Looking forward to the Christ in their midst (Gretchen Crowder)

   The disciples post-resurrection have something very important to realize about their friend Jesus… and perhaps this realization is difficult to wrap their minds around: their old friend has passed away. Jesus as they knew Him has died and He will never be the same again. He is not less special, He is not less their friend, not less in love with each one of them… but he is something completely new. And at this moment, if the disciples fail to recognize this newness, if they dwell on what has passed, they might miss so much ahead that is truly special. If they continue to raise their eyes up to Heaven instead of looking forward to the Christ in their midst, they will miss the point. 

--Gretchen Crowder                 

Image source: Helge Boe, On the Road to Emmaus, https://www.jesus-story.net/emmaus/ 

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Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 16, 2021: May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened...

May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened…

How clear is your sight?

   It’s easy to miss what the Lord intends us to see. Just before Jesus ascends to heaven in the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples are still asking, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? They are still failing to see God’s point: Jesus did not come to overturn Rome. Moreover, as the two men dressed in white garments tell them, the disciples are not to look at the sky but rather on God’s kingdom here and now, where they will be able to participate in salvation history through their witness to the world. Only with the intervention of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost will the disciples’ ability to see be truly focused; the story of the Ascension is the beginning of their transition from being stargazers to being lifegazers, focused not on the sacred that is to come, but on the sacred that is already happening. And so, while we hear in Psalm 47 that God mounts his throne to shouts of joy, the important thing is to recognize that God is king over all creation, rather than training our gaze on a heaven we imagine to the exclusion of the world here on earth. 

   All of which requires, as Paul notes in his Letter to the Ephesians, using the enlightened eyes of our hearts. Jesus was sent so that we might come to know the Lord and what he has in store for us. The Spirit reveals the depth of God’s love for us, and the eyes of our hearts are necessary to help us see clearly what is not physically visible but rather what is intangible. Using these eyes, we will know what is the hope that belongs to Christ’s call: a hope for eternal life, for perfect union in the love of God. Ultimately, we must see clearly so that we might be his witnesses, or, as Jesus exhorts the disciples in Mark’s Gospel, go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. And they do: Mark notes that the disciples went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them. The Holy Spirit has filled their hearts, and they enjoy new life in Christ, one in which they can be witnesses to the riches of his glory and the surpassing greatness of his power, a power revealed in the depth of the love of God. We are called to no less. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Here to love each other (Maya Angelou)

We are here to love each other. 

That is why you are alive. 

 That is what life is for. 

--Maya Angelou             

Image source: https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/09/18/the-benefits-of-hugging/ 

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Living for others (Sanskrit Proverb)

            Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other. No matter how difficult it is… Life is good when you are happy, but much better when others are happy because of you. 

--Sanskrit Proverb        

Image source: https://genesisdx.com/news-forum/blog/help-others/ 

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Love lives through sacrifice (St. Maximilian Kolbe)

    Let us remember that love lives through sacrifice and is nourished by giving. Without sacrifice, there is no love. 

--St. Maximilian Kolbe              

Image source: https://stmargaretmary.org/sacrificial-love/ 

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The love of a mother (A prayer for Mother's Day)

Holy God,

you compare your own love for your people

to the love of a mother for her children.

Look with kindness on all mothers,

give them comfort in times of sorrow,

 and joy in their work for their families.

Listen to their prayers.

And bless them in all they do for you.

Let them share with Jesus your Son

and Mary our Mother

in the everlasting happiness of heaven.
Amen.

Image source: Gaetano Previati, Maternità (1885), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Gaetano_Previati_-_Maternit%C3%A0.jpg with a related article at:  https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/checklist/divisionism-disease-and-degeneration-how-reactionary-politics-met-art-criticism-in-late-19th-century-italy
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Mary's consecrated body (Pat McDonough)

    God consecrated the female body, not only the womb that would welcome the Incarnation, but the breasts that provided mother’s milk to the Messiah and her poor, postpartum body that rode a donkey into exile, emigrating to Egypt with a newborn, so far from her own mother and the comfort and companionship of her cousin Elizabeth. Consecrated, too, was the physical anxiety that drove the frenzied search for the boy who went missing in Jerusalem after the Passover; the gut-wrenching pain of people turning against her son, calling him crazy, plotting his demise and abandoning him in the hour of his death. Holy was the commitment standing on Calvary, drawing on a physical and emotional strength so intrinsic to who Mary was, that it seems to have been cellular, similar to the courage born in her marrow bone, to borrow an expression from the Irish poet William Butler Yeats:

She that sings a lasting song, Thinks in a marrow-bone.

    Mary’s yes made her whole, a wholeness for which we all long.

--Pat McDonough

In May we honor Mary...

Image source: https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/f/flight-into-egypt.php
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