This week’s memory verse: For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
1 Corinthians 11:26
Pray the week: Bread of Life, Fill and satisfy me. I struggle apart from You, but in Your flesh and blood I find nourishment for the day and eternal life with You. Amen.
Trust!
Jesus said to the Jewish crowds: “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.” The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
Thank you for joining today as we continue this short time wherein we consider the mysteries of God and His action to save us. This includes the Mystery of the Trinity (last week), of the Body and Blood of Jesus (starting this past Thursday and continuing to this Thursday), and the power of God’s Word (next Sunday).
From last Sunday through June 18th each of these topics is put before us, not so we get some academic explanation of them, but so we can learn of God’s awesome love, His desire for us, His self-revelation, and finally His desire that we trust and love Him in return.
Last week we discussed trust and how trust is established in each of us, and also how trust can be broken. Trust is key to our relationship with God.
It is interesting that Western Christian tradition has somehow moved so far from simple trust. This is not just something that has happened in the past couple hundred years. It is far more long term.
Part of the problem is evident in the Jewish crowd’s reaction to Jesus’ words: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” They had seen the signs. Scripture was being fulfilled before their eyes. They heard His witness and testimony. The thousands had just been fed and Jesus was telling them of far more excellent bread, one that would feed them unto life eternal – yet they wouldn’t believe. They could not trust even in the scriptures they claimed as the guide for all they did.
The early, pristine, evangelical Christians believed. Their belief was untainted. They certainly had thinkers, the Fathers, among them and they could answer the academics – but not with just academics, but with faith based on witness.
Through the centuries academic explanations became more important. Overthink something and place labels on it and we lose mystery and trust in God’s provision. ‘Hey, I can explain it – what do I need God for.’
In the past sixty-one years the Roman Church moved away from symbols of respect for the Blessed Sacrament. For them, it became just a thing which needed no care in handling. As a result, almost 70% of RC’s no longer believe the bread and wine are indeed Jesus fully present. It is sad.
We hold unto the mystery, not in academic explanations, but in what we say and do at each Holy Mass. How we act with reverence – like Jesus is really here – because we know and trust He is. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Because He is God, and we trust in Him.
This week’s memory verse: But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
Pray the week: Father, Son, and Spirit, I thank and praise You for Your self-revelation and tremendous gift of love. Grant that I may love as You do. Amen.
Trust!
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him will not be condemned”
Thank you for joining today as we enter this short time wherein we consider the mysteries of God and His action to save us. This includes the Mystery of the Trinity, of the Body and Blood of Jesus, and the power of God’s Word.
From this Sunday through June 18th each of these topics is put before us, not so we get some academic explanation of them, but so we can learn of God’s awesome love, His desire for us, His self-revelation, and finally His desire that we trust and love Him in return.
Consider trust. How is it that children trust their parents? Where does that trust come from?
Scientists evaluating trust relationships like those of a parent and child (and similarly that of husbands and wives) looked to two sources that helped in establishing trust.
One source is the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin is responsible for bonding. It is released during breastfeeding and during close contact. When a newborn is first held by a parent, that hormone in their systems is present creating a bond.
The other source important in building trust is the fact that children are naturally inclined to believe what they are told. This natural behavior is designed to save the child’s brain from constantly evaluating everything they hear.
We also know that trust can be easily eroded and eventually lost if a child is repeatedly lied to, is subjected to traumas, is not listened to, if promises are repeatedly broken, is disrespected, and fails to see examples of trust lived by the adults around them.
Trust and mystery are complementary. Indeed, our God is unfathomable. He is beyond our understanding. If we were to reflect on just one aspect of His reality, pure love for instance, we could spend our whole lives focused on it.
Consider our gospel today- God gave His only Son to save us, to pay our sin debt, with a love so perfect it sacrifices everything for us. It is a love so perfect that it exists even where unrequited or outright rejected. It exists even amid oppositional hatred.
God loves us so much that He revealed Himself to us. We get to know God and His way of life, His being, His Triune existence through His Son because in the end God wants us to know Him and be like Him.
Bottom line, God does not ask us to know Him in some technical fashion – how can there be three persons, One God? but rather by trusting in His realty of love. If we know Jesus and the way He loved both the Father and Holy Spirit have been revealed to us for it is one perfect love. So let us know Jesus better and in knowing Him live His way of loving.
This week’s memory verse: To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
1 Corinthians 12:7
Pray the week: Holy Spirit, I thank You for all You have placed into my life, heart, and abilities. Grant that I may use each of them in complete dedication to growing the Kingdom. Amen.
Lived Victory!
Holy Spirit, our Comforter, grant us a new vision and a new counsel, new wisdom and fresh understanding, the revival of our piety and the renewal of our fortitude, so we may go forth from this place faithful in service and fruitful in deeds. Establish us in the knowledge of God and in the fear of the Lord that we may see the Kingdom of Heaven upon the earth.
Thank you for joining today as we conclude our Easter joy and set out from here proclaiming: Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Throughout the week I was considering the age of the disciples who on this very day became the Apostles of Christ’s Holy Church. They were all in one place together. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
I was thinking about their age because in most artistic renderings (except for St. John the Apostle and Evangelist) they all seem so old. You know how they look, long grey hair and beards, a little stooped over. Then I look at myself – uh oh.
Jesus’ promise and final words to His disciples are fulfilled with the gift of the Holy Spirit. They came from many places. They were fishermen, tax collectors, ordinary working people like us. No one was fancy – plain old folks like us. They had common names like we do. Except for Paul who was called later, they were not scholars of the Law or Torah, only having a basic education in Jewish Law and practice. We know Peter was married and had a mother-in-law. They were all now Apostles.
Though the Bible does not give the exact ages of these Apostles, it is likely they were all between the ages of 13 and 30 at the time they followed Jesus with John likely the youngest and Peter perhaps one of the oldest since he was already married.
This is all in way to illustrate the exact power of the Holy Spirit, to take each one of us and with our willingness and cooperation to make use of us. Like the Apostles and the women in the upper room we are empowered to proclaim the gospel, to live as Jesus lived, to draw many into the kingdom (3,000 were added the day of Pentecost).
St. Paul tells us what was revealed to him: there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, forms of service, workings. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.
The words I quoted at the beginning of this reflection are taken from the closing prayer of today’s Holy Mass and are a prayer request for what we need to do God’s work.
These gifts are not just for our personal benefit, but rather for the benefit of God’s purpose. “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” as Jesus said. As we pray through this Octave and give thanks for the gifts of the Holy Spirit, let us take those words from the closing prayer and make them a reality by laying our lives completely before Jesus so He may use us as He wills. If we trust God at that level, then we shall surely be blessed and the Kingdom will grow.
This week’s memory verse: And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
1 John 4:14
Pray the week: Heavenly Father, I know I am in You because I am in Jesus. Grant that I may ever love You and carry out Your will. Amen.
Lived Victory!
“I revealed Your name to those whom You gave Me out of the world. They belonged to You, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they know that everything You gave Me is from You, because the words You gave to Me I have given to them, and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from You, and they have believed that You sent Me.”
Thank you for joining today as we continue in our Easter joy. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Over the past few weeks, we moved from Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances in the gospel passage to excerpts from St. John’s Last Supper narrative between Jesus and His disciples.
John’s Last Supper narrative is a very open and honest (what else could Jesus be?) discourse not just about what was to happen in the immediate aftermath of the Last Supper, that is Jesus’ arrest, torture, crucifixion, death, and burial, but out into the future – the forever future – a future of promise.
Jesus lays out a roadmap from His ministry with the disciples, what He taught them, their experiences of His ministry and miracles to His identity in the Father.
In today’s gospel passage He is bringing all this together in a farewell speech and concluding prayer. This prayer has been called the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus or the Arch Priestly Prayer of Jesus. Interestingly, this is specifically mentioned in the Canon of the Bishop Hodur Rite of the Holy Mass.
Jesus in this prayer is consecrating His followers in the Father. Indeed, Jesus’ whole life’s work was about connecting us to His Father, revealing Him, letting us know about His love, mercy, forgiveness, and thorough and complete healing. We learn, through Jesus, that His sacrifice was designed by the Father to save us. He is now blessing them in the Father.
We are heirs to this knowledge, to this revelation, and to its promises because we have, by God’s choice and the work of the Holy Spirit, accepted Jesus by faith in the same way the first disciples did. Therefore, we are possessors of the same glory Jesus has – the Father’s glory. Because we belong to Jesus we belong to the Father and so we are blessed in both the Father and Son. We have abundant eternal life in an ongoing knowing (being in relationship with) the Father and the Son.
Jesus speaks of the glory His Father will give Him and makes a very fine point about our possessing that same glory because of our unity with Jesus, our belief in Him, and in such our unity with God the Father.
Jesus, also being realistic, knows we remain here, unified with Him, but subject to the trials of the worldly and so He prays for them.
For us all this comes down to who we are, what we possess, and where we are going. As a faithful Christian I am in the Father through Jesus. I have the promise of eternal life. I am headed toward heaven – but there is still work I must do here.
This week’s memory verse: And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed
Luke 1:46-48
Pray the week: Lord Jesus, thank you for the gift of our heavenly mother, Mary, and for the special women in our lives. May their reverence take root in my life as I endeavor to do Your will.
Lived Victory!
Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear
Thank you for joining today as we continue in our Easter joy. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Scripture tells us of Peter’s mother-in-law, how Jesus healed her, and how she took care of Jesus and His disciples. Certainly, one of the many amazing, devoted women in Holy Scripture. I must imagine that Peter also had an amazing mom considering the letter that he wrote which we are reflecting on: Be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence, keeping your conscience clear.
That is a mom statement if I ever heard one. I can hear my mom saying similar things. You know, those occasions when we are upset, feel misunderstood, or are angry and want to run off and do something not quite smart. Maybe the words were slightly different, yet they were the same: ‘Explain yourself clearly. Use your words. Do things with gentleness and reverence. Honor those you encounter. Do not sin. Act with integrity. Just because someone wronged you does not mean you should do wrong. Have a clear conscience.’
Consider some of the other moms of the Bible. Like our moms they were wonderful examples of devotion to God, His people, and their families.
Jochebed was the mother of Moses and would not let the commands of government overcome her love for her son. She refused to allow him to be killed, hid him, and saved him. Not only did she protect Moses, but she reverently placed his fate in the hands of God when she placed him in the basket in the Nile. Our moms have confidently placed us in the hands of God. They taught us to trust in God over all things.
Hannah was in despair because she was unable to have a child. She was deeply loved by her husband Elkanah, but still longed for a child of her own. Every time Hannah went to the Temple, she poured her heart out to God. God heard her, and she bore a son. Out of gratitude to the Lord, she surrendered her son back to God. Hannah gave her child to God because she knew it was the best she could do for him. Releasing control opened the door for God to do amazing things for Samuel, one of the greatest prophets. Our moms have prayed for us and have given us to God in baptism so that He bless us as well.
The Widow of Zarephath gave what little she had to feed the prophet Elijah. Amid famine and desperation, her reverent faith and trust in God was essential to her and her son’s survival. Later when her son died, she went to Elijah for help, and her son was saved. Our moms have had “famine” seasons where things seemed bleak and hopeless. During those times, they taught us that reverent trust and faith in God overcome even when things don’t make sense.
Elizabeth and Mary reverently surrendered themselves to God’s will even though His way seemed impossible from a human perspective. They act as the premier example of moms who allowed God’s will to be done.
If we have learned from our moms and the moms of the Bible, our ears are opened to what Jesus asks and promises: “Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” Let us honor the special women of our lives by our reverence to God and by living His gospel way of life.