Reflecting on Mark 14:12-16, 22-26

They had not understood about the loaves

There is an odd moment in Mark’s Gospel in chapter six. We only read these verses (51 and 52) on weekdays, never on Sundays, and that’s a shame.  I think they provide the most startling reflection on today’s great feast than any other part of Scripture.

Earlier in the day, Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish.  Many hours later, the apostles were struggling in the boat on the lake in the middle of the night.  They saw Jesus walking towards them:

Then he climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down.  They were completely amazed, for they had not understood about the loaves.

Huh?  They hadn’t understood about the loaves?  What’s that got to do with the miracle of walking on the water, or the healing of the blind man, or the resurrection of Jesus, or our life in Christ, or the unfolding of the universe forever and ever?  Everything.  Everything.  Happy Feast Day, Most Precious Blood Parish and all parishes named for this greatest sacrament.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

What memories do you have of your First Communion?

Reflecting on Summer Graduations

I know who holds the future

It was such a beautiful morning.  The eighty graduates of Bishop Machebeuf High School processed through the spring grass to the center stand at Johnson &Wales College, waving and smiling to their adoring families in the stands.

The salutatorian and valedictory addresses were funny and warm, but I cried all the way through them because of the astonishing conviction of these young kids about the presence of Christ in their lives.  Somehow, in the middle of all the economic and high-school angst of this highly diverse class of 2009, their valedictorian felt comfortable saying to her class:

I don’t know what my future holds, but I know who holds my future.  I may choose many different paths in my life, but, this day and always, I will choose Christ.

And the majority of the class rose in acknowledgment and applause. They get it.  They believe Jesus’ promise to be with them always.  But my tears were for our beautiful young girl whom we mentor, who came up from the projects and a violent abduction, who, although unbaptized, was thrilled to go to St. Rose of Lima and then to Machebeuf, and who is now leaving that safe cocoon with absolutely no theology of incarnation, no sense of a God who is with her always.  Our work isn’t nearly done, church.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

How are the graces of your baptism evident in your life?

Reflecting on Acts 2:1-11

Happy Pentecost, church!  And, may I say, well done.  We kept the fast of Lent with care.  Each week we learned about one of the powerful ministries in our parish that is reaching out to the grieving, the sick, the homeless, the pregnant poor.

We celebrated the Great Three Days with all we had.  We kept watch on Holy Thursday, cried as we venerated the Cross on Good Friday, and howled in delight with those who chose to be baptized and come into full communion with us on Holy Saturday.

And oh how we kept the Easter feast!  We rang bells and blew trumpets and sang Easter Alleluias, and listened to seven weeks of Gospel accounts of the resurrected Christ.  And now, today, the ninety days of fasting/feasting find their true target in the center of our hearts.

Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for the second time in history, (we) will have discovered fire.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

What was the best part of the Lent/Easter season for you this year?

Reflecting on Acts 1:1-11

“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Now there’s a question.  And these are the apostles!  They were with Jesus when he drove out demons, when he laid hands on the sick and healed them, when he forgave Dismas from the Cross—well no, they’d run away by then—and now they were standing with the resurrected Christ as he prepared them for his ascension.  But the question they most wanted answered was “Is this the point where you get your army together and expel the Romans?”

That would take a lot of power, a lot of armies.  But nothing like the power they were soon to experience.  From heaven Jesus was about to send them the Holy Spirit, whose fire would burn—still burn—to the ends of the earth.  And yes, the day came when the Romans left Israel, only to be replaced by other foreign occupiers, and today the Palestinian peoples pray for deliverance from those very Jews who prayed for deliverance themselves.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

How is the Holy Spirit urging me to dream bigger dreams, to build a new heaven and earth?

Reflecting on Acts 10:25

All the ends of the earth have seen the power of God. We sing Psalm 98 all through the Easter season, and Christmas season too.  But I think there is a part of us that doesn’t really believe it.  Peter had a vision about it, and told Cornelius he finally understood it, but the “circumcised believers” with Peter were still astounded that the same Spirit that they were experiencing had actually been poured out on the Gentiles too.

The Gentiles, for heaven’s sake!  They don’t know a thing about Moses, they don’t keep kosher, and who knows how many times a day they break the Law?  And yet they too have seen God’s mercy and power.  It reminds me of Dustin Hoffmann’s grief, after he made the movie Tootsie, that he had wasted so much of his life in pursuit of beautiful women instead of making true friendships with the women he already knew.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

Who in your life might have more wisdom and friendship to offer you than you thought?

Reflecting on John 15:1-8

There is something miraculous going on in our backyard these days.  Our neighbors, ingenious caretakers of the earth, sent the operators of SenseOfColorado.Com over to our long-ignored yard.  They dug out the grass and tilled the soil, and in March they came and planted stuff!  It’s unbelievable!  They are replacing our prickly, dried-out yard with real food!  Yummy.

Branches that stay close to the vine.  Food that bursts out of the ground.  Babies that form silently in wombs (thanks mom!) Heart-stirring men’s choirs and children’s choirs that celebrate those women whose generosity gave us all life.  Ah.  I want to be that seed, scattered and sown, that the world might live.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

What fruit is your life producing?

Reflecting on John 10:11-18

Let’s all go to the Holy Land sometime.  We’ll get all of our amazing staff at our parishes and schools, and our choirs, and the hundreds of volunteers who provide thousands of hours of service in so many efforts for those in need.  And let’s take all the kids too.  They can wear their beautiful Baptism or First Communion clothes as we visit Shepherd’s Field, just a few miles from Bethlehem, and we’ll watch the shepherds taking care of their sheep just as they did the night Jesus was born.

We’ll listen to the scholars who live there talk to us about shepherds in ancient Israel, and why Jesus is thinking of them when he reflects on the meaning of His own life in this week’s Gospel.  After we’ve sung Palm 23  we’ll organize a collection for the Bethlehem Food Bank, and then we’ll visit the Catholic church in Jericho, which has been shepherding Christians there since the time of Christ.

Yes, let’s all to Israel someday and seek Jesus, the shepherd of our souls.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

What else can we do as a parish to be good shepherds in our world?

Reflecting on Acts 3:13-15

Peter preaching to the crowds

We got a subscription to Netflix for Christmas, and we’ve watched way too many movies ever since.  Lately we’ve been mesmerized by the many documentaries on World War II, especially the ones coming out of Germany.  What do the old people say now about their steadfast loyalty to Hitler, even as it became obvious that the war was lost? What could you do? You went along.  Everybody seemed to love him.  You assumed everyone knew more about things than you did.  Everyone was cheering and saluting.  You got caught up.

In today’s first reading Peter, filled with Pentecost spirit, encourages the crowd gathered in Jerusalem to forgive themselves for demanding the death of Jesus, even as Pilate was ready to release him.  “You acted out of ignorance,” he says.  What behaviors and attitudes still drive us, even in Easter light, even as evidence of the resurrected Christ abounds?  Lord, let Your face shine upon us.  Open our minds to understand the Scriptures.

Think about this question this week, at the beginning of a meeting or just in conversation with yourself and others.

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

What conviction did I used to hold that I now regret?

image via Wikipedia

Reflections on Acts 3:13-15, 17-19

Hmm.  That’s quite a business model.  The first reading today (from the Acts of the Apostles, of course, since we’re finally in the Easter season) reports that those earliest Christians, those eye-witnesses to the events of Holy Week, were so changed by the resurrection and coming of the Spirit that they abandoned Basic Economics and began to share everything in common, even selling their property and giving the proceeds to the apostles for distribution among the believers.

Gulp.  I’m going to need more than an empty tomb and reports of the presence of the risen Lord in our midst to get me to cough up what’s left of my 401K.  I’ll need to touch His wounds and feel His side and ask Him directly if He really can be trusted if I give it all away. Were I a perfect child of God the answer would be clear, but until then here’s my question for myself and for you:

Sharing God’s Word at Home:

How is “trusting God” working for you so far?