Monday, May 11, 2015

Monday of the Sixth Week of Easter

(Acts 16:11-15; John 15:26-16:4a)

Videos of extremist Muslims massacring Christians authenticate Jesus’ prophecy in today’s gospel.  Men and women thinking that they are doing God’s will are killing his disciples.  As there is cause for outrage, there is also need for reflection on what is taking place.

First of all, not all, not even a sizeable minority of Muslims agree with such persecution.  There are certainly fundamentalist interpretations of the Koran which deny basic rights of peoples of other faith traditions.  But murder is not tolerated, much less condoned by the vast majority of Muslim people.  Still, in many nations with Muslim majorities there is need for recognizing the full range of human rights to non-Muslims just as Muslims thrive with these freedoms in most countries.

It should also be noted that Jesus does not even hint of retaliation for the abuses he visualizes.  Throughout the gospel he promotes a spirit of love among his people.  True, in the Gospel According to John Jesus emphasizes love within the community, but surely this disposition of goodwill affects our outlook toward others.  Indeed, by our readiness to forgive wrongs, we testify to the knowledge of God which Jesus sees lacking among religious persecutors.

Friday, May 8, 2015

Friday of the Fifth Week of Easter

Acts 15:22-31; John 15:12-17)

In his book The Four Loves C.S. Lewis sees friendship as grossly undervalued in modern times.  He writes that the ancients considered friendship as “the happiest and most fully human of all loves.”  In contrast, he comments that moderns have trouble seeing friendship as a love at all.  Friendship, according to Lewis, is sharing personally and fully over common interests.  By no means does he equate friendship with regular companionship, however.  Rather he indicates that one would be blessed to have only two or three friendships in her entire life.  So it is remarkable that in today’s gospel Jesus calls all his disciples’ friends.

But, of course, it is not the case that the twelve or so men gathered around Jesus the night before he died exhaust the list of his friends.  Really all serious followers of Jesus become his friends because they share the same desire to know God.  In order to reach this goal Jesus has revealed that they have to keep his commandment of love.

We should see the purpose of our lives as having God for our friend.  The grace of the Incarnation is that He took on human flesh to overcome the impasse that our bodily nature posed from knowing Him.  He has become one like us.  We can know him as an ever-caring, ever-helpful friend.

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter

(Acts 15:7-21; John 15:9-11)

In his encyclical Ut Unum Sint Saint John Paul II expressed his openness to a new form of papal leadership. As a significant outreach to Orthodox and Protestant Christianity, the pope asked for suggestions to change his office to accommodate non-Catholic Christians without compromising truth. His offer is reminiscent of the concession that the first followers of Christ are making in the readings from the Acts of the Apostles today.

In the beginning Judaism was as much a part of Christianity as Mother's Day is part of being American. God chose the Jews to be His own people, and, as Jesus says in the Gospel of John, "Salvation is from the Jews." But this does not mean that one necessarily has to become a Jew to be saved. Peter proclaims what Jesus' disciples know instinctively: salvation does not come from Jewish dietetic observance but from the grace of the Jew, Jesus Christ.

The great ecumenical question for us is not how much change in the papacy we are willing to accept but how much personal renewal we are willing to make. Some Catholics may harbor prejudices against non-Catholics which surely have to go. Most of us need to emulate the virtues of other kinds of Christians - like the serious study of the word of God. Finally, all of us must pray more determinedly with Christian brothers and sisters for unity.

Wednesday, May 6, 2015

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter

(Acts 15:1-6; John 15:1-8)

One of the characteristics of the Gospel According to John is Jesus’ speaking of himself as “I am.”  In today’s passage he says, “I am the true vine.”  He also speaks of himself as “I am the Good Shepherd,” “I am the Bread of Life,” “I am the light of the world,” etc.  It is not plausible that Jesus made such declarations about himself.  Rather the evangelist John uses the images with which Jesus spoke of God’s Kingdom – vineyards, shepherds and lost sheep, bread feeding thousands – to explain the meaning of Jesus for the world.

By having Jesus call himself the “true vine,” the evangelist intends to say that he gives life.  As a branch would wither and die if it does not stay connected to the vine, so would those who cut themselves off from the Church, where Jesus lives today, soon fail to live productive lives.  “Productive lives” are not those which make a lot of money or even have a lot of children.  They are lives which work for the good of all and end in true happiness. 

We may have difficulty appreciating all the images the evangelist John uses to describe the meaning of Jesus.  Most of us get our fruit from stores, not from trees.  Perhaps living in an age that values autonomy highly, we may think that we are being underestimated when compared to sheep in need of a shepherd.  Some of this difficulty may be arrogance.  If Jesus is as we proclaim him to be in the Creed, then we need him more than air.

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter

(Acts 14:19-28; John 14:27-31a)

Perhaps the peace proclaimed by English Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returning from Munich in 1938 is representative of what the gospel calls “the kind of peace the world gives.”  He had just bartered with Hitler part of the Czechoslovakia for what he hoped would be a stabilized Europe.  Hitler was not appeased, however, and within a year Europe was engaged in history’s deadliest war.  Surely Jesus’ peace is different.

The peace which Jesus presents in this final supper with his disciples is fully realized only after his resurrection from the dead. On that evening he appears to disciples with "peace" on his lips. Then he breathes on them the Holy Spirit who fills them with eternal life.

If this same peace is given to us with the Spirit’s conferral in the sacraments, why do we not always feel it? We need not doubt its presence but should understand that our capacity to embrace it has been compromised by mental, psychological and even physical factors. We worry about what others think; we cannot remember what our spouse gave us for Christmas, let alone God’s many gifts; and our suffering blinds us to the blessings that surround us.  By meditating over God’s goodness a few minutes every day, we can allow Jesus’ peace to fill our hearts.