Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter Acts 25:13-21 + John 21:15-19
Peter was distressed that He had said to him a third time, “Do you love me?”
On these last two weekdays of Easter, our Gospel passage comes from the epilogue of John’s Gospel account. In these final days, we hear John’s account of Jesus’ “final word”, which echoes what John records time and time again throughout his Scriptural writings (the Book of Revelation, his three epistles, and his Gospel account).
Jesus’ “final word” is Love—caritas—which in fact is the very nature of the Triune God, and so then also of the “Word made Flesh”. As we prepare to celebrate the Sundays and other solemnities that flow forth from the Easter Season, we meditate on the meaning of the Caritas Who Is God. In the weeks following the Easter Season, the Church will celebrate the Solemnities of the Most Holy Trinity, Corpus Christi, and the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Through each of these, the Church reflects and liturgically celebrates the goodness of God’s very nature: the Love that the Risen Jesus extends to us.
Today, Jesus calls Peter, the Rock of the Church, to accept this divine caritas as the heart of his own life and ministry. We pray for our Holy Father, the Pope. We also pray for ourselves, that no matter what our vocation may be, our lives will also reflect this divine outpouring of love.
PLEASE NOTE: In addition to the Mass for Pentecost Sunday, Pentecost has a proper Vigil Mass and an extended Vigil Mass with five Scripture readings before the Gospel. For the shorter Vigil Mass, the First Reading may be taken from any of the Old Testament passages proclaimed at the Extended Form of the Pentecost Vigil Mass.
Pentecost Vigil Mass—Extended Form Genesis 11:1-9 + Exodus 19:3-8a,16-20b + Ezekiel 37:1-14 + Joel 3:1-5 + Romans 8:22-27 + John 7:37-39
When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.
Almost 2000 years ago on this day, the Church was born. The Church would be nothing without the Holy Spirit. The Church couldn’t have been born without the Holy Spirit, and she could not live today without the Holy Spirit. Where the Church is strong, it’s because of the Holy Spirit. Where the Church is weak, it’s because the Holy Spirit is not given His due.
When I say “where”, I don’t just mean in different parts of the world. It’s true that the Church is stronger in some parts of the world than others. Certainly the Church in the Western world is not as strong—doesn’t live the Gospel with as much fidelity—as the Church in many third-world countries. In countries where the Church has fewer material resources, the Church tends to be stronger, for opportunities to experience the suffering Christ are more present, whereas the West fosters an antiseptic culture in which many wear blinders.
When the event of Pentecost occurred almost 2000 years ago, the apostles were greatly changed by their “encounter” with the Holy Spirit. How were they changed? The Holy Spirit didn’t make them taller, richer or stronger. The Holy Spirit doesn’t try to change us in these ways, because He isn’t interested in our bank accounts, or the vehicles we drive, or our looks, but only the state of our souls.
So how were the apostles changed? What did the apostles “get out of” their encounter with the Holy Spirit? It was a spiritual change, certainly, but we need to be more specific. The apostles didn’t receive the Holy Spirit in order to help them feel good about their relationship with God. The apostles didn’t receive the Holy Spirit in order to tickle the ears of others by preaching about sunshine and daffodils, but instead to call others to an adult faith: that is, to a catholic faith that preaches and lives out even the hard teachings of the Church.
This is just as true today. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to apostles and prophets, clergy and lay people, in the first and twenty-first centuries, in order to build the Church on earth by means of self-sacrifice. There are different works but the same God who accomplishes all of them in every one. To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To each person the Holy Spirit is not given to make him feel better about himself. The Holy Spirit is given to make possible greater self-sacrifice.
We receive the Holy Spirit in simple ways. Among other examples, we receive the Holy Spirit when devoutly reading Scripture, and by carrying out the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. But as we receive Him—as we grow spiritually—the gifts and graces of the spiritual life that we receive are to be laid at the feet of others.
We see this when we look at the sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. Through Baptism, a person becomes a member of the Church: an individual member of the Body of Christ. Through Confirmation, a person is prepared to offer his or her life in service for the sake of the Church, for the sake of that Body of which he or she is one member.
The Holy Spirit leads us in our spiritual life. He leads us in making decisions about how to serve the needs of others. There are countless opportunities to do good each day of our lives. But we cannot do them all.
Likewise, we sometimes ask God to help us accomplish something: to help us see how to get something done that we want to do. We often need to realize, though, that the Holy Spirit is not going to show us how to do something that He has no interest in us doing in the first place. If we do not feel that God is guiding us, it may be because that path would lead us in a direction that God does not want us to travel.
At this conclusion of Eastertide, ask God to help you to be open to the Presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. Ask this not simply for your own sake, but to help you seek and serve the needs of others, because no one can find salvation on his own.
Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter Acts 22:30;23:6-11 + John 17:20-26
“… so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in Me and I in You.”
There are many types of unity. For example, if two persons agree about a political issue, and join a common party, these two persons have political unity. If two persons agree about a moral teaching, or agree to act in common on behalf of a moral goal, these two persons have moral unity. If two students study for doctorates in physics, specializing in the same topic, and become the two foremost experts in the world about that topic, these two persons bear a certain intellectual unity.
Two persons can also be united by far less significant matters: their nationality, the clothes they wear, or the physical space they share (whether in an elevator, a house, or a courtroom). Two siblings are united by their parentage, and identical twins enjoy an even more specific genetic unity. Beyond physical traits, siblings—or a parent and child—can be united by psychological traits, temperament, or even predispositions towards certain virtues and vices.
None of these is what Jesus is preaching about in John 17:21. Jesus is preaching about something far more profound.
The tiny word “as” in Jesus’ petition to the Father unlocks the petition’s meaning: “that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in Me and I in You.” Reflect, meditate, and contemplate the meaning of the Unity that the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity not merely have or share, but essentially are.
Wednesday of the Seventh Week of Easter Acts 20:28-38 + John 17:11-19
“… that they may be one just as We are one.”
Of the four Gospel accounts, John’s is the loftiest and thus is symbolized by an eagle. In the vocabulary of theology, John has the highest Christology. One can make the case that the Last Supper discourses—found in John 13-17—make up the loftiest part of John (with the possible exception of the prologue in John 1:1-18). Within the Last Supper discourses, the seventeenth chapter of John is commonly titled the “High Priestly Prayer” of Jesus, and is the loftiest part of these discourses. All of this is stated to point out that in this last week of Easter, we are certainly breathing rarified air.
It’s from today’s Gospel passage that St. John Paul II took the title of his twelfth encyclical letter: Ut unum sint [“That They May Be One”]. It was his only encyclical about ecumenism, and was promulgated in 1995, with St. John Paul already looking toward the Great Jubilee of 2000. Yet he anticipated the Jubilee somewhat wistfully, because he knew that it would not be celebrated with the followers of Jesus united according to the desire that the Lord expressed in John 17:11.
Ecumenism was a topic close to the heart of Pope John Paul II, who was of Slavic heritage, and who grew up along the cultural border between East and West: Orthodox and Catholic lands. He longed both for the unification of the Eastern and Western Churches—in his phrase, the “lungs of the Church”—and for the reconciliation of Protestant ecclesial communities with the Catholic Church.
Slowly and prayerfully re-read today’s Gospel passage. As you continue your Novena to the Holy Spirit, pray that you will accept the Gift of the Holy Spirit in His fullness, ut unum sint.
The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Zephaniah 3:14-18 [or Romans 12:9-16] + Luke 1:39-56
… Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice ….
Catholic art is beautiful because it focuses on persons: the three Divine Persons, and human persons as well. In Catholic art that portrays today’s feast—the Visitation of Our Blessed Mother—there are four persons shown to the eye of the viewer. Of course, two of them have to be shown indirectly because they are unborn children: St. John the Baptist in the womb of Elizabeth, and Our Lord in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. Sometimes these two unborn children are portrayed by something akin to halos shining, indicating the grace that dwells within these women through their openness to human and divine life [see the sacred image below].
If we were to order these four persons in order of holiness, we would first place the Lord Jesus, who is not merely a holy human being, but the source of all holiness: the eternal Son of God. We would certainly place second the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God: she who merited to bear our Redeemer. We would likely place third St. John the Baptist, whom some theologians have taught was without Original Sin.
But reflect today on Saint Elizabeth: fourth in this line, yet like you and me. She is a human creature, not a divine Person. She receives assistance from the Blessed Virgin, as you and I do each day. She was chosen not for drama, as was her son, but for simplicity of life. In light of St. Elizabeth’s vocation, what do you and I take today from her example? “…Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice….” Ask Jesus in your prayers to open your heart to the Holy Spirit, that you might each day speak of His power, His glory, and His love for all people.
Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter Acts 19:1-8 + John 16:29-33
“In the world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have conquered the world.”
This coming Sunday’s celebration of Pentecost is the backdrop for all our weekday readings this week. Wherever we Christians are, we are united in the Mystical Body of Christ, and together we are praying this week for a greater openness to the Gift who is God the Holy Spirit.
However, we receive God the Holy Spirit not for our own plans and purposes. He comes to us in order to ‘equip’ us for the vocations that God the Father gives us. The providential plan of the Father, and the grace of the Spirit, cannot be separated: both meet in the life of Christ’s Mystical Body, within which we live.
Each of us is called first through Baptism to holiness. For most Christians, this baptismal vocation—the vocation to live as members of the “priesthood of all believers”—is deepened by a further call from the Father. The vocation to Holy Matrimony, or to Holy Orders, or to consecrated religious life, gives specific form to one’s baptismal vocation. Even more specifically, each Christian daily discerns the call of the Father to make small sacrifices with great love, as St. Thérèse of Lisieux teaches us. So we beg the outpouring of God the Holy Spirit.
Saturday of the Sixth Week of Easter Acts 18:23-28 + John 16:23-28
“The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures but I will tell you clearly about the Father.”
The spiritual momentum of the Sacred Triduum and the Easter Season moves us through the Passion and Death, the Resurrection, and the Ascension of the Lord Jesus to the Solemnity of Pentecost. In the Church’s celebration of Pentecost, we meditate not only on the divine origin and the divine mission of the Church.
We meditate finally upon the divine end of the Church: that is, her ultimate goal. This goal is eternal life with and in God the Father. On this Saturday of the Easter Season, reflect on the relationship between the Blessed Virgin Mary and God the Father. Think of how, from the time of the Annunciation, throughout the earthly life of her Son Jesus, to the end of her own earthly life, Mary had a unique relationship with God the Father. God the Father and the human creature, Mary of Nazareth, shared in common their Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. How often Mary must have turned to God the Father in prayer for support, comfort, and guidance!
Though you and I are not privileged with the unique vocation of our Blessed Mother, we are called by God the Father into His divine Life. In these last days of the Easter Season, pray directly to God the Father. Thank Him for His Son, Jesus. Ask Him to comfort you in the face of trial, and for an increase in the virtues of humility and patience. Ask Him to mold your faith, your heart and your mind in the likeness of His perfect work of creation: the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Friday of the Sixth Week of Easter Acts 18:9-18 + John 16:20-23
“But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you.”
Jesus uses the imagery of pregnancy to describe suffering in relation to joy, inasmuch as both pertain to Jesus’ Resurrection and the sending—by Him and His Father—of the Gift of the Holy Spirit. While it’s a truism of our culture that any goal worth achieving demands hardship, the image of pregnancy is yet more pregnant with meaning. The image of pregnancy connotes new life: a life independent of—yet owing its existence to—the one who begot it.
How do we relate this to the Resurrection and Pentecost? What is the new life that is begotten? It is the life of the Church. If you ask most people in the world—Christians and non-Christians alike—what the greatest Christian feast day is, they would likely reply “Christmas”. That’s the correct answer if one asks the question in terms of money and energy spent preparing for and celebrating the day. But liturgically, Easter Sunday is far more important than Christmas Day, a truth we can sum up with the saying that “The reason Jesus was born into this world was to die to this world.”
However, just as the meaning of Christmas points forward to Easter Sunday, so Easter Sunday points forward to Pentecost. Pentecost is not more significant liturgically than Easter Sunday, but nonetheless Easter prepares us for Pentecost: for the ‘birth’ of the Church, the Bride of Christ and the Mystical Body of Christ.
PLEASE NOTE: In some dioceses, on the Seventh Sunday of Easter the Ascension is celebrated. For the reflection for the Ascension, click HERE.
The Seventh Sunday of Easter [C] Acts 7:55-60 + Revelation 22:12-14,16-17,20 + John 17:20-26
“And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one ….”
We ought to cry out for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives each day. There are many reasons for us to do so.
One of these reasons has to do with our sinful human nature. Our sins pierce our souls as they pierced the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and so our souls can become like sieves, unable to contain the grace of the Holy Spirit’s Presence and His seven gifts. Our Christian life poses to us the struggle of allowing our souls to be re-created throughout our earthly lives. This is the grace of being reconciled with God that we receive in the Sacrament of Penance. This is what being “born again” means for us as Catholics: first of all, being washed clean of all our sins in Baptism, and from there on out being renewed in our relationship with God through the Sacrament of Confession.
There are some who claim that believing in a Sacrament such as Reconciliation somehow cheapens the meaning of our Christian faith. They argue that being able to go to Confession over and over again encourages people to sin. Of course, this makes about as much sense as saying that being able to take a shower every day encourages people to get dirty and stink.
How can we understand the argument of those who describe the Sacrament of Confession as an easy way out of sinning? After all, what are the alternatives? If God didn’t truly establish the Sacrament of Reconciliation, there are only three basic alternatives: first, that there’s no such thing as sin; second, that there is sin, but that as long as we have at some point accepted Christ as our personal Savior, our sins don’t matter because we are already saved; or thirdly, that there is sin, and when a Christian sins he or she needs to turn to God for forgiveness, but that nonetheless this forgiveness can be obtained simply by praying to God. When you put these three alternatives up against the Catholic’s need to confess mortal sins through the Sacrament of Confession, it hardly seems to make sense to say that Catholic have an easy way out. On the contrary, it would be much easier for us as Catholics to believe in one of these three alternatives.
Furthermore, we can also look at our relationship with God from a personal perspective, and see again the meaning and value of the Sacrament of Reconciliation with God. If you were to consider the most intimate relationships that you have in your life—whether with a spouse, parents, children, or friends—you could ask yourself in what manner you seek to be reconciled with those persons when you have offended them in a serious way.
We might consider several alternatives. First, we could pretend that we had never harmed the other, that we have no need to ask forgiveness. At times perhaps we do act this way, but we know it’s not honest.
Second, we could admit that we had harmed the other, but then claim that as long as we had professed our love for the other at some point in the past, that they will automatically forgive us without our asking. At times perhaps we do act this way, but we know that it’s presumptuous.
Third, we could admit that we had harmed the other, and know that we need to ask for forgiveness, but then seek this forgiveness in roundabout ways: for example, through flowers, a card, or some act of kindness for the other. These are all good things, and can lead up to forgiveness, but until a person breaks down, gets on his knees, and opens his mouth and says out loud, “O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you,” they cannot, even from a merely human point of view, receive the full joy of being forgiven and being able to go on to have an even stronger relationship with God.
If we seek the Presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and accept the full measure of His gifts, Jesus’ Spirit becomes our spirit. His breath becomes our breath. And so, in turn, we will offer our lives as Saint Stephen did. We will offer our own spirit to God, and in the same breath, pray for others, even those who have trespassed against us. This emptying of ourselves for God and others is our calling as Christians.
Reflections on the Sacred Liturgy 