Love Your Enemies

First Reading: Acts 9:1-20
Psalm: Ps 117:1bc, 2
Gospel: Jn 6:52-59

Friends,

Today's gospel is very important. It is at the very heart of an age-old disagreement between Catholics and our Protestant brothers. I am not well-versed enough to elaborate on the topic. I highly recommend reflecting on its words, getting a copy of the direct Greek translation if you can, and discussing it with a spiritual adviser.

Sometimes, it is difficult for us to see how treating another in a Christian way helps the cause of Christ. In today's reading, we hear Ananias responding to God's unusual request that he assist the very man who had made it his mission to tear down the Church.

But Ananias replied, "Lord, I have heard from many sources about this man, what evil things he has done to your holy ones in Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to imprison all who call upon your name."
But the Lord said to him, "Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and children of Israel, and I will show him what he will have to suffer for my name." - Acts 9:13-17

In our own times, there are many people who attack our faith. Some do it openly, cursing the Church and the name of Jesus. Others seek to undermine teachings of the church and attack those who defend those teachings. In response, many Christians lash back, hurling insults and other un-Christian sentiments. They, and we, are often quick to forget that those who disagree with us and seek to attack us are the very ones that Jesus has asked us to pray for:

But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. - Luke 6:27-28

This is the very thing that is emphasized in the reading, and it shows why this command of our Lord is so important. We do not know how God plans to use each of us for His glory. We most certainly do know that He has not given up on them, that He still loves them, just as He loves us. In any case, we are not given permission to stop treating them with love and respect. God alone has the right to judge them and give them the reward that they have earned.

Beloved, do not look for revenge but leave room for the wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." Rather, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head." Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good. - Romans 12:19-21

Heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You for the gift of this day. We pray for the gift of patience when dealing with people who seek to harm us, that our example might be an offering to Your glory. Help us to love as You love and leave the rest in Your hands. Jesus, we trust in you! Amen.

A Learned Teacher

First Reading: Acts 8:26-40
Psalm: Ps 66:8-9, 16-17, 20
Gospel: Jn 6:44-51

Friends,

In today's reading, Philip is again being sent to preach the gospel to those outside of Judaism. He meets an Ethiopian returning home after a visit to Jerusalem who just happens to be reading the scriptures and helps him to understand their meaning and fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

We rely on teachers to help us interpret the world that we live in. Students can read the math textbook, but they often will make no progress without a teacher's help. You can hand a new employee the store manual, yet, there is always someone there to help train them as well.

Jesus tells us in the gospel that we shall be taught by God, through the one who comes down from heaven. He also promised us the gift of the Holy Spirit, to guide and direct our journey; a promise fulfilled at Pentecost.

Reflect for a time today on who is a teacher in your faith life. Who can you go to when you have questions? Seek them out, as well as those who first taught you of our Lord's love, and thank them.

Heavenly Father, we thank you and praise you for the gift of this day. Thank you for blessing us with teachers on our journey. Bless those teachers with the gift of discernment, that they might share what they have been given with all. Guard their minds and hearts from being swayed by the devil and his angels. Bless also those that listen to those who bring the word of Truth. We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Acceptance

First Reading: Acts 8:1b-8
Psalm: Ps 66:1-7a
Gospel: Jn 6:35-40

Friends,

Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. - John 6:37-38

Have you ever been at mass, or at a church sponsored event, and seen someone that did not look like they belonged there? Maybe they had dirty clothes. Perhaps they had a lot of piercings or tattoos. Maybe they hadn't shaved or showered for a while. In any case, they looked out of place among the other congregants. What did the people around them do? Did they back away, ignore them, whisper to their neighbors?

Not long ago, I might have been one of those parishioners, grumbling to myself something like, "Don't they know that this is church and they should be presentable?" After all, I'd dressed in my nice clothes, bathed and was sitting quietly. Apparently, I'd forgotten to polish my halo. I had a difficult time seeing past the exterior appearance to the person. But God always brings down the proud. Later that year, for a few weeks, I had to make a choice: either skip mass or go wearing clothes that I'd been in all day. Around tigers. And their droppings.

Recently, I was helping a friend who is just coming back to Christ. He has many tattoos all over his arms and face, some of them are pagan symbols. He was cleanly dressed and shaved. Bald. When we took our seats for the mass, we both noticed a few glances in our direction. There wasn't a lack of people in the church, but as more came in, they avoided sitting near us. Just before the homily, my friend turned to me and said that he felt uncomfortable, that people were judging him and maybe he should go.

Jesus tells us in today's gospel that He will not reject anyone who comes to Him, because they have been sent by His Father. The gospels tell us over and over again that He spent much of his time around those who were seen as the lowest of the low. Our job, as the body of Christ, is to accept our brothers and sisters, even the dirty and unsightly ones, with open arms and say "Welcome home."

This is not to say that we should encourage people to attend mass in muddy overalls or the like. There is definitely something to be said for someone who grooms themself before approaching the altar of God. However, we must remember that it is of utmost importance to make that approach (humbly), regardless of our appearance.

The reading for today emphasizes this. Philip (another early deacon) goes to the Samaritans, whom the Jews considered ritualistically unclean. They were taught from a very young age to hate each other, each group believing that it had the truth from the scriptures (sound familiar?) It must have been difficult for Philip to overcome the social conditioning that he had against the Samaritans, but overcome it he did, to do the work of God. Later on, Paul did the same thing in his preaching to the Gentiles. These early Christians followed the command of Jesus to love one another, rather than blindly follow the social norms of the day. Let us follow their lead.

Heavenly Father, we thank You and praise You for the gift of this day. Thank you for the many blessings which we enjoy. Lord, grant that we might see You in the lowly of our world. Help us to look past appearances and accept brothers and sisters of all races and languages that wish to walk with You. Guard us from pride and guide us humbly back to Your graces. We ask all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Martyrs

First Reading: Acts 7:51 - 8:1a
Psalm: Ps 31:3cd-4, 6 and 7b and 8a, 17 and 21ab
Gospel: Jn 6:30-35

Friends,

Today, we hear of the martyring of St. Stephen, first among the deacons and the first to die in defense of Christianity, after Jesus Himself.

There is a question that I like to ask people who are lukewarm in their commitments or who struggle with apathy: Is there anything in your life that you feel is worth dying for? The question usually knocks people back on their heels. Try it for yourself; is there something that you feel so strongly about that you would be willing to give your life to defend it? Your family? Your country? Your faith?

Jesus mentioned in the gospel yesterday that the work of God is to believe in the one that He sent. That belief is not without hardships. He tells us himself:

If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. - John 15:18-19

This is the wake-up call for Christians who are looking for a way to make Christianity an easy road to walk. It is as true today as it was for the early Christians. We are mocked and ostracized when we dare to stand up for our beliefs. We are called names, turned away from work, threatened and in some places in the world, even killed. On top of everything, those who stumble in their belief are held up by the world and heralded as the ones we should emulate.

As Christians, we can recognize that our beliefs are difficult, but that they are a small price to pay for God's mercy. We are called to love those who hate us and bless those that curse us (Luke 6:27-28). This is the commandment of Jesus and a testimony for our own faith:

This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. - John 13:35

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of this day. We pray that You bless us with the grace needed to love as You love. Grant us the faith of the early church and guard us against compromising on that which has true value. We ask all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Free Lunch

First Reading: Acts 6:8-15
Psalm: Ps 119:23-24, 26-27, 29-30
Gospel: Jn 6:22-29

Friends,

A good friend likes to remind me that the center of the Catholic Church can be found in the sixth chapter of John. Since the rest of the readings this week deal with just that chapter, we will focus there. I do highly recommend reading them and reflecting on your own.

Let's set the scene: Jesus has just multiplied the loaves for five thousand people. They were astonished and sought to make him king (mighty useful to have a guy who can make bread from nothing). Jesus draws away and that evening, he comes to the apostles, walking on water. In the morning, the crowd discovers that Jesus isn't there anymore, so they go looking for him. When they find him, Jesus has this to say:

Jesus answered them and said, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life" - John 6:26-27

He says this to stop them from focusing on the short-term results of the miracle. They come looking for Jesus because their physical hunger was satisfied, not because of his message.

We get caught up sometimes with the idea of the free lunch. The idea of getting something for nothing is very compelling. We like sales that tell us we're getting half-off, or a trip with the office that we can write off as a business lunch. Buy one get one (or a thousand, in this case) free. We use the tactic all the time to draw people in for short-term satisfaction of some form or another.

In our walk of faith, we sometimes want things to come to us free. We ask God for favors, then sit and wait. We ask for our faith to be strengthened, but do not take the time to pray. We might demand a healing, but do not attend Mass or receive the Eucharist. A few insist that they will not believe unless they can do as St. Thomas did and touch Christ themselves, but make no effort to see Him in the poor and needy.

Jesus here is steering us away from all of that. He wants us to focus on the long-term and the long-term is never free or easy. An education, a family, a career, a solid faith life. All of these things take hard work and sacrifice. There are no shortcuts, there aren't any coupons.
The long-term goals require a consistent belief that even though things are tough now, it must be done so that something of worth can be gained.

So they said to him, "What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"
Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent." - John 6:28-29

Belief in Jesus sounds like an easy enough task, but as we will see in the later readings this week, it's no free lunch.

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of this day. We are grateful for the many gifts that You have given to us. We pray that we might not seek the easy path, but the true path that leads to You. We pray for fortitude for the times when the path is not easy to walk and the temptations of a smooth road are great. We pray also for our brothers and sisters that have accepted the lie of an easier way, that they might be stirred back to seeking You. We ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Favor for the Humble

First Reading: 1 Pt 5:5b-14
Psalm: Ps 89:2-3, 6-7, 16-17
Gospel: Mk 16:15-20

The Feast Day of St. Mark

Friends,

Today's reading is a bit different from those of late. It is less of a direct testimony to the miracle of the Resurrection and more of a warning for those who already accept Jesus as Lord.

Clothe yourselves with humility in your dealings with one another, for:

God opposes the proud but bestows favor on the humble.

So humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. - 1 Peter 5:5b-6

Our reminder here is that we must be cautious in our thoughts and our words. When someone is brought back to the faith, it is not because of the superior intellect of his Christian friends. When a miracle is performed, or an apparition to a seer, it is not because of the power of the seer or mystic. Those that begin to see the mighty works done through them as their own begin down a very dangerous path, into pride.

Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the Devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Resist him, steadfast in faith, knowing that your brothers and sisters throughout the world undergo the same sufferings. - 1 Peter 8-9

The devil has power in this world, though he does not have authority. He can speak truths, scattered among his many lies. His skill to manipulate words and twist their meanings is very powerful, but his end goal is always our separation from God. He seeks to do this little by little, with a little sin here, and a dose of pride there. Pride is his own favorite sin and arguably his chief tool against us. As the demon Screwtape said in the works of C. S. Lewis:

He must be made to feel 'how different we Christians are'; and by 'we Christians' he must really, but unknowingly, mean 'my set'; and by 'my set' he must mean not 'The people who, in their charity and humility, have accepted me', but "The people with whom I associate by right'. - The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis

We must remain humbled in our salvation, remembering that our acceptance into the family of God is not because of some great work of ours. Our sins are not less numerous than those of many who do not follow Christ. The moral difference between any Christian and the lowest sinner on earth is that the Christian turns to God and humbly admits his sin and asks for mercy; something that the sinner could (and we pray would) do in a moment. We cannot demand salvation because of our own goodness or works, but God gives it freely to those who ask with a humble heart.

The God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory through Christ Jesus will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you after you have suffered a little.
To him be dominion forever. Amen. - 1 Peter 5:10-11

Heavenly Father, we thank You for the gift of this day. We thank You for the example of Jesus, whom You sent to us in the most humble of ways. We pray that we will follow His example, not turning away sinners, but welcoming them. Grant us the virtue of meekness, that we might remember that we ourselves were once lost in sin, but through Your almighty love, we are rescued. We ask all of these things in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.