. In this way, though we may differ in our points of view, we can see how we are much more alike than different. When we talk at and over one another, demean and belittle one another, we dehumanize each other. In an open dialogue, we encounter the person, and instead of keeping each other at arm’s length, we can embrace, learn and grow from one another as mutual brothers and sisters on this journey we call life.

Let us strive to be open to receiving the love of God, to be more open to loving one other as we encounter each other with respect and dignity, willing each other’s good.

Photo: Wolf Den Pow Wow, with hunka father, Fire Hawk, in late 80’s.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, May 13, 2018:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051418.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 death and conquered death. He rose again, 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 forty days 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 in tact, 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 when we call on his name.

Through the event of the Ascension, Jesus brings something of our humanity to heaven and at Pentecost 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, shared between the Father and the Son.

What this 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 the Holy of Holies in the temple at his crucifixion, and as Jesus Ascended fully human, with our humanity, to the right hand of the Father. Heaven and earth have been wedded.

We are the Church, the bride of Christ. Through our Baptism, receiving the Eucharist, and Confirmation we become grafted, conformed to, we become an organic part of the Mystical Body of Christ.

We are transfigured, 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”.

Today, this Lord’s Day, we not only celebrate the Ascension, but Mother’s Day. Motherhood is one of most profound mirroring of what the word Ascension means, the wedding of heaven and earth. The union of marriage between a man and a woman brings about the possibility of new life, a child.

The expression of the unitive love shared between husband and wife, father and mother, on earth mirrors the communal love of the Trinity in heaven. The Father, the lover, wills the good of his Son; the Son, the beloved, receives all that his Father gives him and infinitely returns what he has received; the Holy Spirit is the love that is shared between both Father and Son. All of creation is a result of the outpouring of infinite love, such that we have been loved into existence.

A mother participates in the wonderful gift of giving birth to new life. What great news! Yet, just as the Church is to bear Christ to the world, we can reject or accept this gift of commission, just as a mother or father can say yes or no to the wonderful gift of life present in her womb.

We exist because our mothers said yes to the gift of their vocational call to motherhood. They did not forsake us, they gave birth to us. But being a mother did not just stop at our birth, they loved, provided, guided, and cared for us, the best they could. This is true for our birth mothers, step and foster mothers, grandmothers, and single fathers. This day we say thank you, honor you, your sacrifice, and your love.

Our mothers continue to love us, even those now present with the Ascended Jesus. Jesus gave his life, conquered death, rose again and Ascended to the right hand of the Father so he could send the Holy Spirit, so we could fully participate in the love shared between his Father and himself.

Having heard this Good News of the Ascension embodied through our mother’s love, let us not, as the two angels said, just “stand around looking at the sky”, but share the love of his very being 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.

Happy Mother’s Day to those reading!

Photo: My mother, Jack and Christy around summer of 2011 visiting in Connecticut.

The Mass readings for Ascension Sunday, May 13, 2018:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051318-ascension.cfm

“I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father” (Jn 16:28). This phrase, in one form or another, has been a consistent message in John’s recording of Jesus’ farewell discourse. These words not only show his connection to the Father through his coming from and returning to the Father and then his sending of the Holy Spirit, but these statements help to prepare the way for us to understand the Trinitarian Communion.

What theologians have termed as the Immanent Trinity, as God within himself, is expressed by the divine communion of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. All that God the Father is, he gives all, holding nothing back, to God the Son perfectly. God the Son receives all that God the Father has given perfectly, and returns all that he has received, holding nothing back, perfectly to God the Father. This giving and receiving, this going out from and returning to, this perfect willing of each other’s good, is the purest expression of Love. This Love shared infinitely and perfectly between God the Father and God the Son, is God the Holy Spirit.

The Son of God became one with us, sharing in our humanity, so we can also share in his divinity. His ascent and return back to the Father makes this even more possible. Now his divine nature, as the Son, always remained in full communion with the Father. Jesus is one divine Person as the Son, yet he subsists in two natures the divine and the human. What is different about the Ascension in salvation history, is that as the human nature of Jesus transcended our three dimensional reality to enter the eternal present, the immanence, of the Trinitarian communion, and because God created all humanity and creation as interconnected with one another, we are now able to share in the intimate, divine dance, perichoresis, of Love between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

We are all invited, 24/7/365, with every breath, thought, and action, to experience the Holy Spirit, the communion of Trinitarian Love. But this is an invitation, meaning no matter how wonderful, no matter that this is what we have been created for and will bring us fulfillment and a joy that cannot be taken away, we can accept or reject it. Thankfully, because of the Divine Mercy of God this is an open invitation. Even if we had said no for years, we can say yes. Once we say yes, even just a little, the love of God grows within us, just like the image of the mustard seed Jesus used in his parable. As we experience the love of God in our own lives, we begin to realize how God is the foundation of our being and all creation.

We come to see how God is in all things, how he is present to us in our everyday actions when we participate in the very being and life of Jesus. We do so when we participate in the sacraments. Jesus is even more present to us in the sacraments than when he was present to the Apostles. We also experience and encounter God through our participation in the three transcendentals, the ways of our being that God has imparted to us to experience him, the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. It is through the expression of our creativity and the creativity of others in music, dance, and the arts that we come to experience the Beautiful. By embracing our gift of reason and intellect, through prayer, study, and sharing of ideas, we come to know the True. In recognizing the gift of others as human, through our fellowship, loving and engaging one another in the corporeal and spiritual works of mercy we come to experience Love which leads us to the Good.

Life is a wonderful gift that God has given us, and it is a life to experience not just to endure, even in the midst of our trials, tribulations, and sufferings. We just need to remember to open our hearts, minds, and souls to receive the gift of God working through us. Just as the Son does, we are to risk, to give his love away, by sharing his love with others. This is a risk because the invitation we offer can be turned down or rejected. Even so, we must resist the temptation to judge, to take offense, but instead assume a posture of understanding, of being present, and being available to witness and allow God to reach others through us.

Each of us are on our journey of growing in faith, opening ourselves to the will of God, so we too, like the Son can experience the Good, the True, and the Beautiful. We too can experience, perichoresis, the infinite dance of Love between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. This is our fundamental option, our end goal, heaven, which is to enter the fullness of the divine dance and communion of the Trinity. What Jesus has brought to us through his Paschal Mystery; his life, death, Resurrection, and Ascension into heaven, is the reality of how we can experience heaven on earth right now. May we embrace our vocation today, which is to say yes to God’s invitation to embrace the love of the Trinity so to love others as we have been loved. “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel” (Mk 1:15).

Photo: Christmas hike 2010

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, May 12, 2018:

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/051218.cfm

“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