Come Away By Yourselves

This Sunday's readings remind us of so many important realities.  We are God's people and precious to him.  He has loved us in our sinfulness, before we merited any goodwill on his behalf.  We are an apostolic Church chosen by name and invested with power to do good and proclaim the Gospel.  Our ordinary lives are actually quite extraordinary!

On the Feast of Corpus Christi the Church turns her heart to Jesus's real presence in the Blessed Sacrament.   A marvel of love, in the Eucharist the infinite enters the finite, the Creator his creation and the invisible the visible real.  Adoration, devotion, and gratitude should mark our response to this great mystery of our Faith. 

The Holy Spirit is God's gift to us.  The Spirit dwells within each one of us in the state of grace.   We should ask him for help and rely on his presence especially to live the virtue of charity.  The fruits of the Spirit are the indications of his activity in our life. 

As we celebrate Mother's Day in the month of May, our minds and hearts naturally go to our Heavenly Mother, Mary.  Devotion to Our Lady should be natural and heartful, as is our devotion to our own mothers.  Mary is a great ally in the Christian life and May, Mary's month, is a great time to increase our love for her and our dependence on her intercession .

St. Peter says we are a priestly people who  offer spiritual sacrifices to God.  What does it mean to have a "priestly soul"?  How can we make our hearts altars of a burning love of God?  How can we be mediators and peacemakers between God and men?

The image of our Lord as Good Shepherd is a challenging one.   It means that we Christians are sheep.  Our pride and self-sufficiency naturally bristle at this image.  Only with deep humility, and contemplating Jesus the Lamb of God, can we embrace being sheep and having a Shepherd.

The two disciples' encounter with Jesus on the road to Emmaus teaches us so much about prayer and faith.   Jesus walks with us whether we realize it or not.  He is interested in what is happening in our lives and also in how it affects us.  His presence in the dialogue of prayer, in the Eucharist and in Scripture should be places where we regularly seek his companionship and counsel.  

Lent is over and with it comes the expectation of Easter Joy.  Holy Saturday invites us to anticipate the joy and wonder of the Resurrection of Jesus.  The Resurrection is a powerful reality that continues to give life and joy to the world and especially the Church.  

As we enter Holy Week, we can ponder Jesus's fundamental motivation.  Whether growing up in Nazareth or preaching throughout Galilee and Judea, whether acclaimed by the crowds or nailed to the Cross, Jesus is always doing one thing: fulfilling his Father's will.  This is at the crux of our own identity as sons and daughters of God in Christ 

In saving us from sin Jesus does more than relieve us of an unpayable debt.  He actually pays the debt himself.   He buys us back, redeems us, with the price of his precious blood.  The wounds of Christ are thus mysterious sources of confidence and consolation for us, worthy of our continual contemplation. 

To pray is "to lift up our minds and hearts to God."  Often, however, we lose a proper sense of the grandeur and awesome nature of God.  Routine makes us used to prayer and God becomes something taken for granted, ordinary, and even boring.  Reflecting on God's power and transcendence can spark us to a renewed love for him and new horizons in our prayer life.  

Jesus gives two clear conditions for following him: deny yourself and take up your cross each day.  Lent is a clear invitation and opportunity to do this. 

Lent is a wonderful opportunity to find our peace, joy, and comfort in God.  We do this by denying ourselves our usual sources of support, distraction, and pleasure.   To be filled by God is to run the risk of emptying ourselves out of other things.  This takes trust, courage and patience.   God always responds to this kind of personal faith, even when it is imperfect and needs to grow.