Wednesday, May 22, 2019

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Easter

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

Thomas Aquinas thought of virtue in a way that might surprise many.  He saw it as a good quality of the mind that disposes humans to live righteously.  So far, no surprises.  But Thomas went on that no one can make bad use of a virtue.  This idea is provocative.  “Cannot a terrorist show courage in a holy war” someone might ask, “so how can it be said that no one can make bad use of it?”  Thomas accepted the Christian tradition that true virtue is infused by God when the person surrenders to God in love.  It is a gift which no one can use badly because it comes from God and remains related to Him as a gift of his love.  The beginnings of virtue may be sown when God enters the soul at Baptism.  In any case no one can make bad use of a gift that keeps her in a relationship with God.  The same idea can be found in today’s gospel.

Jesus exhorts his disciples to remain in him as he remains in them.  Both he and the Father will come to them with the Holy Spirit.  The presence of all three will guide the disciple’s actions to always act in ways that conform to divine love.  In this way their actions cannot be anything but good.  Jesus uses the illustrative image of a vine and its branches to describe how virtue is transformed into benefits for others.  He says that the Father will act like a gardener pruning the vines’ branch.  Just as the pruned branches yield a greater harvest so life attentive to the Father’s commands will result in many blessings.

Our responsibility is to remain in Jesus by following his (and the Father’s) law of love.  We are to go beyond the Golden Rule.  Jesus tells us to love others as he has loved us.  We are to make sacrifices for the good of others as Jesus died to free us from sin.

Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Easter

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

What is this peace of Christ that is unlike any other?  One biblical expert sees it as “being freed from sin and united to God."  Perhaps it is the same composure that drives Paul onward to preach the Good News despite just being stoned almost to death.  Paul does not harbor great resentment toward the Jews.  In fact, he maintains a great love for them.  He writes later, “For I could wish that I myself were accursed and separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kin according to the flesh” (Romans 9:3).  

The same peace is found among the families of the twenty-one Coptic Egyptians whom ISIS martyred four years ago.  The families proudly wear t-shirts with pictures of their beloved in martyrs’ array – white robes and crowns superimposed on their heads.  The author of an article on the martyrs has written provocative comments about the village where sixteen of the martyrs lived.  He says: “All the houses I visited shared one common feature: The household was not in mourning. Condolences and expressions of sympathy seemed out of place. They struck me as somehow elevated to another plane.”

We are not likely to feel Christ’s peace because our faith wavers.  We wonder if the legacy which the apostles have handed down is true.  We feel the cravings of sex and pride that our times offer.  To feel that peace we must do as Jesus preached from the beginning: “’Repent and believe…’”

Monday, May 20, 2019

Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter

(Acts 14:5-18; John 14:21-26)

The first reading sounds more like a situation comedy than an episode of true history.  Sometimes, however, reality is stranger than fiction.  In any case, people have an odd penchant of adulating men and women as if they were gods and goddesses.  Today athletes and entertainers have godlike status in the eyes of the public.  A Tom Brady or a Nicole Kidman command immense salaries and attention to the banalities of their lives.

In the biblical passage Paul and Barnabas are worshipped as gods after facilitating an instant healing.  The two apostles take advantage of the opportunity to explain God’s love for them.  They tell the pagan townspeople that such a mighty deed is but an extension of the care God shows in creation.  Still like many today the people in the reading refuse to abandon their fantasies.  They continue to prepare sacrifices for the apostles.

Unfortunately the attention paid to athletes and entertainers often detracts from worship of the true God.  We know of people who do not go to church on Sunday in order to watch a football game.  Many as well accept the caprices of entertainers as norms for everyone.  The situation leaves us with a double responsibility.  We must be careful not to fall into these vices.  And we must instruct our youth that the living God demands righteous living.

Friday, May 17, 2019

Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter

(Acts 13:26-33; John 14:1-6)

In today’s gospel Jesus declares himself as “…the truth.”  He means that he is the highest truth because he reveals God the Father.  In reaching for this truth, the scholar does not abandon the truth found in nature.  The physical sciences discover much that leads to God.  Nor should people think that the truth that is Jesus is different from the truth they are supposed to tell in daily life.  When we conform our words to reality, they will eventually tell of Jesus.  Nevertheless, God still belongs to another order than humans.  Jesus, who is one with the Father, has made Him known as much as humans are capable of understanding.

The pregnant gospel passage hints in different ways to the Father.  He is beneficent, that is, ready to shelter those who come to Him in need.  To reach Him one must follow Jesus, the way.  Jesus has just washed the feet of his disciples and told them to do the same to one another.  To follow Jesus, then, is to care for one another by providing service.  Finally, God bestows life.  More than being the source of life, God gives life in its fullness sense.  He enables humans to thrive, to be all that they can be.  In the end this means that all humans become Jesus-like.

Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life.”  We might say that he is the true roadmap to happiness.  When we follow him we will neither lose our way nor become tired and disillusioned.  We will find ourselves ever satisfied, ever grateful.

Thursday, May 16, 2019

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Easter

(Acts 13:13-25; John 13:16-20)

Once in a while we may hear religious sisters talk about their “missions.”  They speak of where they have served as where they have been missioned.  They say something like, “Denver was my first mission, and then I was missioned in Milwaukee.”  Today’s gospel helps us to think of all Christians as having a mission.  Whether it be to some far off city or in the neighborhood where they were born, Christians are sent off to serve.

Jesus is speaking with his disciples at what we call the Last Supper or the Lord’s Supper.  He is preparing them to go out to the world and preach the good news.  He implies that they can be confident of the claims he will make about himself because he will predict all that happens to him.  Then he says that anyone who receives them receives him and God the Father as well: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me."

We were sent forth as “other Christs” on the occasion of our Baptism.  The sending is renewed at every Eucharist.  Occasionally, the mission is explicit.  “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord” is one of the four approved dismissals at the end of mass.  Whether the priest or deacon uses that wording or not, we are being sent on a mission.  The Lord has allowed us to partake of his Body and Blood not only for our own edification.  Rather, he expects us with this Eucharistic food to assist others on the way of salvation.