Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 19, 2020: Peace be with you...

Peace be with you…

Is the mercy of God at work in you?

  When, in John’s Gospel, Jesus appears to the disciples on the evening of the Resurrection, they are locked in, and fear dominates their every move.  That fear will continue to dominate their existence until the following week when Thomas is also present and Jesus appears yet again to address the disciples’ doubts.  Jesus is there to liberate them from their fear, offering them peace and breathing the Holy Spirit upon them, the life-breath of their existence as community. Jesus’ divine mercy helps the disciples to move from fear to hope; the very fact that we can find our identity in his breath, in his dying and rising, is God’s mercy at work. 

  Community is also a revelation of God’s mercy at work; the early Christian community in Acts devote themselves to the communal life, breaking bread together, gathering together at the temple, sharing their lives in every way. Christ is still at work in them – his promise of eternal life gives them something to hope in and helps to bond the community together.  It is as Psalm 118 promises:  His mercy endures forever – a celebration of community delivered from peril thanks to God’s mercy.

  We have entered into life in Christ through baptism, a new birth to a living hope, as 1 Peter refers to it, but we have not yet fully entered into resurrection, for our ultimate hope is not yet fulfilled.  But God’s mercy is being played out constantly, and that mercy will lead to our resurrection, to our ultimate joy at union with God:  Although you have not seen him, you love him; even though you do not see him now yet believe in him, you rejoice with an indescribably and glorious joy, Peter writes.  When we are aware of the mercy of God active in our lives, then joy can fill us, push us out of ourselves, connect us in community with one another, that we might know fully the experience of being sustained in faith and in the hope that is the death and rising of Jesus Christ.

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 28, 2019: Unless I see the marks of the nails in his hands...

Unless I see the marks of the nails in his hands…

What does it take for us to know in our hearts that Jesus is Lord?

  It may seem astounding:  a full week after Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit on them, the erstwhile rejoicing disciples remain behind doors that are locked.  Coming to full faith in Jesus isn’t always an instantaneous experience; it is a process that takes time and an opening of heart.  So, Jesus appears to them again in John's Gospel, this time offering the previously absent Thomas a chance to witness Jesus’ resurrected body for himself:  Put your fingers here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, Jesus says to Thomas. Do not be unbelieving, but believe.  Jesus’ invitation for Thomas to see with his fingers might seem odd, but in fact Jesus is calling Thomas to a different kind of sight, inviting him to know with his heart, to see with his heart – and he does!  Thomas doesn’t even need to touch Jesus’ wounds to proclaim his faith:  My Lord and my God!  Thomas has moved from a desire for proof – Unless I see the marks of the nails in his hands – to a profound heart knowledge of Jesus as Lord.

  What’s the next step?  The disciples have to leave that room!  As the Father has sent me, so I send you, Jesus tells them.  So, leave, he tells them… leave so that your heart can give witness to what you know is true.  Let your belief become so much a part of you that your very life is witness to what you now know in your heart.  Eventually, as the Acts of the Apostles tells us, many believers will be added to their numbers in spite of the fear of persecution, because Jesus’ presence is conveyed through the heart knowledge of the men he sent out to teach, preach, and heal the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits. Jesus remains, in the words of Psalm 118, their cornerstone, rejected by the builders but foundational to the new faith budding in Jerusalem.  John, the author of the Book of Revelation, will tell a similar story:  knowing distress, he nevertheless proclaims God’s word and gives testimony to Jesus. Knowing in his heart who Jesus is gives him the strength to endure.

  To know in our heart that Jesus is Lord, to experience life through the Risen Christ – who himself moved from death to life – calls from us something different, something new, a change so profound that it hits us at our core, a transformation of heart so radical that we are moved to proclaim his good news.  What does it take to know in our heart that Jesus is Lord?  We need to open that heart, for starters.  And, once we do, once we  open to his love in our lives, we too are called, and indeed, sent by Jesus to bring the good news of God’s love to the world.

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 22, 2018: We shall see him as he is...

 We shall see him as he is... 

What is the source of your vision? 

   Speaking before the Sanhedrin in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter links the crucifixion of Jesus to the history of the people of Israel, recounted in Psalm 118:  The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. While Jesus was alive, present before them, the Jewish leadership failed to see Jesus for who he was, that is to say, the Messiah, the only name under heaven by which we are to be saved.  Yet though they rejected Jesus, Peter assures them, they are not condemned; they have the opportunity to believe.  Peter’s presence before them constitutes an invitation, an invitation to recognize what God is doing right now, before their very eyes, in their midst.   They have but to open to the vision that is God’s, to see Jesus for who he was, and is, in their lives.

   If Acts is based on a past vision, John’s Gospel focuses on a present one.  In the story of the Good Shepherd, Jesus endeavors to open the eyes of the Jewish leadership, who fail to see that his power as shepherd, the power to lay down his life for his disciples at the crucifixion, comes to him at the command of the Father.  Jesus acts from the love of the Father; Jesus is that love made manifest.  Out of love for us, God provides the victim, and that victim, the very love of God himself, once sacrificed, because it has no limits, can prove how limitless it is. Jesus sees with God’s vision, and wants to share that vision with all who encounter him.

   The First Letter of John, while grounded in Jesus’ present vision, points also to the future:  what we shall be has not yet been revealed.  But here is the key:  We do know that when it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.  Jesus changes how we see and understand ourselves.  We are children of God, we know.  And God’s love in us is generative, active, dynamic, creative, so we are constantly being recreated into the Body of Christ, into the likeness of Jesus Christ.  Our goal is to try to match that likeness until, in eternal life, we know – and see – him fully.  Christ is the source, and the perfect object, of our vision – we have but to open our eyes and endeavor to see him as he is.

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

Image source:  www.wordle.net

Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 8, 2018: Do not be unbelieving but believe...

 Do not be unbelieving, but believe… 

What do you believe? 

   John tells us that his Gospel is written that you might come to believe and have life in Jesus’ name.  But our journey to belief can be an arduous one.  Even after Jesus appears to the disciples in the upper room when the doors were locked, and says to them, Peace be with you, they are still afraid; the doors remain locked until Jesus comes again the following week to appear to Thomas:  do not be unbelieving, but believe!  Only once the disciples believe that Jesus is the risen Messiah who has come to save all through his death and resurrection will they unlock the door and believe that there is, indeed, nothing to fear anymore.  In the Acts of the Apostles, the community bears witness to a shared faith, a shared belief, and thus to a shared identity in Christ, an identity which allows them to share all they have:  they had everything in common, Luke tells us.  They know, as Psalm 118 will foretell, that Jesus, the stone that the builders rejected, is their cornerstone, their strength, their hope, their courage; they can be one body as a result.

   And, as the First Letter of John reminds us, faith and love are inseparable.  The victory that conquers the world is our faith, our belief that Jesus is the Son of God, sent by God as a sacrifice for our sins, who, through his death and resurrection, has redeemed us and gathered us into that very community celebrated in Acts.  For everyone who believes that Jesus Christ is Lord is begotten by God:  they are the children of God, ready to embrace the belief in the power of Jesus’ death and resurrection to heal us, sustain us in God’s love, our life force, the force that drives us.  We need to live inside this creed, this belief, this faith.

   What is the test of our faith?  What do we believe?  And how strongly does it work as a driving force in our lives?  Can we discern when it does and when it doesn’t, when it ebbs and flows?  Belief is something we must live, day to day.  We can be of one heart and one mind, as Luke describes.  How?  If we believe that Jesus forgives us, we too must be forgiving -- we must have mercy on others and God showers his divine mercy on us.  Faith makes it possible for us to experience all that life has to offer, but we must be driven by Christ, driven by his love for all. 

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

Image source:  www.wordle.net

Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 23, 2017: Unless I see...

 Unless I see… 

How strong is your faith? 

   If faith is a celebration of our relationship with the Lord, then the author of Psalm 118 was in a joyous mood.  Having been delivered from we know not what, the king and his people are processing into the Temple precinct in order to celebrate their relationship with the God who has saved them:  By the Lord has this been done; it is wonderful in our eyes!  Their hearts are full of rejoicing; their mouths sing God’s praise.  They have faith.

   The disciples’ faith comes into question in our Gospel from John, where, on the very Sunday of the Resurrection, their doors are locked.   Mary of Magdala has already announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, but they remain in a place of fear, and come to faith only (and only partially) when he appears in their midst.  Yet, a week later, those doors are still locked, and the formerly absent Thomas expresses his doubts:  Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.  As soon as Jesus appears, however, Thomas believes, proclaiming his faith with fervor:  My Lord and my God!  He has faith.

   Only once the disciples left behind their fear – their locked doors – were they able to get comfortable with what they knew in their hearts:  that Jesus has risen from the dead and is with us still.  Only then can the disciples enter that place of awe described in the Acts of the Apostles, living with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God.  Did they ever fear?  Certainly.  Nevertheless, they had faith; they trusted in their hearts, knowing that in their relationship with the Lord, there can be no barriers.  Only then do they come to understand that God has given them, as 1 Peter clearly states, a new birth to a living hope, and are safeguarded through faith, a genuine faith that will allow them to survive any trial.  Their faith was strong and gave them an indescribable and glorious joy – is yours strong enough to do that?

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

Image source:  Wordle