Friday, May 21, 2021

 Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

(Acts 25:13b-21; John 21:15-19)

A Catholic biblical scholar wrote a book entitled Jesus and Paul: Parallel Lives.  According to the author, the two had more in common than one being the prodigious proclaimer of the other.  We can find one of the parallels between Jesus and Paul in today’s first reading.

In Luke’s gospel Jesus’ case presented a dilemma for Pontius Pilate.  The Roman procurator knew Jesus was innocent of any crime against the state.  But he did not want to offend the Jewish leaders who brought Jesus to him for execution.  When he heard that the Jewish king Herod Antipas was in Jerusalem, Pilate imagined a way out of his difficulty.  He referred the case to Herod for adjudication.  The king, however, recognizing Jesus’ innocence, sent him back to Pilate. 

A generation later, the Roman procurator is a man named Porcius Festus.  He has to deal with Paul who was brought to him much like Jesus to Pilate.  Because Festus is undecided about Paul’s innocence, he invites the Jewish king Herod Agrippa II to hear his story.  Like his ancestor determined of Jesus, Herod Agrippa finds Paul innocent.  Festus, however, finds another way to avoid making a final judgment.  Since Paul, a Roman citizen, has asked to be tried by the emperor, Festus sends him to Rome for judgment.

We too can live parallel lives to Jesus’.  He lived as a simple person like most of us.  When we are patient in suffering, always loving and serving others, and intent on our relationship with God, we become like Jesus. Like him, as well, we can look forward to eternal life.

Thursday, May 20, 2021

 Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter

(Acts 22:30.23:6-11; John 17:20-26)

Indwelling names how the Father inhabits the Son and how the Son inhabits his disciples.  Indwelling enables Jesus to inculcate the Father’s love in his disciples.  By indwelling we can inculcate, at least to a degree, the same love in the world.  We can think of indwelling as forming us.  Like a bowl is formed from clay to hold water, we are formed to hold God’s love. 

In today’s gospel Jesus prays that we may be so formed.  It is possible to reject God’s grace because it will require sacrifices.  We can think of these rejecters as those who no longer correspond with loved ones when the loved one become hard of hearing or deficient in memory. 

God’s indwelling will make us more sensitive to people when their needs grow.  Formed as receptacles of God’s love, we find treasure in helping the needy.  It may give us the peace of remembering past blessings or the satisfaction of treading the moral high ground.  In any case, when we help the needy, we are united with the Father and the Son.

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

 Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter

(Acts 20:28-38; John 17:11b-19)

Every day the news reports hatred, violence, and misery.  Covid rages in India.  Palestinians are revolting in Israel.  It has been reported that child abuse increased over the last year because children were not attending school where its effects could be detected.  All these events counter indicate “the truth” of which Jesus speaks in today’s gospel.

“God so loved the world…” relates the truth that Jesus not only proclaimed but embodied.  Ready to return to his Father, Jesus prays that his disciples likewise live and proclaim it. They will be challenged.  Jesus will undergo cruel punishment and will be apparently defeated.  Peter for a while will even succumb to the lie that Jesus does not matter.  As they have had Jesus in their midst, the disciples now need his Holy Spirit.  The Spirit will consecrate them in the service of the Father’s love.

Perhaps we need the Spirit even more so today.  It is evident that the world still abounds in greed, pride, and lust.  Despite this need, people seem to care less about God than about lottery numbers.  Nevertheless, we can count on Jesus praying for us because we too have discipled with him.  His prayers will allow us to heed, practice, and proclaim his Father’s love.

Tuesday, May 18, 2021

 Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter

(Acts 20:17-27; John 17:1-11a)

Both today’s first reading and gospel involve farewell discourses.  However, they have very different tones. In the reading from Acts Paul tells the presbyters from Ephesus that he is compelled by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem.  There he expects imprisonment and hardships.  Paul seems to intimate that, like Jesus, he is being called to suffer for the good of his people, the Jews.  Perhaps he feels called to make of himself a sacrifice so that the Jews, who refused to convert in masse with Jesus’ crucifixion, may finally do so with his offering.

Jesus’ prayer closes his final discourse to his disciples.  He knows the hour of his paschal transition has come and prays that its purpose be fulfilled.  In John’s gospel Jesus does not express foreboding about his death because he foresees the ordeal ending in glory.

The Spirit has given both Paul and Jesus its gift of courage to do the will of the Father.  Paul should not be faulted if he feels anxious.  Jesus should not be considered brazen for having complete confidence.  Both are following the Spirit’s lead.  At times we will be like Paul in anticipating landmines in the road ahead.  Hopefully, experience will teach us to trust as Jesus does in his prayer to his Father.  But let us always accept the courage that the Spirit offers to do the Father’s will.

Monday, May 17, 2021

 Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter

(Acts 19:1-8; John 16:29-33)

Unlike the disciples in Ephesus we have all heard of the Holy Spirit.  But few of us may be aware of the Vigil of Pentecost when the Church prays fervently for the coming of the Spirit.  Vigils themselves puzzle many.  Technically they are not just the evening before a Sunday or a solemnity.  Vigils have a unique set of readings and presume that participants will return the next day for the celebration of the feast.  All of us know of the Easter Vigil and, perhaps, the Vigil of Christmas.  The Solemnity of the Birth of St. John the Baptist also has a proper vigil as does the Ascension, St. Peter and St. Paul, and the Assumption.

When the disciples in Ephesus receive the Holy Spirit, they begin to speak in strange ways and also give testimony to the Lord.  We should hope for no less after preparing to receive the Spirit on the Vigil of Pentecost.  We may not speak “in tongues,” but we should boldly attest to the Lord’s love for us and for everyone. 

How might we provide such testimony?  A preacher once told of the love in his family while he was growing up.  He said that there was such harmony in his home that when his father returned home from work, he would dance with his mother in their living room.  The two, father and mother, in turn showered love on their three children.  The preacher began to cry.  We could add that the love shared by this preacher’s family is but a shadow of God’s love for us.