Month: April 2023

***

Gospel: John 10: 1-10

Jesus said:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate
but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.
But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,
as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has driven out all his own,
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.
But they will not follow a stranger;
they will run away from him,
because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”
Although Jesus used this figure of speech,
the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.

So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.
A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;
I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

***

***

There are many things that make our parish unique. 

There’s the SPX Café, which week after week is filled with tasty, home-baked treats. There’s the newly installed playground and basketball court, which is used by children, from toddlers to teens.

Then there’s our name tags. I ask our staff and ministry leaders, in particular, to wear them, (and I’m sure by now some of them are quite tired of them)!

But our name tags remind us of who we are and what we believe. It contains the three pillars of our mission: Building Community. Worshiping God. Making Disciples.

And by extension, these name tags represent our vision statement: All generations journeying together with Jesus to satisfy our hungry hearts. Come and see!

***

This week, our entire parish “journeyed together.” Twenty-seven of us journeyed physically to Fatima, while others journeyed virtually. But we were all on this journey together.

On Thursday, we celebrated Mass in the Chapel of the Apparitions, where Our Lady first appeared to three children on May 13, 1917. Then we received the Pilgrim Statue of Our Lady, when Mary began to “journey” with us.

We brought her to the airport in her white leather suitcase and strapped her safely in her seat, 60E, the middle seat in the very last row on the plane.

When she was brought in procession into our church, her long journey was complete. Because of her participation in our parish vision – “journeying together” – she deserves her own name tag. (I’ve written it for her, Our Lady of Fatima, SPX).

***

In the Gospel, Jesus calls us his sheep. Why not something with a little more vigor? Out of all the animals in the animal kingdom, we’re “sheep”?

Yes.

Sheep are defenseless. They have no way of defending themselves. They have no venom, no claws, no fangs, no paws. When attacked, they literally run around in a big circle, hoping not to be nature’s next snack!

This is why being isolated, or separated from the flock, is so dangerous.

The strength of a sheep depends upon two things:

Their closeness to their shepherd.

And, therefore, staying with the flock.

***

This is the message that Our Lady of Fatima brings us: “I am from heaven.” She will bring us closer together, and closer to her Son.

There’s one way, in particular, that Mary will do this: the rosary.

While we were in Fatima, we went through the museum, which houses countless articles of devotion. But what struck me were the rosaries donated to Our Lady.

There was the rosary of John Paul II, which he died with in his hands. The rosary of his successor, Benedict XVI. The rosaries of Francisco, Jacinta, and Lucia, the three children whom Our Lady appeared to.

And then there was a plastic rosary, which may have cost a buck. It was the rosary of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

The lesson to me was clear: what matters is not whether your rosary is decked with pearls or gold, but whether or not it’s prayed with in faith.

If it is, then God can give you the strength to change the world.

***

Perhaps its appropriate to conclude with a moment of silence. Call to mind whatever your intentions are, whatever weighs on your heart.

We will place these intentions, together, into the hands of Our Lady as we pray:

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

***

***

Image credits: (1) (2) (3)

***

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.

***

***

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him” Jesus says.

This verb, “draw,” in Greek helkuein, always implies a type of resistance.

It’s the same word John used to describe the effort it took for Peter to draw in a net full of fish. First, Peter met the resistance of the fish and the water, then the resistance of the sand as he dragged his catch ashore.

***

So, what does Jesus mean when he says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him”?

That, literally, we must be dragged into belief.

***

In today’s Gospel, for example, Jesus reveals one of his most important teachings, certainly for Catholics: “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.”

Jesus lays it out there plain and simple – he wants us to eat his “Flesh,” the living bread come down from heaven.

To us it sounds strange. To Jesus’ first listeners, very strange. So much so that the crowd of five-thousand that followed him dwindled down to twelve.

Then he turns to his disciples and says, “Do you also want to leave?”

***

In what ways do I resist the Lord? 

Maybe I’m adverse to one of his teachings. Maybe I resist giving up a particular habit, a favorite temptation. Perhaps I fail to trust.

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him.”

May the Spirit weaken our resistance so that we can go deeper with God today.

***

***

Image credits: (1) NeverThirsty (2) Steve Dusek, Podcast (3) St. Francis of Assisi Church

***

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.

***

***

The Acts of the Apostles, which we’re reading from throughout the Easter Season, describes the life and liturgy of the early Church, answering questions like: 

“What did the first Christians do after the resurrection? How did they worship Christ? What were their lives like?”

Often, it wasn’t pleasant. 

As we just heard, “There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem, and all were scattered throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria…Devout men buried Stephen [the first martyr] and made a loud lament over him.”

Life for these first Christians was hard and often dangerous.

***

But we also see the responsiveness of the Holy Spirit.

***

Because the first Christians were persecuted for their faith, they were forced to flee Jerusalem. As a result, the Gospel message begins to spread to new lands.

Soon enough, God will also transform the hardened heart of Saul, who becomes the Apostle Paul. After having his own experience of the resurrected Christ, Paul becomes the most traveled missionary of his era.

He walked more than 10,000 miles on foot, sailed the open seas, preached the Gospel in synagogues, in public, even in prison. God took Paul’s past and passion, which was once used to persecute Christians, and transformed into an unstoppable zeal for the Gospel.

Towards the end of his life, Paul writes about his belief in a profound and mysterious truth: “All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.”

***

While God allows evil to unfold in our world – take these first Christian persecutions as an example, which Paul once participated in – somehow God can bring good out of it.

“All things work together for the good of those who love God,” because nothing and no one can separate us from the love of Christ.

What might that mean for me today?

***

***

Image credits: (1) Fine Art America (2) Judeo-Christian Clarion (3) Pin on Faith Quotes, Pinterest