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James: 4: 1-10

Beloved:
Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?
Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?
You covet but do not possess.
You kill and envy but you cannot obtain;
you fight and wage war.
You do not possess because you do not ask.
You ask but do not receive, because you ask wrongly,
to spend it on your passions.
Adulterers!
Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God?
Therefore, whoever wants to be a lover of the world   
makes himself an enemy of God.
Or do you suppose that the Scripture speaks without meaning when it says,
The spirit that he has made to dwell in us tends toward jealousy?
But he bestows a greater grace; therefore, it says:
God resists the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.

So submit yourselves to God.
Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.
Cleanse your hands, you sinners,
and purify your hearts, you of two minds.
Begin to lament, to mourn, to weep.
Let your laughter be turned into mourning
and your joy into dejection.
Humble yourselves before the Lord
and he will exalt you.

The Word of the Lord.

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The ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, likens the soul to a charioteer whose task it is to drive two horses. 

One horse is gentle and mild, obedient to the commands of its master. The other is wild, untamed, and rebellious.

The name of the first horse is Reason. The second horse is Passion.

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Reason and Passion live in constant conflict within us.

For example, if someone strikes you across the cheek, reason would say, “Take a deep breath. Back down. They may be stronger than you!” 

Even, “Forgive them.”

Passion would say, “Hit ‘em hard! Smack ‘em back!”

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This is what makes Christian living so difficult at times. We must learn how to tame our passions; how to humble our ego; how to be measured, wise, and merciful. 

In a word, how live and love like Christ.

Meaning, it’s not enough for us to refrain from hurting another person; we should never wish harm upon anyone.

It’s not enough to know what is right; we should always do what is right.

It’s not enough to refrain from being dishonest; we should never consider telling a lie.

As Saint James writes in our first reading: 

“Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from? Is it not from your passions that make war within your members? So, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”

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Hands the reigns of your heart over to Christ to the point that we can say with Saint Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ living within me.”

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Image credits: (1) Tug of war rope, Amazon.com (2) Steemit.com (3) Heartlight.org

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Genesis: 3:9-15, 20

After Adam had eaten of the tree, the LORD God called to him and asked him, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.”
Then he asked, “Who told you that you were naked?
You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!”
The man replied, “The woman whom you put here with me— she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it.”
The LORD God then asked the woman, “Why did you do such a thing?”
The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it.”

Then the LORD God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, you shall be banned from all the wild creatures; On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;
He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.”
The man called his wife Eve, because she became the mother of all the living.

The Word of the Lord.

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In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve break their communion with God through an act of eating.

As Satan the serpent slithers in the Garden of Eden, he convinces Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge, which she then shares with Adam, as we heard in our first reading.

This act of disobedience breaks the commandment given by God to Adam:

“You are free to eat from any of the trees in the garden, except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it, you shall die.”

Christians understand this to be the origin of sin – and by extension the evil that is still present in our world. Once humanity’s relationship with God was severed, “all hell broke loose,” as it were.

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How is this rupture meant to be restored? How do we re-enter into communion with God?

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In John’s Gospel, Jesus gives us a new commandment, echoing that of Eden: 

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. 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” (John 6: 51, 53).

Just as Adam and Eve lost communion with God through a disobedient act of eating, so we are brought back into relationship with God through an obedient act of eating.

Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge. 

In the Eucharist, we eat from the Cross, the tree of life.

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What are we to do with such a great gift?

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Saint Augustine said, “Become what you consume.”

Be the hands, the face, the voice of Christ in the world through acts of prayer, charity, and self-sacrifice. 

What might that look like for me – to become what I consume – today?

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Image credits: (1) The Eucharist, St. Mary’s Catholic Church (2) Scott Smith Blog (3) Catholic Answers

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Gospel: John 20: 19-23

On the evening of that first day of the week,
when the doors were locked, where the disciples were,
for fear of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”
And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,
“Receive the Holy Spirit.
Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them,
and whose sins you retain are retained.”

The Gospel of the Lord.

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When you think of the Holy Spirit, what image comes to mind?

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Perhaps you imagine that peaceful dove hovering over the Lord after he was baptized by John in the Jordan River. 

Or maybe you imagine something different: the tongues of fire that came rushing upon the Apostles in our first reading.

These are two very different images of the Holy Spirit: a docile bird versus blazing fire. 

The Irish wisely merge the two together, often depicting the Holy Spirit as a goose, a wild bird with fire in its belly.

If you try boxing a goose in, it will bite! Your only warning before a painful pinch is that loud, jarring HONK! 

Loosely translated, it means something like, “Outta my way!”

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The Holy Spirit is like a fiery goose, because it moves wherever it wills. And when it bites, you know it! 

You become like the God you represent – peaceful as a dove, yet as noisy, protective, and passionate as a goose. There’s fire in your belly!

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Consider the difference in Saint Peter before and after he receives the Holy Spirit.

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Today’s Gospel begins with Peter hiding somewhere in Jerusalem. The grim reality of Good Friday is still fresh in his mind. Understandably, he and the others are terrified that the Lord’s fate might become their own. 

So, they hide.

On a deeper level, they’re also afraid of change.

Ask any one of the Apostles – it would’ve been much easier if they could’ve tethered Jesus to their waist, stopping him from going to Calvary that fateful Friday afternoon. 

But they cannot turn back the clock; the Lord was crucified.

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Suddenly, Jesus appears in their midst and says to them, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Then he breathes on Peter and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

This gesture of breathing on Peter is evocative of the Book of Genesis, when God first gave Adam life by breathing into his nostrils, making him a new creation.

Similarly, Peter is now made new.

Like a wild goose, he bursts out of that locked inner room in Jerusalem, rushing to preach to the crowds who wanted the Lord dead.

In his first public sermon, Peter proclaims:

“Jesus the Nazorean was a man commended to you by God… This man you killed, using lawless men to crucify him… God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses. Now, repent and be baptized, every one of you!”

I can imagine Peter’s face fire red, his finger pointed outward, his voice full of passion and conviction.

There’s no other logical explanation for this dramatic change in his behavior – from cowardice to courage – unless he has seen the Risen Lord and received the Holy Spirit. 

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Like Peter, who once hid in that locked inner room, how many of us are afraid of change? 

Or how many of us yearn for the fire of the Holy Spirit – a fire that burns away fear, cleanses sin, and empowers us to do God’s will?

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Anyone who’s filled with the Holy Spirit has an easily identifiable trait: enthusiasm.

Enthusiasm comes from the Greek – en theos – meaning, “God within.”

In Peter’s case, his enthusiasm comes out in his preaching. The Gospel is like a fire in his bones; he cannot help but preach it!

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So, what might this enthusiasm – this force of “God within” – look like in our own lives?

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Perhaps it’s that remarkable energy that pushes you to do a thousand little things to serve your family, keeping your household together.

Maybe it’s the zeal you’ve found for ministry. You want to do more and more.

Maybe it’s what inspires you to speak up, inviting a friend or co-worker to, “Come and see.”

God’s fiery Spirit is revealed in a multitude of ways.

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On this Feast of Pentecost, may the Holy Spirit – the “wild goose” – make us a new creation, smitten by grace with fire in our bones, ready to do whatever the Lord may ask.

Come, Holy Spirit!

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Image credits: (1) Psephizo (2) (3) Tekton Ministries