Daily HOMILY for May 28, 2014: Wednesday of the 6th Week of Easter

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In 2014, I am facilitating a 12-week interactive online course in contemplative prayer and action for priests with Saint Luke Institute.  Please visit SLIconnect.org to learn more:  https://www.sliconnect.org/product/living-god-program-contemplative-life-2/

Wednesday 6^th Week of Easter

St. Luke’s Institute

May 28, 2014

A GOOD MYSTERY +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  End of many TV mystery shows, story line wrapped up by showing viewers what really happened

Ø  We get to see in flashbacks actual details & re-enactments of “whodunit”

Ø  These explanations are necessary for a lot of us who have been scratching our heads all along, wondering who the perpetrator was

Ø  We usually see scene of crime & the gruesome results, but are left to guessing many of the details

Ø  What did victim mean when he said such & such

Ø  What could that earlier close-up of a key or a gravestone have to do with the story?

JESUS’ MYSTERY +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  In many ways, Jesus’ actions were nothing but a marvel to his followers

Ø  And his words were an absolute mystery

Ø  In today’s Gospel, knowing that his passion and death are soon to come, Jesus begins to unravel some of the mystery to his disciples

Ø  Declares that there R mysterious things yet 2 come

Ø  This is not a reference so much to new predictions about the future, but rather interpretations of what already has occurred or has been said

Ø  Other words, “end of the show” is near and they will soon get that recap – the practical explanation of what really happened & what is means

THE SPIRIT “TELLS ALL” +++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Indeed, says Jesus, it is the Holy Spirit who will be with us now, guiding us to all truth

Ø  We, thru R annual reenactments of life, death, & resurrection of J, witness many times mystery of Christ unraveling

Ø  Oftentimes we look to our own logic for explanations

Ø  We look to what happened both prior to the crime (Christ’s death) and at the scene of the crime

Ø  But it is only the all-knowing Narrator of the mystery (God the Holy Spirit) who helps us understand more fully the incredible story of how we are being saved

CONCLUSION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  It is Christ’s life and our lives – “after the crime” – that matter now

Ø  Though it’s not the end of the show, we’re already beginning to understand the mystery!

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Daily HOMILY for May 27, 2014: Tuesday of the 6th Week of Easter, Cycle A

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In 2014, I am facilitating a 12-week interactive online course in contemplative prayer and action for priests with Saint Luke Institute.  Please visit SLIconnect.org to learn more:  https://www.sliconnect.org/product/living-god-program-contemplative-life-2/

Tuesday 6^th Week of Easter

St. Luke’s Institute

May 27, 2014

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCES ++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  We can’t say to anyone or even to ourselves, “Go out and have a religious experience”

Ø  Some definite awareness of God working in our life or around us comes as a gift

Ø  We don’t work ourselves into it as people may rev themselves up by pumping iron or thinking positive thoughts

Ø  But it is undeniable that religious experience is very powerful

MIRACLES à FAITH ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  The jailer in today’s 1^st reading, after witnessing the freeing of the prisoners, asks Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?”

Ø  To see something as extraordinary as this certainly would have an impact on most human beings

Ø  But while we can’t produce religious experiences like this, we can be more receptive to seeing God at work around us and in ourselves

Ø  In the jailer’s case a miracle seems to have produced faith

Faith à Miracles ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Often it’s the other way around: genuine faith produces or is willing to see miracles where others see just natural happenings

Ø  The way a particular individual brightens up our life, makes us happy, chases the clouds away is like a miracle for some of us

Ø  Why not?

Ø  Can’t God be helping us through such people?

Ø  Faith that God is all around us and in other people can result in our seeing God at work more often]

Ø  Such faith can result in our having what we can call religious experience

Ø  Religious experience here means a kind of verification of our faith

Ø  Seeing good come to us through others or through events confirms for many of us that there is truly a God who cares for us

CONCLUSION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  God isn’t forced on us, but God is perceivable with some openness on our part

Ø  Whether it’s faith helping us experience miracles or miracles helping us experience faith

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Daily HOMILY for May 21, 2014: Wednesday of the 5th Week of Easter, Cycle A

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In 2014, I am facilitating a 12-week interactive online course in contemplative prayer and action for priests with Saint Luke Institute.  Please visit SLIconnect.org to learn more:  https://www.sliconnect.org/product/living-god-program-contemplative-life-2/

Wednesday 5^th Week of Easter

St. Luke’s Institute

May 21, 2014

WORLD’S “PRODUCTIVITY” ++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Productivity is a big & important word in our world

Ø  Its only other rival in the commercial world may be the “bottom line”

Ø  Pursuit of productivity results in too much stress for many people

Ø  The world’s productivity is the kind that can be measured, weighed, and evaluated monetarily

GOSPEL “PRODUCTIVITY” +++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  The comforting and beautiful words of today’s Gospel are about a more profound kind of productivity

Ø  We hear Jesus say that he is “the vine and we the branches”

Ø  And that “the Father is the vinedresser who prunes the vines to make them more fruitful”

Ø  Moreover, he reminds us that “we can only be productive if we remain united with him”

Ø  And if the branches continue to receive the nourishment coming from the vine itself and its roots, then,

Ø  “Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing?”

COMPARING “PRODUCTIVITIES” +++++++++++++++++

Ø  Putting commercial activity alongside that fruit spoken of by Jesus makes us question ourselves

1.     In what way, how R we productive in the Lord?

2.     What are the signs of our union with him?

Ø  From the teaching of Jesus elsewhere in the Gospels, we pretty well know what the signs of our union with the life of the risen Christ are:

1.     Genuine, practical love

2.     Effective care and concern for others

3.     Patience and perseverance

4.     And witness and dedication

Ø  But, again, all this is not automatic

CONCLUSION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Paradoxically, those of us who come to celebrate Mass daily may be in more need of warning about this than those who come weekly or only occasionally

Ø  Why? Because our productivity appears in what we do or don’t do once we leave this chapel

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Daily HOMILY for May 20, 2014: Tuesday of the 5th Week of Easter, Cycle A

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In 2014, I am facilitating a 12-week interactive online course in contemplative prayer and action for priests with Saint Luke Institute.  Please visit SLIconnect.org to learn more:  https://www.sliconnect.org/product/living-god-program-contemplative-life-2/

There is only audio available for this homily.

Daily HOMILY for May 19, 2014: Monday of the 5th Week of Easter, Cycle A

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In 2014, I am facilitating a 12-week interactive online course in contemplative prayer and action for priests with Saint Luke Institute.  Please visit SLIconnect.org to learn more:  https://www.sliconnect.org/product/living-god-program-contemplative-life-2/

Monday 5^th Week of Easter

St. Luke’s Institute

May 19, 2014

FIRE TO DESTROY ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  There were many ways in which God could have saved the world

Ø  When James and John encountered opposition, they asked Jesus about calling down fire from heaven to destroy their enemies

Ø  That same thought may have occurred to Paul and Barnabas in our first reading

Ø  It certainly would have been fast and effective, but Jesus reprimands them for suggesting such a response

Ø  Instead, God chose to save the world neither by warfare nor by destruction of enemies, but rather through love

Ø  One would wonder why

LOVE TO TRANSFORM ++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  When Paul wrote that love is patient, love is kind, etc. (1 Cor 13:4-13), he was describing God’s attitude toward the world

Ø  And thus the attitude expected of the followers of J

Ø  In today’s Gospel, John confirms that if we want to know God, we have to be loving people

Ø  Consider what loving someone opens up for some whose hostile toward us

Ø  A tit-for-tat alternative merely escalates discord

Ø  Loving and acceptance on the other hand opens up the solution space for the individual

Ø  It’s a space in which s/he can become much more

Ø  And most importantly it’s the way of Jesus

Ø  And it is in imitating Jesus that we become vehicles of G’s presence, G’s approach, in our fallen world

THE REAL FOLLOWER OF JESUS +++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Some XTNS get tired of hearing all this talk abt love

Ø  If not fire from heaven, they prefer emphasizing law, rituals, and dogmas as signs of their religion

Ø  Real follower of Christ, however, finds love to be the focus of their lives

Ø  Love is what it’s all about

Ø  C.S. Lewis observed, “We were made not primarily that we may love God but that God may love us”

CONCLUSION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Yes, there were many ways in which God could have saved the world, but he chose the one he knew best: he chose love

Ø  And we’re left with the question, “What will we choose?”

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