Friday, April 30, 2021

Friday of the Fourth Week of Easter

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

Christians have been buried with their corpses facing East for centuries.  Two reasons recommend this arrangement.  First, as today’s gospel says, Jesus has promised to return and bring them to the house of his Father.  Second, associated with the rising sun, he is thought to be coming from that direction.  Although the Church does not require burial with head directed eastward, the posture expresses faith in Jesus’ words.

In today’s gospel, Jesus also tells his disciples not to be afraid.  He is especially concerned that they do not fear death.  Even though death halts worldly existence, Jesus indicates that it is not the absolute end.  Rather he assures them that the Father has prepared a new life for them in his celestial home.  They have only to continue practicing what he has taught.

We know that following Jesus’ directives sometimes results in difficulties.  Telling the truth may mean jeopardizing our material welfare.  Turning the other cheek may mean our total loss of face in the community.  Nevertheless, we follow Jesus not only because of the eternal destiny that he promises.  We do so as well because of the more immediate benefits he provides.  He uplifts our spirits through the gospel.  And he supports us morally with his presence in the Church. 

Thursday, April 29, 2021

 Memorial of Saint Catherine of Siena, virgin

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

The first part of the movie The Sound of Music takes place in a convent.  An aspirant named Maria seems devout but acts in unconventional ways.  Some of the nuns criticize her for singing all the time and coming late for activities (except meals). Although she hardly ate too much, today’s patron, St. Catherine of Siena, provoked the same type of criticism.

From childhood Catherine wanted to dedicate her life to God.  Her parents thought she should marry and have a family.  But she saw herself wedded to Jesus.  Living during the Avignon papacy and the Great Western Schism, Catherine campaigned for a Church united to the Bishop of Rome.  She shunned conventual life to live as an ascetic peripatetic.  For a woman who belatedly learned to read and write, she had an outsized influence on Church and political affairs in Italy. 

Catherine’s legacy inspires people of different ways of life.  She instructed kings and popes when most women stayed home with their families.  She carried on a healthy dialogue with the Lord through prayer and meditation.  She donated what she had to the poor and visited prisons.  She wrote and dictated works that still engage thinkers today.  All of us can find something to emulate in the life of this great saint.

Wednesday, April 28, 2021

 

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter

(Acts 12:24-13:5a; John 12:44-50)

Pope Francis once told a group of priests that they should never send anyone away from Confession.  He said that even if one’s situation prohibited the priest from giving absolution, he could at least bless the person.  The pope also said that priests should such a person back, again and again, for additional blessings.  He is only reflecting what Jesus says in today’s gospel and at other points in John.

According to the fourth gospel, Jesus has not come to condemn the world but to save it.  He sees the world is engulfed in deceit and treachery.  People, he finds, often care little, if at all, about one another.  He says that they live in darkness.  But he has brought light to this darkness with his love and truth.  These virtues will save the world from folly.  Propelled by the grace of his death and resurrection, their practitioners will have eternal life.

Many of us too often see the world in black and white.  That is, we want a strict determination between good and bad.  We are unable to work with people so that their charcoal-hued lives might brighten through exposure to Jesus. This negative posture will likely drift us in the direction of evil.  We too should open ourselves to salvation by heeding Jesus’ teaching today.

Tuesday, April 27, 2021

 Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter

(Acts 11:19-26; John 10:22-30)

Today’s gospel reading mentions the Feast of Dedication (actually it was a rededication) of the Temple.  It is known today as Hanukkah.  The feast celebrates the victory of the Jews over their foreign occupiers in the second century before Christ.  In that struggle many faithful Jews endured persecution and martyrdom rather than succumb to heathen ways.  Now Jesus is saying that his sheep will show the same tenacity in clinging to belief in him.

John’s gospel, like the others, reverts events that took place at the time of its composition into the life of Jesus.  In late first century Christians were being persecuted for not accepting Roman hedonism or taking cover in Judaism.  Many died as martyrs.  But that was a grace since martyrdom assured entrance into eternal life.  In the passage Jesus tells the Jews obliquely that he is the Messiah because he -- like David, the primordial Messiah or “anointed” -- is a Good Shepherd.  He feeds his sheep in the evergreen pastures of eternal life.

Jesus tells the Jews that no one can take his sheep from him.  Nevertheless we, who are also his sheep, can walk away from him.  This departure will not happen if we have true faith in the Eucharistic food he provides.  It is not bread and wine acting as symbols for Jesus himself.  Rather it is really he who comes into us.  He becomes like a man entering a supersonic jet that will soar to the heavens.

Monday, April 26, 2021

 Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter

 (Acts 11:1-18; John 10:1-10)

 "Growing pains” occasionally affect children in their sleep.  They cause some to wake up in the night with discomfort in their legs.  Since researchers have not found an underlying cause for these pains, they are named for growth, a phenomenon associated with children.  In the first reading we find the early Church afflicted with its “growing pains.”

One of the great issues for the Church in its first decades is whether to accept non-Jews into its fold.  Non-Jews are not gentiles who become Jews through circumcision and eating kosher but gentiles who refuse to accept Jewish customs.  Since Jesus was a Jew, could gentiles follow him without living as he did?  This is the critical question.  In the reading from Acts today Peter defers to none other than the Holy Spirit for an answer.  He explains to the Jerusalem inquisition that he baptized Cornelius’ household upon seeing that they manifested the gifts of the Spirit.

Today the Church has other issues to deal with.  We can easily name a few – homosexual couples, the care of the sick in “permanent vegetative states,” the possibility of ordaining women to the diaconate, etc.  Too often differences on these questions create fragmentation and suspicion.  Like Peter we should turn to the Holy Spirit for guidance.  That is, we should recognize that what is most authentically Christian is the primacy of charity.  On some issues change may be impossible for reason of consistency with tradition and coherency with established teaching.  Even here, however, there is an imperative to treat the people who are passionately involved with respect and tenderness.