• Acts 14: 21-27. Paul and Barnabas complete the first missionary journey and report to the community at Antioch which had commissioned them. They relate all that God had helped them accomplish and repeat the need to undergo many trials perseveringly.
• Revelations 21: 1-5. John sees a vision of the new heavens and the new earth, also the new Jerusalem, beautiful as a bride. Every tear will be wiped away.
• John 13: 31-33, 34-35. Jesus will soon depart and recommends love for each other, “such as my love has been for you.”

Thoughts for Your Consideration: By John Gonzalez

The Gospel reading for this weekend offers us the final instruction of Jesus to his disciples before being glorified through his own Passion, Death and Resurrection. The instruction is to “Love one another as I have loved you.” In fulfilling our Sunday obligation of attending Mass we are in fact fulfilling our obligation of remembering Christ as we listen to his Holy words in Sacred Scripture and by participating in the last supper during the liturgy of the Eucharist. But the act of remembering is not an historical exercise. We are not merely role playing with an event that happened sometime in the past. A great Passionist scripture scholar, Fr. Carroll Stuhlmueller, reminds us in his commentary on this passage that “remembrance is re-living now what was done then. …Remembrance combines past, present and future, suffering and glory, hopes and fulfillment. The liturgy of the Eucharist enables us to do much more than we ever anticipated, for it brings the mirabilia Dei, the wondrous deeds of God, from the past right into our contemporary actions.”    

Because of the laws of nature humanity is limited by the dimensions of space and time. However God exists beyond these confines and spiritually we too transcend these natural limitations. That is why it is nearly impossible to describe supra-natural concepts that John witnesses in the book of Revelations such as the new heaven, the new earth and the New Jerusalem. The relevance that the second reading has for us is to remind us of our Christian goal which again transcends time and space. Heaven does not become a personal future reward for us if we successfully live a good life. Heaven becomes a liberated form of existence, an existence where we live in a complete holistic relationship with God and each other. What this existence will look like in the end we do not know, but from what John was able to observe “there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away.” Our Christian hope is for a new culture of life that will replace the current culture of death. The social culture that placed Jesus on the cross will give way to a new culture that will transform the crucified Jesus into the risen Christ.

We are called to share in that liberated existence now. We remember this existence when we recall the life that Jesus lived and the incarnate relationship he had with God and humanity. We re-live that relationship now as Christians building the Kingdom of God by our very example and by advocating for the society based on the culture of life, a life that compassionately walks with all who suffer, a life that stands in solidarity with all who are mourning, wailing or in pain.

The Passionist community takes a vow that remembers the passion and death of Jesus Christ. This act of remembrance calls us to re-live that suffering by serving and standing with all who continue to face the pains and injustice of our contemporary society. The Passionist Constitutions describe it in this way: “His Passion and death are no mere historical events. They are ever-present realities to people in the world of today, “crucified” as they are by injustice, by the lack of a deep respect for human life, and by a hungry yearning for peace, truth, and the fullness of human existence.”

This path of remembrance is described by St. Paul in the first reading when he instructs the disciples to persevere in the faith. “It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” God’s Kingdom is not something we wait for, it is something we build together as a community of faith that believes and hopes for a fuller existence. We remember this vision through the life and love that Jesus shared with all humanity. We re-live this vision today when we reach out and relate to all our brothers and sisters and especially those who need us the most. Finally we also hope that these efforts will help build a new society that is founded on the love and life that God wants to share with all of creation.

Christian eschatology calls us to live in the present by looking to the past and remembering tomorrow.

• Joshua 5: 9-12. The feast of Passover is celebrated on the plains of Jericho. The Israelites eat the produce of the Promised Land, and the manna ceases.
• 2 Corinthians 5: 17-21. “The old order has passed away; now all is new.” Christ who never sinned became “sin” that we might become the very holiness of God.
• Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32. The parable of the prodigal son, the story of a father’s forgiveness and a brother’s anger.

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

The theme with the lectionary readings for this week is reconciliation. Immediately after reading these Scripture passages I began to reflect on the book “The Shack” by William Young. As I was reading this book I recalled how I had to pause once I became aware of the crime that became the central issue for the main character. Mack (the main character) is a father who experiences the kidnapping and violent murder of his youngest daughter. As a father of a liitle girl myself I considered this experience to be unforgivable. The rest of the book was a mystical journey for Mack to forgive the unforgivable. This was a powerful narrative and to be sure I was moved and challenged by the journey that Mack had with the Holy Trinity. But could I take this same journey with God? I would like to hope so, but in my heart I remain very much challenged with regards to this dimension of reconciliation.

In the first reading we are told about how God reconciles with the Israelites who have entered the promise land in a place called “Gilgal”. In the second reading Paul tells us that “we are ambassadors for Christ” whose mission “was reconciling the world to Himself.” The parable of the prodigal son is a challenging portrayal of paternal forgiveness.  We Christians know that we are called to forgive and to promote reconciliation with each other. Yet while we can accept this dimension of our Christian calling in theory, there comes a point where we ask the question that Peter poses to Jesus, “How often must I forgive my brother?”

Christian eschatology, the ultimate establishment of the Kingdom of God in our midst, is theologically understood in the “already but not yet” formula. Jesus declared that through him the Kingdom of God is already present, but with his ascension we also understand that the culmination of the Kingdom of God will happen sometime in the future. In Romans 8 Paul asserts that “all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now” and in this week’s second reading Paul also reminds us that “whoever is in Christ is a new creation.” Christian theology teaches us that in the Divine timeline the Kingdom of God began with Christ and we continue living in this transitional phase until the moment that the Kingdom of God is fully established in our midst, a moment we also call the second coming of Christ. What Paul is reminding us in the second reading is that during this transitional phase we are called to be ambassadors in our society for the values and principles of the Kingdom of God. An essential dimension of this is our obligation to end the social cycle of violence by promoting reconciliation in our world.

We are imperfect ambassadors in this transitional phase. Radical forgiveness and reconciliation is a Christian value that will challenge us in the same way that it challenged the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son. But what is just as important as the fact the father forgave his youngest son is that the father also goes out to the field to consult and journey with the older son to have him understand this challenging level of reconciliation. “The Shack” demonstrates this same point at a deeper and more intimate level when Mack journeys with each member of Holy Trinity.

In our world and in our society there will be events and incidence that will challenge our ability to forgive members of the human family that hurt us or our society. Our Christian commitment is to allow ourselves to be challenged and try in whatever capacity to at least comprehend our call to promote reconciliation between God and all humanity. There will be times that we fail and at the moment maybe we simply cannot forgive and instead we go out to the field in anger, but we are called to allow ourselves to be open to God during these challenging moments.

Now some may say, “well that is all fine and well in a parable or in a fictional book but where is this value reflected in real life?” I recall asking that very same question as I finished reading “the Shack”. That following week a gunman shot all the girls at an Amish school in Pennsylvania. To my absolute amazement the Amish community, in an act of social reconciliation, forgave the gunman.

• 1 Kings 17:10-16. The poor widow makes bread for Elijah with her last remaining ingredients only to be blest by God with a year’s worth of flour and oil.
• Hebrews 9:24-28. Christ is the high priest who has removed our sins through his sacrifice. He will come again to bring salvation for those who await him.
• Mark 12:38-44. Jesus warns his disciples against the hypocrisy of the scribes. Jesus then teaches the disciples the true meaning of charity through the example of the poor widow.

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

This week we learn about the true nature of charity. Charity is a prominent virtue of our Catholic faith. In the second chapter of the letter to the Galatians Paul recounts the Jerusalem controversy with the early Christian community over the issue of circumcision. Verse 10 of that chapter reveals the universal importance of charity to the fledgling Christian faith. From this account we know that even during the earliest moment of our Church’s history there have been issues of disagreement. But the topic of charity, “that we remember the poor,” has been a consistent unifying element as the Church developed and spread. No one can argue that charity is an important value within our faith tradition. But like everything else even the concept of charity must evolve so that we can fulfill the spirit of charity within our changing social environment. It is perhaps for this reason that Pope Benedict XVI took the time to devout his recent encyclical to what he called “Charity in Truth.” What is Christian charity in the context of Globalization?

In the Gospel and in the first reading we are told about the spirit of charity. Charity is not only the act of giving. In the Gospel Jesus warns against the mere image of charity where people give comfortably from their surplus and yet do it in a way that publically inflates their image of being charitable and holy people. In both readings we hear that charity is the selfless act of giving especially when it is truly challenging to give. The spirit of charity is not based on our ability to give what is no longer important or desirable for us, it is the ability to give based on the necessity of others.

In the encyclical “Charity in Truth” Pope Benedict XVI reminds us that true charity can only be understood in relationship to justice. For some time now the values of charity and justice have been understood within a hierarchy of values where the individual acts of charity is of principle importance and the work of promoting social justice is secondary. According to the encyclical this is not charity in truth. “Charity goes beyond justice… I cannot “give” what is mine to the other, without first giving him what pertains to him in justice. If we love others with charity, then first of all we are just towards them.”

The encyclical goes on to redefine justice as the act of social and political charity which we are all obliged to give. We are responsible for both individual acts of charity and social acts of charity. This being the case we are not allowed to merely promote voluntary acts of charity while advocating against social laws that promote justice. We cannot feel comfortable with preaching individual charity while denying social programs to help the poor and marginalized. To truly embody charity we must do both. Like the widows in both readings we have to accept the challenge to give for the sake of societies needs. The way this is structured in our society is through a system of taxation that is specifically designated for social programs such as housing, healthcare, education and food programs. The encyclical and today’s scripture readings do not teach us to be libertarians. Instead we are taught to promote the “common good” through our individual and social acts of charity.             

The second reading reminds us that this call to the challenge of promoting “charity in truth” is not built on the social wisdom of this world. It is based on our faith in the “Kingdom of God.” The reading in the letter to the Hebrews tell us about the eschatological mystery where the “Kingdom Of God” is already revealed to us through Jesus but we also await its ultimate establishment in what we call the second coming. This reminds us that we are expected to live and express the true value of charity even in the midst of our imperfect society. We are the individual witnesses to the “Kingdom” and it is through us, united in our relationship with Christ, that we will slowly bring about the true “Kingdom.” This reminds us to persevere in our social and individual acts of true charity and to not be discouraged by the unjust realities of our society or to fall victims of a more convenient  and possibly hypocritical form of charity.

• Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14. The 144,000 from every tribe of Israel are the ones who have survived the period of great trial.
• 1 John 3:1-3. We shall see God as God is, for we are God’s children. All who have hope keep themselves pure as God is pure.
• Matt 5:1-12. Jesus teaches the disciples the blessedness of following him as poor in spirit, sorrowing, single-hearted, peacemaker.

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

This week our Church celebrates the communion of the saints. The Apostles’ or Nicene Creed that we recite at the beginning of the liturgy of the Eucharist reminds us that the communion of saints is a fundamental tenet of our Faith. Each of this Sunday’s readings reminds us that we are called to be part of this sacred community. Christ invites us all to be saints. This Sunday we recall the great men and women who have come before us and whose own lives were a powerful witness to the Kingdom of God. Some of these people may be famous people who are well known within the Catholic Community such as St. Francis of Assisi, St. Theresa of Avila, St. Catherine of Siena and St. Paul of the Cross. Others may be more obscure and perhaps known only to us, parents, relatives and friends whom we remember for their own powerful testimony of being Christ like in our midst. These are all people who selflessly gave of themselves for their family, community or society. We recall these saints not for their own sake, but rather because they exist as living examples to us of how to be Christian.

The first reading comes to us from the Book of Revelation. This book, along with Daniel in the Hebrew Scriptures, are perhaps two of the most complex books in our own Sacred Scriptures precisely because they are eschatological books. They are rich in symbolism and because they are prophetic writings many lay readers get caught up in looking for clues and answers related to the end time. This week we read about the saints or the elect who number 144,000. This number has had the unfortunate effect of demoralizing many of us who believe that we have almost no chance to be part of this small community. The 144,000 mentioned in verse 4 indicate the elect from the twelve tribes of Israel, where each tribe has been given 12,000 elect. Verse 9 however, tells us that that there is another group of elect “a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race, people, and tongue.” Scripture scholars have argued that the first elect is symbolic of the Jewish community of saints, whereas the second group is the broader gentile community.

What is important for us is not how many elect there are but who they are. “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress.” In this world that we live in, all of us are subject to suffering of one form or another. We are all being tested and challenged to live our Christian vocation. Our early Christian martyrs suffered simply for being Christians. We suffer from the secular counter-cultural challenges to imitating Christ. We live in a society focused on individualism, value is given to material possessions, praise and reward is offered for those who gain the most for themselves. We may have the freedom to be Christians and to attend Church services but the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience stand in stark contrast to our own social values. While these two forms of suffering are very different they are both very real in their own way and just like our Christian ancestors were tested in their discipleship from the persecution of their day we continue to be tested in our own way today. We who are called to be saints are very much being challenged to live the Christian values of simplicity, fidelity, and mutual collaboration. Will we survive this time of great distress?

The second reading reminds us that as part of the communion of saints we are called to be children of God and to imitate the purity of Christ. The Gospel goes on to offer a description of this pure lifestyle through the beatitudes. The beatitudes identify a special grace to the aspects of suffering that we face in this world. The beatitudes are not telling us that we are blessed simply because we suffer. Instead the beatitudes are inviting us to redeem society through our own response to suffering. All members of the human family suffer; it is a common element of all creation. How shall we respond to the personal and social suffering of our world? Should we take a defeated stance and allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by our own limitations and the social injustice of our world. No, again we are called to live the values of the saints, humility, compassion, simplicity, righteousness, mercy, integrity and peacefulness. By being a lived witness to these values not only will we be ensuring our own participation in the communion of saints but we will be bringing society one step closer to the kingdom of heaven.