christianity

Let us harden not our hearts, instead let us trust in Jesus, and put on new wineskins.

“Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved” (Mt 9:17).

Mark, Matthew, and Luke all record Jesus’ reference of pouring new wine into fresh wineskins. What Matthew adds is, “and both are preserved.” Luke adds: “[And] no one who has been drinking old wine desires new, for he says, ‘The old is good.’”

The Gospel authors are reflecting on the tensions of those who would reject Jesus and those who would follow him and his new way. The new wine is to accept the Gospel, the Good News of the kingdom of God in their midst, and to do so means to change one’s mind and heart. “The tension, and often incompatibility, between the old and the new is part of every religious tradition and attends every change within that tradition. Matthew and Luke wrestled with it and adapted it to their community situation. Contemporary Christians have no less a challenge” (The Gospel of Mark, Donahue, SJ, p. 109). Matthew shared with his community that Jesus is the new Temple, for the old one had been destroyed in 70 AD. Following him in fact meant that both the old and new covenants would be preserved. Jesus did not come to abolish the law and prophets. Instead, he came to fulfill them and even raise the bar and challenge his followers even more.

We are invited to wrestle as well. The Church is called to change, to be transformed by the Living God. Many say the Church needs to change this and that, not realizing that we are the Church, the People of God, the Body of Christ. If the Church is to mature and grow each of us needs to embrace Jesus’ offer of the transforming love of God and be willing to be made anew through the guiding presence of the Holy Spirit. This invitation is a call to let go of those disordered affections, physical and emotional attachments, habits, lifestyles, behaviors, mindsets, and addictions that are weighing us down or worse holding us in bondage and slavery. To cling to that which is not of God keeps us separated from God. Much of the material and finite things we hold onto prevents us from receiving the new life God wants to pour into us.

Jesus has come to set us free from the old wine that will lead us astray. He is introducing some new wine. We are invited to sip and savor his teachings and actions as recorded in the Gospels. Even when they might be challenging, we do not have to be afraid of the change and transformation Jesus is calling us to experience. God wants the best for us, and he will give us the strength and discipline to move forward step by step, for as St. Irenaeus wrote: “The glory of God is man fully alive!” Jesus is inviting us to live our lives and live them to the full!

To become new wineskins, Jesus invites us to soften our hearts. Let us resist the temptation to harden them and dig in our heals because we are afraid that what God may be asking of us will be too hard or make us miserable. Jesus calls us to trust. As we take a breath or two, and trust him, we will begin to feel safe and be able to let go of those selfish and sinful inclinations that keep us constricted and rigid. We will also be able to step out beyond our comfort zones, ones that may have truly been good but were not intended to be the end goal. 

As we learn to trust, we will also learn to love as Jesus loves. We will then expand and open our minds and hearts more to receive the new wine Jesus wants to pour into us. We are called to go beyond the foundation of our identities that we have found safety and comfort in and become free to be people of integrity. Our identity gives us roots but our integrity gives us wings to fly.

It was hard for me to think of living my life without JoAnn after she died. It was hard to let go of teaching, first at Rosarian Academy and then at Cardinal Newman, and it was hard to leave, even after the intensity of the past two years of seminary, but Jesus was leading me to put on a new wineskin yet again. I am typing away, now as a priest, in my new office. I have been welcomed and blessed by the new wine poured out through the hospitality and kindness of Fr. Tom, the staff, clergy, and parishioners here at Holy Cross Catholic Church. 

Each time we have the courage to come to God in stillness, he will reveal to us that which distracts and diverts us from going deeper. As we trust Jesus and cut away the ties that bind us, as we are willing to be more and more conformed to Jesus, as we trust him and let go of our biases, prejudices, and fears, we expand and become more of our authentic and true selves and grow to be truly who Holy Spirit is leading us to be with his tender chords of love. 

Photo: Celebrating my first Mass of Thanksgiving at St. Peter Catholic Church.

Donahue, John R. S.J., and Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. The Gospel of Mark. Vol. 2 of Sacra Pagina, edited by Daniel J. Harrington, S.J. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002.

Parallel Scriptural accounts: See Mark 2:22, Matthew 9:16-17 and Luke 5:37-39

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, July 6, 2024

“Love one another, as I love you.”

“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you” (Jn 15:12).

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 of us as his followers, is a going out from, a giving of ourselves to one another. We are not to seek in return but are to empty and give ourselves away. The return we get is from experiencing the infinite wellspring and source of the Holy Spirit that rises up within us. The more we hold back, the less we receive, the more we give, the more we experience. We are to resist withdrawing our love and assuming a selfish posture that leads to us becoming more like a stagnant pool. Instead, we are to remain open so that we allow the living stream of God’s infinite love to flow through us.

The love Jesus commands is not selective. Love is accepting the interruption and choosing to be present. Love means stopping, setting aside our agendas, and accompanying another. Love is also not coercion and manipulation, it is accepting another as they are and where they are, inviting them to experience God’s love and healing. Love is sharing the journey of life together. St Thomas Aquinas has written it best: Love is to will the good of the other as other. This is more than mere emotion, feeling, or sentiment but seeking the best for someone else and to rejoice in their becoming fully alive. We are also not a doormat. We hold people accountable – for to love is also to be clear about respecting our and another’s dignity.

This practice of love is also not exclusive but universal. Yes, we are to love those in our family, community, place of worship, tribe, political party, and nation, while at the same time we must be willing to go out from our comfort zones and protected bubbles to risk opening ourselves up to those who we feel 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.

A dialogue grounded in love means that we 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 we are different. When we talk at and over one another, demean, belittle, or are condescending, we dehumanize. In an open dialogue, we begin to encounter the person and the prejudicial caricature we carry begins to dissolve. Instead of keeping each other at arm’s length, we can instead learn to embrace and grow from one another. From a place of mutual, loving dialogue, we can recognize and remember again who we are, friends, brothers and sisters, children of God all on this journey we call life.

—————————————————————-

Photo: Jesus’ greatest act of love for each of us, his life that we might have life and have it to the full. Sanctuary of Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center, North Palm Beach, FL.

Mass readings for Thursday, May 2, 2024

God’s commandments are invitations to grow in love.

Two points jump out of the Gospel of John today: commandments and love. How is each one of these related to living life as a disciple of Jesus? Often, many who hear the word commandments, often react, and are immediately put off. “There goes the Church again telling me what I can and cannot do.” Yet what Jesus is doing showing how the following of his commandments is a true expression of loving him.

Love is another word that evokes reactions. One reason is that, even though the English language has a plethora of words to utilize and choose from, there is only one word for love, and it is interpreted in many ways. In Ancient Greek, there are four words that are used to connote love. There is eros, which has to do with attraction. It is the beginning stage of love because we are drawn out of ourselves as we are attracted to another. The next word for love is philios, which has to do with friendship. This is the love between friends. If our love matures it moves from attraction or infatuation to friendship. The third word is storge or the deeper love shared with family members. The fourth word is agape, which is unconditional love.

When Jesus shares that we are to follow the commandments, he is not demanding that we do so as a tyrant. He is providing the boundaries and parameters for us to grow and mature as people who love, who, in the words of St Thomas Aquinas, will the good of the other as other. As humans, we are social beings. We want to belong, to be accepted, and to be a part of. We seek meaning, purpose, and fulfillment. This is best done through cooperation and collaboration with God and one another, striving for agape, to love unconditionally.

If we operate from a self-centered posture in which we are only turned in upon ourselves, and we only seek to manipulate and get from others, instead of working together and sharing a common vision with others, we will ultimately be empty with the exchange on any level, because we will be left wanting more. This is true because once the immediacy of the stimulation, whether material or sensual, ends, so does the experience of the feeling. Some happiness may linger from the effect, but we will never be filled or satisfied with anything finite. We will continue to seek more and more until the pursuit of instant and constant gratification ensnares us and we are entangled in a web of addiction.

The commandments, grounded in love, are meant to provide boundaries for us, training wheels, and to keep us free from enslavement to sin, while at the same time help us to be persons who move away from being self-centered to maturing as other-centered instead. Discipline in this way is meant to be a means of freedom for excellence such that we can become who God calls us to be and who we truly desire to be. Ultimately, we are to love God as he loves us and love our neighbor as ourselves in our own unique way. God is not in competition with us. He is our biggest fan. As St Irenaeus wrote, the glory of God is the human being fully alive!

Commandments and morality imposed, is a bludgeon. Love and mercy without accountability and justice can be enabling. Jesus provides the blueprint for a balanced both/and approach of invitation and shepherding. May we surrender to his loving guidance and correction, align ourselves with the Holy Spirit, who is the Love expressed and shared between the Father and the Son. May we seek ways to improve our lives, to be more honest with our weaknesses, so Jesus can be our strength, and to seek God when we are tempted to choose him so he can lead us away from the enticement to sin, and seek his forgiveness when we have fallen.

As we journey in this life, we do not do so alone. As we seek to follow Jesus’ lead, as we grow and mature, we do so while in the midst of encountering and forming relationships with others. Conformed by following the commandments, we are to reach out in love to each other as Jesus has done with us. As we form and deepen our relationships, new and old, may we encourage, support, and love one another while at the same time, challenge and hold each other accountable as we strive to be who Jesus invites us to be.
———————————————————–
Photo: The discipline of nightly Rosary walks over these past two years has been a blessing! St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, April 29, 2024

We are to be “carriers of God’s love to everyone.”

When Philip asks Jesus to show him the Father, Jesus responds: “Have I been with you for so long a time and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9). Even though Philip had lived with Jesus, experienced the authority of his teachings, witnessed his works of healing and exorcism, witnessed to the inclusiveness of his ministry, he, as we, struggled with comprehending what Jesus was talking about regarding the unity between his Father and himself.

One of the reasons is that God is God, and we are not. God is not one being among many, he is not even the Supreme Being, nor is God even in the genus of being. God so transcends our reality and sphere of understanding that any words we say about him are going to be limited. God is Infinite Act, God simply is. We are finite. At the same time, this does not mean that God is an impersonal force. God transcends all of his creation, time, and space, is the source and foundation of all that exists, and yet he is closer to us than we are to ourselves, each and every one of us.

God came closer still when, in the Person of his Son, he came to dwell among us. This is what Jesus meant when he said to Philip that when he saw him, he saw God. Each person, God the Father and God the Son are distinct but because of their infinite essence they are also, as we say in the Nicene Creed each Sunday, consubstantial, they are of one and the same substance.

The Son became one with us while remaining fully divine and in full communion with his Father, so we can become one with him and experience the intimate relationship that they share. We participate in the life of Jesus because he became human, and as human beings, God created each of us as being interconnected with one another. So, what happens to one of us, happens to all of us.

Through our Baptism and participation in the sacraments, we participate and become conformed to the Body of Christ so to encounter Jesus in an ever deeper intimacy and share in the divine Communion between God the Father and God the Son, as well as the Love that is shared between them who is God the Holy Spirit.

The wonderful gift of participating in the relational communion with the Holy Trinity, is not just for us alone as some treasure to sit on, as some secret knowledge to be shared with only a chosen few. This is a universal message to be shared with all. As we grow in our relationship and participation with God, we are to make him known to others. We do so through our participation in the life of Jesus. As Jesus said to Philip, “[W]hoever believes in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these, because I am going to the Father” (Jn 14:12). Jesus seeks to work, love, and serve through us as the Father did through him.

Each of us is given a particular charism, a ministry of service to build up the kingdom of God. The key is to believe in Jesus and seek his guidance so that he can help us to discern how best we can serve him and build up his Body. Those we call saints were those who came to know that one thing that God called them to do. They then surrendered all to their vocation.

This is not just for clergy or religious, this is for each and every person on this planet. The only requirement is that we are willing to follow Jesus, say yes to the invitation to experience the love of the Holy Spirit he freely offers, and be willing to be sent to allow God to happen in our interactions with one another. As St. Mother Teresa said we are to “become the carriers of God’s love to everyone.”

Let us embrace today the reality that the God of all creation loves each and every one of us more than we can ever imagine. Embrace the unique relationship he calls us to participate in, which is a share in his Trinitarian Communion. Embrace this unique blessing so that we can open our hearts and minds to the service and ministry he calls us to through our participation in the life of Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God, through the Love of the Holy Spirit.

———————————————————-

Photo Credit: Photo I took of St Mother Teresa in Massachusetts in the early 90’s. No zoom either, that’s how close I was blessed to be!

Link for the Mass reading for Saturday, April 27, 2024

Walk not away from Jesus, ponder instead.

Even though Jesus had fed the five thousand and they were satisfied and there was plenty more where this gift of grace came from, even though they traveled by boat and followed him to Capernaum seeking a sign, the discourse regarding eating his Flesh and drinking his Blood was just too far of a stretch for the majority of the disciples to take. In fact: Many of the disciples of Jesus who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it” (Jn 6:60)?

All but the apostles walked away from Jesus at that point and returned to their former ways of life. They could not believe because they did not fully appreciate who Jesus was, the One from above, who was sent by the Father. They had not developed a deep enough relationship with him such that they could trust him and that what he had said was true, they could not believe that he was the One whom God had sent.

Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?” Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn 6:67-69). Peter’s response is one of belief and trust. I am sure they reacted in the same way as the others gathered there, but they trusted Jesus enough that even though this teaching was hard, even inconceivable, he would make sense of it for them, just as he had done so many times before.

This is to be our response as well. When we find some of his teachings are hard to digest, we need to resist the temptation to walk away. Instead, may we follow Mary’s model of pondering, as she did when Gabriel shared that she would bear the Savior of the world. She did not fully comprehend what the message meant, but she trusted God and said yes. May we follow Peter, who may have also been dealing with mixed emotions and doubts, remained firm in his belief in Jesus because he trusted that Jesus was the “Holy One of God”. Peter had experienced that Jesus had known what he was saying and doing before, he would continue to trust him this time as well.

Jesus is a model to follow, yes, but he is so much more! Jesus does not give us more burdens to bear, but graces that build upon our nature that we are invited to receive. He did not want to die, but he was willing to say yes, to submit his human will to his Father because he trusted him and knew he would bring about a greater good. Jesus gave his life and in so doing he conquered death, transcending the time and space of our present dimension so to be present to us in the Sacrament of the Eucharist he gave us.

Jesus lives, he is the firstborn of the new creation, and he wants to not only lead us to eternal life, but impart his life in us today, in such an intimate way that we may consume him at each Mass, that we may be one with him in this life and for all eternity! May we with Peter come to believe and be convinced, that Jesus is the Holy One of God!

Amen. Amen.
I’m alive, I’m alive,
Because he lives.
Amen. Amen.
Let my song join the One that never ends.
Because he lives.
The verse from Matt Maher’s song, “Because He Lives (Amen)”.

—————————————————————

Photo: Taking some time to ponder and enjoying the company of a Blue Heron. St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, FL.

Link for video: Because He Lives (Amen), Matt Maher, from cd: Saints and Sinners, 2015

Link for the Mass readings for Saturday, April 20, 2024

Jesus offers all as he gives his “Flesh for the life of the world.”

Those in the crowd who Jesus is speaking with are those who experienced his multiplication of the loaves and fish. Step by systematic and deliberate step, through chapter six of John and as read in this week’s Mass readings, Jesus is setting the stage for today’s insertion into his presentation.

Jesus begins slowly, but with each successive step, he is not willing to be tamed. He, as the One from above, the One who has seen and has been sent by the Father, is fully divine, as well as fully human. The Godman is speaking among those who have come to him. He has responded to the people’s request regarding how they were to “accomplish the works of God” and his response is that they are to believe in him, he who had been sent by God. They were to “work for food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give”. Jesus with the multiplication of the loaves and fish provided for those who were hungry in the moment. He is now describing how he will provide food that will endure for eternal life. Jesus shared that he is this food, the bread from heaven, that will give life to the world.

What Jesus has shared thus far and what he shares in today’s Gospel message has been given to him to say by his Father and is for everyone who is willing to accept his invitation: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.”

We have an advantage, that those listening to Jesus, did not have. We just experienced Lent and we can certainly draw a line to how Jesus gave his very life, his Flesh, that was sacrificed and hung on the cross. Jesus died and experienced utter God forsakenness by giving his very life for the life the world.

But for those in the crowd who only the day before sought to unanimously make Jesus their Messiah by popular acclamation are growing a bit uncomfortable. This discourse is now starting to move into a more dramatic and concrete presentation with horrific implications. After an initial gasp or two, some murmuring of questions might have begun to arise:

“Did Jesus really just say he would give us his flesh?”

“Jesus is saying he is the bread from heaven, and the bread he is offering is his flesh?”

“Is Jesus saying what I think he is saying?”

Yes! The Son is saying exactly that because the Father has given all that he is, holding nothing back, emptying himself into the Son. The Son has received all that the Father is and returns himself, giving all that he is, holding nothing back, to the Father. This eternal giving and receiving, this eternal communion of Love shared between the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit. Jesus is offering us a participation in this perichoresis, this divine dance of infinite communion, as he offers all that he is to his listeners then and to us, this day, to be consumed. He is holding nothing back in his offer. We are invited not only to receive all that Jesus is, we are also invited to give ourselves away in return. Stay tuned, more to come tomorrow…
—————————————-

Photo: Closeup of the artistic rendition of the face of Jesus based on the Shroud of Turin.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, April 18, 2024

Jesus is with us, even when we fall.

“Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me” (Jn 6:37-38). Jesus does not reject us, he accepts us as we are, first and foremost. Jesus has come to do his Father’s will which is to lead us all to salvation, to be redeemed and restored to the proper order of freedom from our enslavement to sin. This is why Jesus met Cleopas and the other disciple on the road to Emmaus. They were walking the wrong way! Jesus did not tell them that, he just opened the Scriptures for them, so that they could see that he was who he claimed to be and then revealed himself to them in the breaking of the bread. Once they had a deeper encounter with him, they determined on their own to turn back, and even though evening approached they went back to tell the Apostles the Good News of their experience.

It was through sharing a meal with them that they recognized him. How many meals had they shared together before his death? A close reading of Sacred Scripture shows how important table fellowship is for Jesus and his followers before his death and after his Resurrection. True, Jesus eating with his disciples after his Resurrection shows that he is no ghost, he is human, but also that he is reestablishing the cornerstone of his ministry, table fellowship.

Here the basic needs of sustenance are met, for the body, and in also in sharing his time and conversation with anyone willing to eat with him, no matter their level of ritual purity, touches the deepest hunger within each of us, which is to belong, to be accepted as we are, for who we are. The majority of the crowd that Jesus is speaking to has continued to come to him because he fed them with only a few loaves and some fish. In the miraculous multiplication, Jesus is providing for their bodily nourishment, but also preparing them for the deeper spiritual nourishment of the body and soul to come in the next verses as he goes deeper into his Bread of Life discourse.

Jesus loves us, he wills the best for us. Many resist this claim for different reasons. It could be the callouses, scars, growing cynicism resulting from wounds inflicted by others as well as from those within the Church. Each of us could have experienced the same and have also been let down by those we have looked up to and trusted. If we are involved in a relationship long enough, we will experience disappointment or worse. This is because sooner or later, when we allow ourselves to get close enough, the masks will come down and who we truly are, the fullness of our wounds and our gifts will come to the fore. Conflicts will arise because we are finite beings. We are still a work in progress. Conflict is not a bad thing. It is healthy when we are willing to work together to resolve the conflict together.

None of us are perfect. We are all on a journey. On our own, not only will we consistently fall short of our goal, we will often be headed in the wrong direction. That is why we need a savior. Jesus, fully divine as Son, came down from heaven and became human to meet us in our humanity. He is there for us when we fall down face-first into the mud. He is willing to be there with us, to look us in the eye, and smile.

Even if we are not able to look past the predicament, can we resist Jesus? His eyes looking at us and his smile that lets us know we can get through this together. His hand offered to us that we can grasp and feeling the strength of his grasp, then rise together and stand again. That is how Jesus shows his mercy and love for us. He enters our chaos and meets us in the muck and grime of our mistakes, brokenness, and sin. He loves us there, and when we are ready to accept his offer of love, he invites us to get up, and begin to walk again toward the fullness of who we are called by his Father to be.

As our relationship grows and deepens with Jesus and as our trust renews, we begin to believe that we belong. We begin to heal and realize that we are a part of something greater than ourselves and then, with wobbly steps, we begin to offer attempts of the same mercy, forgiveness, and unconditional love with others. This is the path of discipleship. This is the road we are on, together. This is not a hundred-yard dash but a long and winding road. Let us be willing to persist, to be led, to love, to be there for, and accompany one another each step of the way. And especially may we have the willingness to help each other when we fall.

———————————————————————————

Photo: Living Stations of the Cross in the streets of the Bronx, me, as Jesus, falling a third time – around 1991.

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, April 17, 2024

Let us believe in the one whom God sent.

One of the best ways to celebrate the Easter Season is to continue to conform our lives to the one who gave his life for us that we may experience and be engaged in our life to the full. We can accomplish this better by putting into practice what we read in the Gospels as well as being open to encountering God in our daily experiences and one another.

Today’s Gospel reading continues after Jesus not only fed the 5,000 but also after he had walked across the Sea of Galilee and guided his disciples safely to the shore. When the crowd caught up to, found, and gathered around Jesus, he continued to teach them, guiding them to “not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” The people asked him what they could, “do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent” (cf: Jn 6:27-29).

The people asked Jesus what they were to do to accomplish the work of God, and he said to believe in the one he sent. The response of Jesus may not appear to fit the request. But to believe is not passive. Belief is to be followed by action. If we say that we believe in Jesus, do we pray with him, do we worship him independently and in communion with fellow believers, do we sing songs praising him, do we serve him through the giving of ourselves to one another by practicing the corporal and spiritual works of mercy?

When we experience setbacks, interruptions, conflicts, or are weighed down by tribulations, do we turn to cursing and yelling or turn instead to Jesus for guidance and direction? By the way, yelling or expressing our anger at Jesus is turning to him in honest prayer instead of turning our back on him. We are honestly letting him know how we feel. The key is to vent, but then let it go, and not stay there.

Do we turn within ourselves or only surround ourselves with those of like mind, color, political and/or religious views, and make others into scapegoats, or do we embrace the richness, uniqueness, and diversity of God’s people, open ourselves to dialogue, and new possibilities? When life goes well, do we thank God for the wonderful things that happen? Where are we spending our time, talent, and treasure?

Answering these questions is a good way to assess what and in who we truly believe. If our diagnosis today is that we are not as faithful as we would like, we don’t believe as much as we thought we did, that is not an invitation to beat ourselves up. It is a gift to begin again, to take a spoonful of belief in Jesus, spend a few silent minutes with him, begin the journey from our head to our heart, and put into practice one small thing today in his name with great love.
——————————————————-
Photo: Jesus is the One whom God sent to die and conquer death that we might have life and have it to the full. Good Friday sunrise at Our Lady Of Florida Spiritual Center, North Palm Beach, FL.

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, April 15, 2024

Each day is an opportunity to experience the miracles and wonders of God.

The feeding of the five thousand that we encounter in today’s Gospel from John is reported in each of the four Gospels. The only other incident that is recorded in all four is the Resurrection accounts. This point is relevant because biblical scholars look to the multiple attestation theory as one means as to whether an account in the Gospel record is more or less plausible. Having the same account present in each of the four is strong evidence in support for that event happening.

From a different perspective, there are those that embrace scientism meaning that they will not believe in anything that cannot be measured, experimented upon, or proven within the realm of the five senses. For those ascribing to this strict interpretation, religion and accounts of miracles are often dismissed as superstition, that if something indeed did happen, there is a scientific explanation to dismiss the miraculous. Even some believers may discount the record of the feeding of the five thousand as more of a symbolic representation of the generosity and service encouraged by Jesus such that everyone gave their small share and there was enough for all, not that he was able to multiply the bread and fish.

These perspectives of downplaying the miracle of multiplication seek to reduce or limit Jesus to just his humanity, but he is so much more. Jesus is human, fully human, yes, but he is also fully divine. Coming to understand the wonder of the unity of the divinity and humanity of Jesus can help us better understand the reality of our world and cosmos. One of the core aspects of who we are as human beings is that we are people of wonder. The physical sciences are tools that we have in our toolbox that we can access to help us to understand our physical realm, while at the same time we also have spiritual tools that aid us in understanding both physical and spiritual realities. The physical sciences actually emerge precisely because of our spiritual pursuit to understand the wonders of God’s creation. In accessing both faith and reason, we come to have a broader picture, more pieces of the puzzle in which to put together and better experience our world.

When we limit or explain away the miracles of Jesus, we rob ourselves of a more accurate picture of the reality of creation. One concrete example of this is when our third president, Thomas Jefferson, took a sharp object and painstakingly cut out verses from the Bible and pasted them to blank pages. He did so in columns of Latin and Greek on one side of the paper and French and English on the other. This eighty-four-page tome is commonly called the Jefferson Bible, but the president titled it: The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth. This text offers a human portrayal of Jesus that dismisses anything divine.

If we remove ourselves from the divine, and 99.9% of our life, experience, interests, and thought is spent in the finite material realm, we will miss a deeper expression of who we are as human beings and disconnect ourselves from much of the joy and gift of life. It stands to reason then why we would find it hard to believe in miracles, the mystical, the spiritual. In the miracles is not a self-aggrandizing move on Jesus’ part, but a move of love and empathy. Jesus is moved, time and again, to reach out in love, to care for and support those who are in need. Even more, the miracles are pointing to our final destination which is beyond the limits of this finite reality! As we read in today’s account of the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus is showing what living life to the full is all about: being in communion with God and one another.

We need to resist the temptation to write off too quickly the miracles of Jesus presented in the Gospels and still happening today. May we also not dismiss the gift and value of the sciences. By approaching our world with a both/and approach, we will get a better understanding of and appreciation for not only the gift and wonder of creation but also who we are as human beings. God has imparted within us the ability to access and develop both our faith and reason, to think critically, and to pray and meditate deeply.

Jesus, as the firstborn of the new creation, embodies the reality of the fullness of who God in the depths of our souls has created us to be, human and divine. Jesus is still present to us today, knocking on the doors of our hearts, minds, and souls. If we only follow the moral and social teachings of Jesus, as did Thomas Jefferson, we will experience some benefit, but we will limit ourselves because we will be cutting out the very life force that sustains those virtues we hope to aspire to. We will access the fullness of all that God the Father offers us when we open the door to his Son this Easter Season, let the Holy Spirit in, and offer the little we have and watch how much he can multiply our simple gifts.

Let us continue to journey together, to read and pray together the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. May we resist rejecting outright what we do not understand or comprehend, and instead be willing to ponder the wonders of miracles, the gifts of God’s grace that builds on our nature, the reality of God-incidences all around us, and embrace the eternal foundation and ground of our being which is the Trinitarian Love of God.

Photo: Morning prayer back on retreat at Our Lady of Florida Spiritual Center, North Palm Beach, FL.

Link to the Mass readings for Friday, April 12, 2024

Let us believe, in Jesus who opens up heaven for us.

Jesus continues his conversation with Nicodemus in today’s Gospel from John. In the opening verse, Jesus outlines why he came into the world: “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). God has created us out of love and shepherds us out of love. God loves what he has created, and in his order and timing, he sent his Son to enter humanity to become one with us, to heal us and invite us to come out of the shadows and dark recesses of turning in upon ourselves, from living in fear and sin, and to walk with him in relationship.

To love we need to risk being rejected. Jesus entered humanity as we all did, in the utter vulnerability of the womb. His very life was at risk from the moment of conception. Mary, a young woman, betrothed to Joseph, in a time and culture in which a woman found to be with child and not from her husband, could be stoned to death. Mary could have made a different choice, Joseph could have made a different choice, but both chose to follow the will of God. They resisted the temptation to close in upon themselves and make an isolated decision based on their own needs, anxieties, and fears. While all of creation held its collective breath, Mary and Joseph trusted God, they chose the light, they chose to protect life.

“Whoever believes in him will not be condemned, but whoever does not believe has already been condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God” (Jn 3:18). Jesus did not come to condemn, he came to redeem, to save, to love us into eternity. For love to be real, it must be truly free. Free to the full extent that it can be rejected. Otherwise, what is experienced by the other is coercion, conditions, manipulation, pressure, but not love. The Son of God entered the womb of Mary risking rejection by her, Joseph, and/or their extended family.

Those who, like Mary and Joseph, believe in Jesus will come to have eternal life, and those who do not have already been condemned, not by God but by themselves. This is true because instead of accepting the invitation of the Source of life they are turning away. Those rejecting God have been invited to receive his love also, but for reasons they may or may not be aware of, say no. We who follow Jesus are to be his presence of love among those we encounter, even those who shy away or reject him. We may be the only Bible someone ever reads.

Satan tempts and condemns us when we fall. God does not. “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). We, even in our brokenness, imperfections, and sin, are loved by Jesus. Don’t listen to the father of lies who would say anything different. Jesus has not come to condemn but to invite us to receive his love, healing, and forgiveness. Only if we are unwilling to seek his forgiveness, we are not sorry, and/or we are not willing to change, will we not be forgiven, because we give nothing to Jesus to forgive.

There is nothing Jesus will not forgive us for, nothing, that is why he instituted the sacrament of Reconciliation. When we seek his forgiveness, are sorry for our sins, confess to the priest, seek to change with Jesus’ help and do penance, we will be absolved and forgiven.

We are free to reject or accept the offer of Jesus’ love. As Pope Francis wrote: “We are called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves.” As we are forgiven, receive, and experience the love of Jesus, may we seek to love those we encounter as Jesus has loved us. If there are any that we might not include in everyone, may we be willing to allow Jesus to love them through us until we can.

Photo: Looking up to the things of heaven as I began my Rosary walk – St. Vincent De Paul Regional Seminary, Boynton Beach, FL.

Link for article on Gaudete et Exultate (“Rejoice and Be Glad”)

Link for the Mass readings for Wednesday, April 10, 2024