12th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jeremiah suffered more than the other Old Testament prophets.  In today’s first reading Jeremiah says that all his friends have turned on him and he is in serious danger no matter where he turns.  But more important than Jeremiah’s horrible sufferings, is his strong faith in God.  He has entrusted his cause to the Lord and therefore can sing to the Lord and praise the Lord because he knows with everything in him that God will rescue him from the power of the wicked.

In the second reading, Paul writes to the Romans about sin and death, both of which can strike fear in our hearts.  It was the sin or transgression of Adam that brought sin and death to all of us.  We all sin and certainly we all will die. But Paul knows that the “gracious gift” of Jesus Christ is greater than death and any sin we may commit.  How often Paul writes about the abundance of grace that is offered to us if we only believe in Jesus and live our lives accordingly. Paul believes, hopes, and trusts in Jesus with all that is within him. Like Jeremiah, his life was often painful and difficult, but he persevered. He too was willing to praise God for the gifts given to us through the Lord Jesus.

In the gospel, Jesus speaks to His twelve disciples and tells them to fear no one, not even those who can kill their bodies.  At the same time though, the Lord warns them against falling prey to the one who can destroy them both body and soul in Gehenna.  They have been warned that if the Evil One is allowed to have his way, he will destroy them. We too in our day need to heed that warning.

More importantly though, Jesus assures the Twelve that God the Father knows and loves them more than they can imagine.  And when they acknowledge Jesus before others, Jesus will acknowledge them before His heavenly Father. Jesus encourages them to believe in God’s providential care for them, regardless of how things go.  The Lord tells them that as long as they remain close to Jesus and are willing to live lives that show others they belong to Jesus, Jesus will tell God the Father that they belong to Him.

Do we have faith in God, especially in times of trial, as strong as Jeremiah did?  Are we as free of fear and conscious of the gifts of grace that Jesus has won for us as Paul was?  Do we live in such a way that others can see that we are Christians, striving to do all as Jesus would want us to do?

Stronger faith, freedom from fear, and a more Christ-like life is the invitation of today’s Scriptures. The Holy Spirit eagerly awaits us each day to respond to that invitation by asking for more faith, hope, and love. How often do we ask the Spirit for more of His gifts? Ideally, it would be every day, for the Christian life is best lived one day at a time.

What we need is a daily decision to live for God and then to trust God - Father, Son, and Spirit - to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.  God’s burning desire is that we be united with Him both now and forever.  Given the gift of free will, this will only happen if we let go and surrender everything to God and let God lead us and guide us at all times in all things.

What most holds us back from doing that most often is fear, which is born from a lack of trust.  When we trust God, amazing things can happen.  All the saints trusted Jesus.  We are a step closer to joining their ranks each and every time we simply and sincerely pray, “Jesus, I trust in You.”

The Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

The Feast of Corpus Christi provides an opportunity to ponder the gift of the Body and Blood of Christ given to us in the Eucharist.  Today’s three Scripture readings each highlight an aspect of the Eucharist which is good to keep in mind.

In Deuteronomy Moses speaks to the people in the desert exhorting them to remember that as God led them through the desert the Lord provided them with manna from heaven that nourished them on their journey.

Jesus too will remind his listeners of God’s gift of manna and then go on to tell them that he is the Bread of Life and, as God nourished those in the desert, he too will feed those who hunger and thirst with his own Body and Blood.  The Eucharist then is food for our journey.

In 1 Corninthians, Paul explains that when we share in the Body and Blood of Christ through the Eucharist, we are united with the Lord.  Through the Eucharist, we are brought into communion with him.

We also are brought into communion with one another as we share in the Body and Blood of Christ. We are one with Jesus and one with each other in the Church, which is the body of Christ. The Eucharist provides us with communion with the Lord and with one another.

In John 6, Jesus tells the crowds who have followed him that the Eucharist is the source of eternal life.  He gives his flesh and his blood for the life of the world and if we do not eat and drink his Body and Blood we will not have life within us.  The Eucharist is a share in eternal life and a pledge that we will never die, but will live forever.

Nourishment for our journey, communion with the Lord and with one another, and eternal life are all ours through the Body and Blood of Christ. As today’s collect reminds us, the mystery of this wonderful Sacrament is a memorial of the Lord’s Passion which we revere for through this Sacrament we experience the fruits of our redemption.

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Today is the Feast of God, revealed to us as a Trinity of Divine Persons.  Today’s Feast is all about the awesome mystery of the Community of Divine Love: Father, Son, and Spirit.

The Scripture readings today, which tell us about Moses, Paul, and John, each of whom knew, loved, and served God, suggest ways for us to respond to our God of Love who first loved us.

Exodus reminds us to acknowledge the presence of God by bowing down in worship and then asking God to accompany us and receive us despite our sinfulness. That can be as simple as a prayer at the beginning of the day offering God everything we do and then another prayer at the end of the day  of thanking the Lord for all that happened and asking forgiveness for our sins, ending by asking for the gift of another day.

In 2 Corinthians, Paul tells us to reflect and imitate God by being joyful, encouraging, and peaceful as God is, knowing that God offers us grace, peace, and fellowship.  Again, keeping it simple could mean a smile and a kind word, especially when we don't feel like it.  Seeking to be joyful, encouraging and peaceful puts us on the path toward holiness and guarantees that we will become the person God wants us to be.

John’s gospel is all about belief in Jesus.  When we believe in Jesus we receive eternal life and are saved from condemnation. Belief in Jesus means learning from the Lord the way we should go, and the truth we need to know, and the life we need to lead. Belief in Jesus is more than an intellectual assent.  It requires love, obedience, and service, for, as the letter of James tells us, faith without works is dead.

God loves us as a father and mother love their child, and as we surrender to God we are transformed into the likeness of Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit at work within us. When we pray, and are kind, and believe, we cooperate with grace and hasten that transformation.

Baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we have been sent into the world, as Jesus was, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the sacraments our lives are joined to the life of God.

As we celebrate the Trinity today, we are encouraged and made more hopeful, for our Triune God is with us, loves us, and desires to be one with us.

Pentecost Sunday

Today’s readings remind us of important realities about the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the Church.  First, in the Acts of the Apostles, at Pentecost in Jerusalem, the Spirit gave the disciples power, as symbolized by the wind and fire, to preach and spread the gospel to the world.  Secondly, as Paul explained to the Corinthians, the Spirit is the source of a variety of gifts, given to each individual to use to build up the community of believers.  And thirdly, in John’s gospel, the Spirit was given first on Easter night to be the source of mercy and forgiveness.

Yet, as the Collect for today’s Mass tells us, the Feast of Pentecost is not only for recalling “the divine grace that was at work when the Gospel was first proclaimed,” but we go on to pray that the Holy Spirit will sanctify us and “fill now once more the heart of believers.”

In order to know the power of the Holy Spirit who seeks to make us holy, we need to cooperate with the Spirit.  We need first to discern what the Spirit offers us, what the Spirit may be telling us, what the Spirit is prompting us to do, and then we need to cooperate with God, who will not force us to do anything, but instead offers grace and then waits for our response.  We have to be people of prayer who are willing to surrender our own wishes and desires to those of God.  Then we can work with the Holy Spirit, or better put perhaps, to allow the Spirit to work most effectively with us.

Secondly, we need to be obedient.  Jesus saved us from sin and death through his obedience to the will of the Father.  He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that the cup might be taken from him, but in the end he surrendered and was obedient.  Read the life of any saint and you will see suffering and obedience.  Again, both require a surrender to God who loves us and seeks to use us to further the reign of God in our world today.  Disobedience puts outside of the life of grace.  The way to holiness, which the Spirit desires for us, is obedience. 

Finally, we need to trust the Holy Spirit to do within us and for us what we cannot do on our own.  The Spirit desires to use us, but we need to be humble and trusting in order for that to happen.  We can expect temptations to do things our way, or to fear that God will not be there when we need help, or to take a break from the path of holiness in order to have an easier life.  But by trusting the Holy Spirit each and every day, we are strengthened against such temptations and other attacks from the devil.

A good friend often quotes her mother, “You don’t ask, you don’t get.”  God delights in giving gifts, so we ought to ask for gifts from the Spirit, again, each and every day.  Strength, mercy, and surrender to God’s will are powerful gifts that the Holy Spirit will pour into our hearts.  And all we need do is ask and then trust. 

“God, fill now once more the hearts of believers!”  Amen.