Fr Kevin Kilgore

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Gospel: John 6: 44-51

Jesus said to the crowds:
“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,
and I will raise him on the last day.
It is written in the prophets:

They shall all be taught by God.

Everyone who listens to my Father and learns from him comes to me.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God;
he has seen the Father.
Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever believes has eternal life.
I am the bread of life.
Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died;
this is the bread that comes down from heaven
so that one may eat it and not die.
I am the living bread that came down from heaven;
whoever eats this bread will live forever;
and the bread that I will give
is my Flesh for the life of the world.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,” the Lord says in today’s Gospel. Whenever this verb draw is used in scripture, it implies a type of resistance, of pushing and pulling.

For example, John uses this verb to describe Saint Peter dragging a net full of fish ashore. The same verb is later used in the Acts of the Apostles to describe Paul and Silas being dragged before government authorities.

It’s the same verb Jesus uses to describe the spiritual dynamics between God and his creation in today’s Gospel. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him.”

Imagine a game of tug-of-war. God is tugging us on one side, but we are pulling away on the other.

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When do I experience this tension in my conscience or my spiritual life? 

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Maybe we’ve dragged our feet when needing to offer an apology. 

Or we’ve been reticent to let go of a lingering habit.

Perhaps we allow other demands for our time to draw us away from prayer, scripture study, or church. Maybe we allow fear to keep us from sharing our faith.

Even Saint Paul laments this tension between his flesh and his spirit. “I do not do what I want, but what I hate. So it is no longer I who do it, but sin dwelling in me.”

The only way to rid ourselves of these things is to follow the path of surrender, giving up on the tug-of-war, allowing God to do the only thing he desires.

To draw us closer to himself.

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Image credits: (1) Sky’s the Limit Entertainment (2) Patrick Slevin’s Blog, WordPress (3) Laughter Thoughts

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Acts: 8: 1-8

There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem,
and all were scattered
throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria,
except the Apostles.
Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him.
Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church;
entering house after house and dragging out men and women,
he handed them over for imprisonment.

Now those who had been scattered went about preaching the word.
Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria
and proclaimed the Christ to them.
With one accord, the crowds paid attention to what was said by Philip
when they heard it and saw the signs he was doing.
For unclean spirits, crying out in a loud voice,
came out of many possessed people,
and many paralyzed and crippled people were cured.
There was great joy in that city.

The Word of the Lord.

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Throughout the Easter Season, our first reading is taken from the Acts of the Apostles, describing the life of the early Church, which was often riddled with difficulty.

 “There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem, and all were scattered throughout the countryside, except the Apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made a loud lament over him. Saul, meanwhile, was trying to destroy the Church.”

Although worldly powers, even religious forces, tried stomping out our faith, it grew. The persecution in Jerusalem caused many to flee to new, distant lands, bringing their faith with them. By the end of the first century, the Gospel message spread as far east as India!

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The same forces of opposition and grace are working in our world today.

Pope Leo’s visit to Africa highlights this truth – that in spite of persecution, or even because it, the Church grows due to its attractive message of love, peace, reconciliation, and salvation.

In fact, the Catholic faith is growing faster in Africa than anywhere else in the world!

Offering words of encouragement to our brothers and sisters in Cameroon, Leo said, “How beautiful are your feet, dusty from this bloodstained yet fertile land…Your feet have brought you this far, and despite the difficulties and obstacles, they have remained on the path of goodness.”

Although we may not experience the same level of pain or persecution as the early Church, or our African brothers and sisters today, they all remind us of the role the Church is to play in every age.

To be light where there is darkness, to bear love where there is hatred, to bring peace where there is war, to bring the vigor of salt where there is indifference – not only across nations, but also to every human heart.

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What might that look like for us today?

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Image credits: (1) Harvest Church of God (2) Detroit Catholic (3) The Record Newspaper

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Acts 7:51 – 8:1

Stephen said to the people, the elders, and the scribes:
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears,
you always oppose the Holy Spirit;
you are just like your ancestors.
Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?
They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one,
whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.
You received the law as transmitted by angels,
but you did not observe it.”

When they heard this, they were infuriated,
and they ground their teeth at him.
But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit,
looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
and Stephen said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened
and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
But they cried out in a loud voice,
covered their ears, and rushed upon him together.
They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him.
The witnesses laid down their cloaks
at the feet of a young man named Saul. 
As they were stoning Stephen, he called out,
“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice,
“Lord, do not hold this sin against them”;
and when he said this, he fell asleep.

Now Saul was consenting to his execution.

The Word of the Lord.

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Saint Stephen is the first known Christian martyr. In our first reading, he’s put to death for fearlessly preaching the truth. Surrounded by the religious authorities, Stephen makes several accusations against them.

First, he calls their entire nation a “stiff-necked people.”

To be “stiff necked” originally referred to an ox unwilling to change direction. In spite of repeated correction, the ox would stubbornly continue moving along its own path. Similarly, Stephen says, Israel was consistently unwilling to repent or change direction.

“Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?” he laments. And worse, now they’ve put the Son of God to death without a trace of sorrow or remorse in their hearts. 

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Second, Stephen insists that Israel was gifted with the most amazing privileges. God chose them as his people, making multiple covenants with them; they were gifted with the prophets; they received the Law; God even promised to write it on their hearts! 

Although they were highly privileged, Israel was continuously rebellious. And the more privileged a person is, the greater the responsibility they bear, certainly when taking such privileges for granted.

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While Stephen’s rebuke was directed against the “stiff necked” authorities of his day, his words can still provide a note of caution to us today. 

The Church – open to all – has become the chosen people of God, the body of Christ on earth. As Saint John writes, “Beloved, we are God’s children now.” 

As his body, we are not only gifted with the fullness of truth, we also have access to his mercy and grace through the Sacraments.

Still, how many of us, myself included, find ourselves “stiff necked” at times, unwilling to change? In the words of Saint Paul, “I do not do what I want, but what I hate.”

Is the Lord inviting us to soften our “necks,” to amend our lives, to change an attitude, a habit, or a perspective?

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May Saint Stephen intercede for us, that we would come to love God with the same depth that he did – a love so strong that he not only accepted death, he also prayed forgivingly for those who took his life.

Saint Stephen, pray for us!

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Image credits: (1) Catholic365.com (2) The Stoning of Saint Stephen, Rembrandt (3) Jesus Christ – Bible Study