30 April 2023 - in green pastures

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Amen, amen, I say to you,

whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate

but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.

False claimants to the title messiah and those religious authorities who would not welcome Jesus as the true Messiah were the thieves and robbers whose attempts to manipulate the sheep were exploitative, for their own pride and glory.

But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.

Jesus was the shepherd who entered by way of the gate, that is, by being the one to fulfill the Scriptures and the plan of the Father from immemorial. The gatekeeper was the witness of the Scriptures or the testimony of the Holy Spirit who opened the identity of Jesus to believers. Only Jesus himself could pass through this gate and lead others through through it to good pastures, making them a part of his flock in this life, and leading them to beatitude in the life to come. 

the sheep hear his voice,

as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

Just as Jesus called Lazarus and he arose, just as he called Mary Magdalene and she recognized him, so too does Jesus know all of his sheep as individuals and calls them by name. Indeed he knows us even better than we know ourselves and we come to recognize who we truly are and are meant to be only when we hear him call our name in this way. 

When he has driven out all his own,

he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,

because they recognize his voice.

Jesus walked ahead of his sheep. Since he himself was both the way and the truth he did not follow from behind forcing his sheep ahead. Instead, he went first and drew his sheep step by step by the sweetness of his voice. Sheep were not known for their intellectual prowess. But they were known to be able to recognize the voice of their own shepherd even amidst a myriad of voices speaking all at once. And this capacity is something that is meant to define us as Christians, as sheep in the flock of Christ. But as with actual sheep we grow in this ability by repeated practice, by listening when we know Jesus is speaking, especially in the Scriptures, so that we can recognize even his still small voice within our souls.

But they will not follow a stranger;

they will run away from him,

because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.

There were many competing voices speaking in the time of Jesus. Yet though some were deceived by false messianic claims and heeded the voice of strangers, those thieves and robbers were not able to captivate the crowds in the way that Jesus did. Their voices simply did not resonate, did not ring with truth in the way that the voice of Jesus did. His voice was meant gather his own to himself. As he said to Pilate, "Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice" (see John 18:37). We are no less exposed to the risk of many competing voices in our world today. And our hope is the same then as now: the voice of Christ. The Scriptures and the Spirit who opened the gate for the shepherd continue to open our hearts to his voice, making him able to enter, transform us, and then go out into the world through us. His voice is important not only at the beginning when we determine that his way is the true and only way, but throughout our lives as we strive to follow that way.

I am the gate.

Was he both gate and shepherd or did he simply mix metaphors? It makes sense that he was both. For he was able to enter the gate as shepherd precisely because he was the good shepherd who would lay down his life for his sheep, the shepherd whose way was the way of the cross. Now that we are called to follow after our shepherd on this way of crucified love we can only do so through the gate of Jesus himself. Only by uniting ourselves with him, and, as it were, passing through the mysteries of his own life, can we follow were the brave shepherd went first. 

I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.

We often assume that following Jesus will lead us to suffering, moral obligation, and sorrow. This is how the word of the cross often sounds to our flesh. But Jesus did not come for the sake of loss or death, but for the sake of the life that can come only when false imitations of life are surrendered. We struggle believing it, but we only find true life when we give ourselves away in love. As truth Jesus taught and demonstrated this. As way, he empowered us to live it ourselves by our union with him.  And as life, he himself was the culmination of the blessed joy that living that life would bring.

By his wounds you have been healed.

For you had gone astray like sheep,

but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

We do tend to stray. We sometimes begin to listen to voices making what seem to us to be easier claims, more straightforward paths to pleasure and satisfaction. But there is one voice alone that can lead us to the fullness of life that we desire. In whatever ways we have strayed we must return to him. Only in him do we find pastures of repose. Only his rod and staff are true comforts in the valley of the shadow of death. Only at his Eucharist table do we find the bread that satisfies. And only the anointing with the oil of the Holy Spirit brings us the love, joy, and peace that he intends for us.

Repent and be baptized, every one of you,

in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;

and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Stoneleigh Worship Band - The Lord's My Shepherd

29 April 2023 - one bread, one body

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Many of the disciples of Jesus who were listening said,

“This saying is hard; who can accept it?”

The people who were struggling with this teaching were his disciples. We might expect the Pharisees and other religious leaders or even the ever antagonist Judeans to have trouble with Jesus teaching about the Eucharist. But what see is that, like in our own day, it was disciples of Jesus himself who murmured and protested. 

And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me

unless it is granted him by my Father.”

There were some that had come to him and followed him as his disciples that hadn't yet come to him in the way that only the Father could grant. What Jesus was describing in this discourse could only be accepted and understood by the power of the Spirit, but these disciples were still operating primarily in the flesh. To them it seemed incompressible and utterly beyond their paradigm. This seems to be the case for many in the Church as well, since we read in survey after survey that faith in the Eucharist seems to be at an historic low. But lest we look complacently or even smugly at the unbelieving crowds, what about us? We who claim to believe that the consecrated bread and wine is truly Jesus himself, do we live like that is true? Or do the priorities of our lives give the lie to our profession of faith? Most probably none of us has responded with our entire hearts the the gift of Jesus to us in the Eucharist. But we cannot simply grit our teeth and believe more or better in order to attain the faith we desire. It can only come as a gift. And it is a gift we can only receive when we honestly acknowledge our own limitations.

Jesus then said to the Twelve, “Do you also want to leave?”

Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go?

You have the words of eternal life.

We have come to believe

and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

Peter definitely did not understand. But he did not just put on a good face so he could check the survey box that said '[ ] I believe everything Jesus taught about the Eucharist'. Instead he honestly fessed up to the fact that he didn't really understand much better than the crowds. But he trusted in the one from whom the revelation came. He didn't yet understand the teaching, but he trusted the teacher who revealed it. Implicit in this was the assumption that Jesus himself, with his words of eternal life, could help him to understand as he desired when he desired to do so. Peter knew what this experience was like, because it was a similar spiritual revelation by which he came to understand that Jesus was the Son of God. The Father led him to recognize the identity of Jesus beyond what flesh and blood could teach. He believed it could happen again here. And so, in humility, he remained open to that possibility.

But there are some of you who do not believe.”

Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe

and the one who would betray him.

Jesus seemed to be intentionally provocative in his teaching about the Eucharist. It was like a reality check for potential disciples to see if they were really serious about Jesus, one which led many to return to their former way of life. Further, it seems to have been a key issue to provoke his betrayal by Judas. We hear first mention of that betrayal in the Gospel of John in this passage. And we know that it was precisely during the Last Supper that Judas left to perform the deed. 

We might wonder, though, was it arbitrary to insist on the Eucharist like this? Could any supernatural doctrine have done just as well? In response to this, we would suggest that there was a reason that Jesus chose to insist so strongly on the Eucharist. That is because it is the Eucharist that makes those who receive it into the body of Christ, because "there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread" (see First Corinthians 10:17). The Eucharist, then, is not merely a ritual that is performed by the Church. It is a Sacrament, that, in a sense, creates the Church, since the Church is nothing other than the body of Christ. This means too that it is not negligible, nor optional. It is a revelation that every disciple is meant to receive in order to become what we are meant to be.

If the Eucharist really does make the Church as we have argued, then the fact of our lack of Eucharist faith means something more than a merely individual issue in the lives of isolated believers. The Church herself is being deprived of her full potential to the degree that we her members don't humble ourselves and allow ourselves to be draw by the Father through the words of eternal life given to us by Christ himself. To be all that we are meant to be as Church we must let his words of eternal life wash over us again and again, not seeking to master them by our intellect but rather allow them to master us. This is not unreasonable because the teacher who gave us this words is absolutely trustworthy. He gave these words in order to prepare those who would remain with him for his greatest gift: that of himself. 

There is a great promise in the Eucharist, not merely for our subjective experience of life in the Church, but for the life of the Church herself. If we succeed together in receiving the blessings of this year of Eucharistic revival the Church will doubtlessly experience the blessings that described it in our reading from Acts.

The Church throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria

was at peace. 

She was being built up and walked in the fear of the Lord,

and with the consolation of the Holy Spirit she grew in numbers.

John Michael Talbot - One Bread, One Body

Matt Maher - Remembrance (Communion Song)

28 April 2023 - unless you eat

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying,

“How can this man give us his Flesh to eat?”

The Judean crowds were relatively content when the conversation was about bread and seemed to be purely metaphorical and spiritual language. The shift to talk of consuming Flesh and Blood came as a shock. How could someone give them his Flesh to eat? Moreover, even if he somehow could do so, why would he? It seemed too graphic and grotesque without any benefit they could imagine. 

“Amen, amen, I say to you,

unless you eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood,

you do not have life within you.

Jesus did not correct the crowds as though they misunderstood him. Rather, he leaned further into the challenging aspect of his message. Yet although he did not explain the how, for his identity itself provided that explanation, he did explain the why.

Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood

has eternal life,

and I will raise him on the last day.

Jesus desired to bestow upon the human race the fruit of the Tree of Life that was meant to be ours in the Garden of Eden but that was forfeited by our first parents. He now intended to be himself the source of that life for us. He alone was so entirely available to his Father's will, so entirely at one with the life he received from the Father, that he was able to give it away in the form of his own Flesh and Blood. This was what he offered the Father on the cross. And it is the fruit of that same eternal offering that we are able to  receive in Holy Communion.

Just as the living Father sent me

and I have life because of the Father,

so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

There is an analogy between the way Jesus was himself fed by doing the will of his Father and the way in which we are called to feed on his own Flesh and Blood. It is, on the part of the giver, a relationship of complete generosity, of total outpouring. And on the recipient it is meant to be a relationship of absolute dependence, which, in human lives, manifests as obedience. There was no physical aspect to the Father. But we may still imagine the way in which he was bread for Jesus was no less real than the way that Jesus is bread for us. And if that is true it must also mean that we have only scratched the surface of the power that Jesus gift of himself can have in our lives.

For my Flesh is true food,

and my Blood is true drink.

It was a difficult teaching. But the difficulty arose more from a matter of why it should be so than that it could. We may experience distaste with the physicality involved, just as we probably also do when some of the cures of Jesus involved dirt and spit and other earthly elements. There is something of the incarnation itself that seems to our frail and fragile human egos to be inappropriate to God. We seem to wish that we ourselves were entirely angelic and spiritual and are disappointed to see God stoop into the realm of the material and the physical, as though he is tainted thereby. But God said at the beginning that this world that he made was good, very good. And now, in the gift of the Eucharist, he demonstrated the degree to which he meant that initial declaration. Even if we have given up on this project of creation and are waiting for something different and something better God himself has not abandoned it, but has begun the process of renewing it, and has set the day when, along with those firstfruits who are in Christ Jesus, the whole universe will be renewed.

He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him,

"Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"

He said, "Who are you, sir?"

The reply came, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

Like Saul our own ability to perceive the hidden presence of Jesus starts at zero and grows only by the gift of the Holy Spirit. We begin in blindness but he sends us his messengers to draw us into an awareness of his presence. This is what we need to receive, the gift to which we want to open ourselves as much as we are able. We see in the life of Saul that recognizing Jesus is not a matter of the Eucharist alone, but that it must include all the modes of his presence, including his presence in those whom Saul was persecuting. So then, if we ourselves have reached a plateau with our own experience of Jesus in the Eucharist, we might ask ourselves, where else is Jesus present that we are failing to notice? Is he lying sick and begging at our door? Or if we see him readily in that form what about in the Scriptures? Does his word have a special place in our daily lives? All of these other modes of presence are meant to culminate in the Eucharist gift so we do well to pay attention to all of them. 

"Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me,

Jesus who appeared to you on the way by which you came,

that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit."

Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes

and he regained his sight.

He got up and was baptized,

and when he had eaten, he recovered his strength.

John Michael Talbot - I Am The Bread Of Life

27 April 2023 - life for the world

Today's Readings

(Audio)

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him,

and I will raise him on the last day.

Since we know that God desires all to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth (see First Timothy 2:3-4) we should not interpret this statement as a negative, as though he desired only to draw some and not others. Rather the Father himself would draw any would allow themselves to be drawn. He himself would tug on the hearts of all, but sadly all resist him to one degree or another. He is gentle, forcing nothing. But we are stubborn and often remain unmoved. 

They shall all be taught by God.

God shall teach, but are we willing to learn? Are we willing to open our hearts to what God is telling us about himself, just as the eunuch was able to open himself to Philip teaching him about Jesus? We tend to prefer what flesh and blood can reveal to us. But that which matters most cannot remain at the level of visible and empirically verifiable. The material world is meant to point beyond itself, is, as it were, opened outward to transcendence, so that we look for a higher revelation of a deeper truth.

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven (see Matthew 16:17).

Another way to speak about allowing ourselves to be drawn by God is to say that we listen to the Father and learn from him. But we do not have independent access to the Father as though we can bypass the Son. It is by drawing near to the Son, who alone has seen the Father, that we discover the Father's testimony about the Son. At the same time we discover the Son's revelation of the Father. This is how it happened for Peter, precisely after spending time with Jesus himself his heart was moved to transcend the merely visible in order to confess the deeper truth. We see a similar revelation for the Ethiopian eunuch. He tasted something of the draw of the Father in reading the servant song of Isaiah. But it was not until it is revealed to be about Jesus himself that he began to see the entire picture. The eunuch discovered that the Father's plan from time immemorial centered on Jesus himself, saw the Father drawing his creatures to the Son that the Son might reveal him.

I am the bread of life.

Jesus was not just healthy bread, not just all natural whole grain or something similar. He was not merely a supplement to a natural kind of health. It was rather he himself and him alone that truly possessed life. 

In him was life, and the life was the light of men (see John 1:4).

This was a different sort of life than the mortal life which humans naturally possessed. It was divine, supernatural, and eternal. It might have almost seemed unfitting for creatures, unapproachable and unattainable. And yet Jesus himself would not hoard this life that he possessed. He desired rather to give it away, and to himself be the medium by which the gift was given.

this is the bread that comes down from heaven

so that one may eat it and not die.

Because it was a different sort of life Jesus came to give it did not necessarily imply that the body itself would not die. But it did guarantee that the spirit itself would live, and this spiritual life in turn guaranteed the eternal destiny of those who would receive the gift of heavenly bread. We can only take this for granted as we do because of how many times we have heard this. But let us again be amazed that Jesus came to give himself away, to be our food. He himself was the greatest gift he could give and he held nothing back. He made it possible for us to receive all of him, all that he is, even to the point of participation in his own divine nature.

and the bread that I will give

is my Flesh for the life of the world.

Here the bread of life discourse takes a turn. Previously his words had could be seen to be metaphorical and relating to matters of faith in him. But now he began to speak of his Flesh, given for us. We pray for our daily bread, and this has many levels of meaning. But the most unexpected and unguessed is this Flesh for the life of the world. It is the culmination of the gift of Jesus to us, and a perfect demonstration of the depths and the cost of his life. He could not have given his Flesh to us without offering himself upon the cross. Nor would he ask us to receive dead flesh, for the world had enough of that already. Rather, he offered us, in himself, risen Flesh. It was to be here in receiving this gift that the world received the true life which God had always intended for it.

Bless our God, you peoples,

loudly sound his praise;

He has given life to our souls,

and has not let our feet slip.

Selah - Oh Draw Me Lord

26 April 2023 - all who hunger

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Jesus had been attempting to elevate the concern of the crowds from bread which can satisfy for a day and then leaves one hungry to something more lasting, to the one thing that can truly satisfy the human heart. The crowd recognized within themselves that they had this spiritual hunger and asked for Jesus to give them the bread that could satisfy it. But the response of Jesus was precisely to offer them himself.

I am the bread of life;

whoever comes to me will never hunger,

and whoever believes in me will never thirst.

In Jesus we see that wisdom "has mixed her wine" and "set her table" (see Proverbs 9). In him the "famine of hearing the words of the Lord" (see Amos 8:11) was definitively ended. If the crowds would "[l]isten diligently" to Jesus they would "eat what is good, and delight" themselves "in rich food" (see Isaiah 55:2). He could sustain those who came to him on their exodus journey through this life even more the the desert manna given by Moses. He could give them strength enough to walk forty days and forty nights to the mountain of God more than the cake baked on hot stones by an angel that gave strength to Elijah (see First Kings 19:4-8).

Yet that Jesus himself was the culmination of all of these promises meant that the bread he would give was not something one could take and then depart to return to life alone and under one's control. To receive the satiety promised by this bread meant coming to Jesus himself, and abiding with him. And that Jesus, who appeared to be a man, even if he might also be a powerful prophet, seemed to many to be overstepping his mandate in demanding this. The crowds saw him, but they did not realize or believe that they were also and at the same time seeing the revelation of the Father's heart. They saw him, but they could not accept that a mere man such as he appeared to be could give this bread that he promised. And this helps explain the clarification made by Jesus next.

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.

He was not acting from a prideful human will in order to build up his own ego. He was rather acting in perfect harmony with the Father's will. He was not a mere man who would accept some and reject others based on preference or on the way that they would redound on his own glory as their leader (and thank God for that). He was open to all and would reject no one precisely because it was his Father's will that he be available to any in the entire world who would come to him. He was not the centerpiece of his Father's plan because of his ego, but, just the opposite, because of his humility and openness. Only Jesus himself could be so completely open and available to fulfill this purpose. All others, and even the greatest of the prophets, still had too much self-will to truly be the savior of all, as only Jesus himself could be and was.

And this is the will of the one who sent me,

that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,

but that I should raise it on the last day.

When we think our salvation finally comes down to our own efforts we tend to lose heart because we know that we are weak. We know deep down that we could never be so good as to deserve or merit what God has chosen to give as the free gift of his grace. But it doesn't ultimately come down to our efforts, though by grace we must cooperate with his gift. Yet it remains true that the Father himself does not want Jesus to lose anything he gave him. He desires all to be saved and come to knowledge of the truth. Even in our own hearts it is he himself who works in us "both to will and to work" (see Philippians 2:13). This doesn't mean we should succumb to laziness. But it should give us confidence when our own shortcomings seem insurmountable. 

There broke out a severe persecution of the Church in Jerusalem,

and all were scattered

throughout the countryside of Judea and Samaria,

except the Apostles.

God is able to turn what appear to be obstacles into things expedient to his plan, as though they were a part of the path he intended for his Church from the beginning. So let us not be overwhelmed by circumstances, nor even by our own hearts. Instead let us trust in God enough to let him use us as Philip did.

Thus Philip went down to the city of Samaria

and proclaimed the Christ to them.

Matt Maher - Come To The Water/I Will Run To You

25 April 2023 - remarkably good

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Go into the whole world

and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.

Now that the Jesus had risen the full truth of the Gospel was revealed. This was good news that was better than anyone might have guessed after first being much more difficult and challenging than anyone dared to imagine. God himself became one of us, lived among us, offered has life as a sacrifice for our sins, destroyed our death by dying, and opened the way to us for eternal life by his rising from the dead. 

Jesus was the suffering servant of Isaiah, the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was the lamb of God that Abraham promised that God himself would provide as his offering. But he was also the son of David, the one over whom death had no rightful claim, making it impossible that he be held by it. 

People had been hoping for a military leader to come in and destroy their enemies. But Jesus recognized that our true warfare was not against flesh and blood. He himself triumphed over the Devil and gave his Church the power to live victorious lives, gave her weapons of spiritual warfare with which the enemy could not compete, from which he ultimately must flee.

We tend to get invested in things that can only ever be temporary. And the degree to which we allow the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, to captivate us and motivate us, is the degree to which we become disinterested in the Kingdom and bored by the good news. We lose the eternal perspective that we need to appreciate the Gospel, and in doing so become captives to the vicissitudes of life.

What can we learn from Saint Mark and his Gospel to help us not succumb to the numbing deceptive influence of temptation? In him we can hear the vibrant reality of the Gospel, that it is not a mere fabrication or fairytale, but a message with supernatural power that extends even into the sphere of the natural and the material. Signs have accompanied the proclamation of the Gospel in every age, even our own. These serve as reminders that the Lord himself remains with us, working with us and confirming the word through accompanying signs.

We can also learn and remember the essential nature of the Gospel proclamation, since it is those who believe that will be saved, whereas those who persist in culpable unbelief will be condemned. When we see Jesus himself came to proclaim the good news precisely to save the world from the fires of hell we can see how important this gift was, and learn a bit of fear that we our anyone might not receive it. This is, perhaps, still servile fear. But for those of us who are meant to be servants, whose motives still haven't been transformed into the pure love which can alone cast out fear, it can be useful and indeed a genuine blessing to us as we progress along the way.

These signs will accompany those who believe

We aren't meant to begrudge God the fact that signs and wonders do not happen according to our preference or on our timetable. We, typically, would prefer to do flashy and obvious mighty deeds in order that we ourselves would not need faith. But signs and wonders are never a replacement for faith, but rather are always meant to draw people past obstacles to unbelief into true faith, faith that no longer depends on signs. When those of us who already believe demand signs to sustain our belief we are being ungrateful and are missing the point. But we should nevertheless remain willing to let the Lord work through us for those others who may truly need these miracles as evidence. We may yet be surprised by what he himself desires to do even through weak and flawed creatures such as us.

Instead of the pride that makes us demand signs almost as though for entertainment we should embrace the humility recommended by Saint Peter, allowing God to be God, to do things in his way and according to his timing, so "that he may exalt you in due time". 

What does it look like when someone truly internalizes the Gospel message? She has a deeply rooted peace that can even appear reckless in the eyes of the world. This characterized all of the saints and defined their astonishing capacity to endure all things for the sake of mission. It began for them in the same way it can begin for us, which is by embracing this call of Saint Peter:

Cast all your worries upon him because he cares for you.

Curtis Stephan - Go Out, Go Out

24 April 2023 - the work of God

Today's Readings

(Audio)

Rabbi, when did you get here?

The crowd ate the loaves that Jesus had multiplied to feed them. Because Jesus was now useful to them they sought to follow him. But he remained mysterious and elusive. The crowd knew that he hadn't gotten into the boat, but also that he wasn't near the area where they had eaten the bread. Not knowing where else to look they decided to head to Capernaum.

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.

Jesus was operating at multiple levels when he fed the crowds with bread. He was revealing himself to be the Good Shepherd who feeds his sheep, the true Moses who gave manna in the desert, the one who provided the true banquet of the wisdom of God. The actual physical bread was meant to operate as something like a sacramental, pointing to the deeper unseen reality. But the crowds stopped at the level of mere physicality. Their bodily cravings were temporarily sated and now they sought Jesus not because of what the signs were meant to convey, but because they ate the loaves and were filled. But their experience of satiety was inevitably temporary. The sign was meant to convey something eternal.

Do not work for food that perishes

but for the food that endures for eternal life,

which the Son of Man will give you.

Jesus own food was to do the will of his Father (see John 4:34) and he would in turn make it possible for this to be our food as well. This was his priority. But he did not neglect the earthly hunger of the crowds because he had other priorities, nor even because by addressing it he knew he would be misunderstood. Rather it was necessary to address himself to them at the basic level of their needs, so that they didn't have to leave him to manage on their own. Once they had been fed they were interested and he was then able to attempt to address their misunderstandings, calling them to elevate their minds from that which was literal, worldly, and temporary, through the sign those things were made to be, to the eternal and spiritual. 

We might see a lesson or two here for our own outreach to the world, which often must begin at a level of addressing basic subsistence, even at the risk of being misunderstood. But like Jesus, we can do this prophetically, in a way that points toward deeper truth. Then, once we feed the crowds and they are satisfied we can show them that the bread we give is meant to point to something deeper, something that can last for eternity. An NGO could perhaps provide bread, but not this way that can also lead to spiritual freedom, peace, and joy. This is the unique power of Christian charity.

"What can we do to accomplish the works of God?"

The crowds were disappointed to learn that their efforts were not oriented in the right direction, that they were working for food that would perish. And so they asked how to work rightly, to accomplish the works of God. No doubt they were trying to figure out how to rein things back in, to try to figure out how life might yet remain under their control, and not dependent on the food "which the Son of Man will give", and therefore on Jesus himself. Jesus was simply too unpredictable. He was difficult to pursue from place to place. He gave them bread, but would not let them make that bread their reason for following him. They most likely wanted to avoid realizing that the signs all pointed to his identity as the Son of God, the one on whom the Father set his seal. But Jesus nevertheless insisted on his own centrality.

Jesus answered and said to them,

"This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent."

This was as though he was saying that their work was not something meant to be under their control, neither in terms of perfectly providing for worldly circumstances, nor in terms of their spiritual efforts and pursuits. What mattered was not what they could do but was rather a work of God, that would be done by God in them, to make them believe in the one he sent. To receive this they would have to abandon their insistence on the primacy of worldly bread. They would also have to give up on the idea that the spiritual life was something that could be controlled, a mere series of actions by which the Father would be appeased, something always in their sphere of influence that did not require the mediation of Jesus himself. Instead, in order to receive the true bread that would satisfy unto eternity, they would need to accept belief in Jesus himself, who, as we shall see, is the true bread of life.

For we have heard him claim

that this Jesus the Nazorean will destroy this place

and change the customs that Moses handed down to us."

All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him

and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

When we threaten the supposed primacy of earthly things and the control people imagine they have over their lives it is often the case that we will be met with hostility. But because we are pursuing a different and higher good we need not meet hostility with hostility, respond to anger with anger, or violence with violence. We can be at peace, as Stephen was, even when the days of our earthly bread may be nearing their end. For like Stephen we too hope to enjoy the fullness of that banquet in heaven for all eternity. And this hope is enough to sustain us no matter what happens here below.

Newsboys - We Believe

23 April 2023 - known to us

Today's Readings

(Audio)

two of Jesus' disciples were going

to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus

In Jerusalem their hopes appeared to be crushed before their eyes. They "were hoping" that Jesus "would be the one to redeem Israel" but now they no longer held that hope. To be in Jerusalem with the others, especially others claiming implausibly that Jesus lived, was probably too painful, potentially reopens the wounds of trauma caused by witnessing the horror of the cross. Yet at the same time they could not help but revisit "the things that have taken place in these days" as they walked along. They wanted to move away from the pain but their hearts in some sense remained outside the tomb in mourning.

And it happened that while they were conversing and debating,

Jesus himself drew near and walked with them,

but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.

He asked them,

"What are you discussing as you walk along?"

Jesus did not reveal himself immediately, and it is useful to consider why he did not. He might have. He might simply have said, 'Guys, it's me. Everything is OK now'. But instead? Instead he asked them to retread the same painful memories that they both desired to escape and yet about which they couldn't help conversing and debating. Jesus himself desired to reveal his resurrection by first accompanying these two disciples in their own sorrow. His resurrection revelation was not simply going to blast them into Christian joy and new life out of left field, ignoring who they were as individuals, as though the same message could be shouted to anyone regardless of what they were going through. Instead, by being with them precisely in their misunderstanding, their sadness, and their unbelief, he would show how his story was not opposed the things that they thought were dealbreakers: suffering, death, and the apparent failure of the mission as they understood it. Instead the story of Jesus was predicated on these things, which were a part of the plan from the beginning. His suffering shed light on all suffering and gave it meaning. His death destroyed the power of death. And his mission was leading to his enthronement not on earth but in heaven. 

And he said to them, "Oh, how foolish you are!

How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!

Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things

and enter into his glory?"

They had been wrong to disbelieve the witnesses of the resurrection, wrong to head away from the place where they could further investigate and cling to hope. But they had been wrong in a way that was predictable and humanly understandable, because they did not yet possess the context that would finally put everything into perspective. They possessed isolated facts, such as Jesus predicting his death and resurrection. But they didn't yet see how these fit into the big picture. Even reports from the women and the others seemed like more points of data that didn't seem to fit their previous expectations. It was by his being with them, by listening to their own stories, and only then by presenting the truth that Jesus was able to, not just make a compelling argument, but speak to their hearts in a way that was transformative.

Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets,

he interpreted to them what referred to him

in all the Scriptures.

When he opened the Scriptures for them their hearts burned within them. They knew they were hearing truth spoken, and found that everything they believed about what had happened was revealed to be a part of a larger story. But Jesus did not leave it at this level. His ongoing presence was now suggested by what they understood, but they did not yet experience him as truly with them and in their midst. That was because Jesus himself desired this experience of his risen presence to come in a specific way. 

As they approached the village to which they were going,

he gave the impression that he was going on farther.

But they urged him, "Stay with us,

for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over."

They didn't yet recognize him, but they knew they didn't want to lose his company just yet, knew there was some culmination they would otherwise miss if he did. And Jesus appeared to indicate he was going to keep going in order that they themselves might be the ones to ask, "Stay with us". Even though they didn't fully understand what was happening Jesus nevertheless desired that they act with what freedom they could muster in choosing to receive him.

And it happened that, while he was with them at table,

he took bread, said the blessing,

broke it, and gave it to them.

With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him,

but he vanished from their sight.

He was known to them in the breaking of the bread because he wanted to demonstrate that it was precisely there, in the Eucharist, that the risen Lord would continue to be present to his Church throughout the ages. His resurrected body would ascend to heaven, disappearing from sight. But to the eyes of faith the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist would make him available, risen flesh and blood, soul and divinity, to the end of the age.

We live in an age of people heading away from the Church, many who once hoped but who now, in light of tragedies all too real and numerous, no longer do. Even we ourselves often find that our own hope is not so fully invested in Jesus as it once was, find that our own difficult past experiences have caused us to temper our expectations for the future. Jesus himself desires to enter into our stories, to hear us tell what has gone wrong, so that he himself can help us to see the big picture. And then he can send us out in turn to accompany others making the same journey. 

the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God (see Second Corinthians 1:3-4).

We are invited to remember that what we have in the Eucharist is no mere memorial, not simply a comforting ritual, not merely a pleasant religious experience, but rather the answer to the question of every human heart, because in the Eucharist Jesus himself is present, just as he was on the road to Emmaus.

Jesus Christ is the answer to the question posed by every human life, and the love of Christ compels us to share that great good news with everyone.

- Saint John Paul the Great, Homily, 10/8/1995.

Even though the preaching of the disciples in the book of Acts might seem opposed to this model of accompaniment when we hear Peter saying, "This man, delivered up by the set plan and foreknowledge of God, you killed, using lawless men to crucify him" it is really not as different as it appears. The apostles are like Jesus in that they too don't eschew the hard truths of the past in order to give them new light in a larger context of resurrection. The Easter proclamation necessarily contains our own failures but seen now in a larger perspective. It always speaks with sympathy about the painful parts, but it does also contain at least implicitly, the part where we hear "Oh, how foolish", but only for sake of moving us beyond our previously held limiting beliefs into the new world inaugurated by the resurrection.

God raised this Jesus;

of this we are all witnesses.

Exalted at the right hand of God,

he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father

and poured him forth, as you see and hear.

Forgetting just what we were given, just what price was paid for our deliverance sometimes leads us to treat the grace we have received as cheap. And when we do so it tends to lose its power in our own lives and its ability to persuade others. As an antidote to this let us hear Saint Peter:

realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct,

handed on by your ancestors,

not with perishable things like silver or gold

but with the precious blood of Christ

as of a spotless unblemished lamb.

How fitting, then, that the place Jesus himself desired to be encountered was in the breaking of the bread, where he himself was perfectly revealed to be the sacrificial lamb, offered to God, and now exulted at his right hand. May the eyes of our hearts be opened. May he once again be known to us in the breaking of the bread.

Jim Cowan - This Is Jesus

22 April 2023 - small craft advisory

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The crowds had misunderstood the identity and purpose of Jesus, attempting to make an earthly king of the one who satisfied their earthly hunger. Jesus withdrew from this confusion to a mountaintop alone. 

It had already grown dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.

The disciples set out for Capernaum by sea without Jesus, though apparently hoping or expecting that he would catch up. Yet he remained on the mountain and did not come to them until it was almost morning. Did Jesus not realize that there was a storm? Was he so involved in something else that he was too preoccupied to be with his disciples in an hour of their need?

The sea was stirred up because a strong wind was blowing.

Jesus certainly know the weather conditions facing the disciples in their little boat. He knew they were far from shore and frustrated. Yet he did not come at once. The wind swept the waters like it did in the formless chaos that preceded creation in the book of Genesis (see Genesis 1:2). It was almost as though Jesus himself was allowing them to be undone, almost uncreated, but so that he himself could recreate and establish them by the power of his presence and that of his word. 

they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat,

and they began to be afraid.

The sight of Jesus amidst the chaos did not immediately provide comfort. It first brought about holy fear, such as we know is the beginning of wisdom. We read that they only began to be afraid when Jesus appeared because this fear was of a different kind and magnitude from that which they felt before. We might have expected the presence of Jesus to immediately provide comfort as though he had obviously clearly come to limit and restrain the storm as one would an opponent or an unruly child. But the sense of the text seems to indicate that to the disciples eyes Jesus was more a part of the storm than the antithesis of it. If he was walking on the water then perhaps he hadn't come to calm the storm, but to finish what it had begun. Jesus seemed to them to be more like a ghost, one that could not be counted on for help.

But he said to them, “It is I. Do not be afraid.”

The disciples were invited to recognize Jesus, to take their recognition of him to a deeper level. This was something that could not have happened on dry land and in good weather. They had to encounter their own limits and the limits of their understanding of Jesus himself in order to receive the deeper revelation of who he was. He himself he allowed this situation in order to reveal himself in this way. On land he was a mere miracle worker. When they faced the storm he seemed absent. One he first came to them he did not appear at all tame or safe. He seemed like one more potential danger. But it was then, precisely and intentionally then, that he spoke.

When either men or devils try to terrify us, let us hear Christ saying, It is I, be not afraid, i. e. I am ever near you, God unchangeable, immoveable; let not any false fears destroy your faith in Me. Observe too our Lord did not come when the danger was beginning, but when it was ending. He suffers us to remain in the midst of dangers and tribulations, that we may be proved thereby, and flee for succour to Him Who is able to give us deliverance when we least expect it. When man’s understanding can no longer help him, then the Divine deliverance comes. If we are willing also to receive Christ into the ship, i.e. to live in our hearts, we shall find ourselves immediately in the place, where we wish to be, i.e. heaven.

- Theophylact 

Without feeling the storm deeply they could not have recognized the one who had power over the storm, the one whom the wind and the waves obeyed. Certainly we would prefer to have this full recognition of Jesus from the comfort of dry land. But it is often only in our desperation that we are willing to recognize him as he truly is. This means, alas, Jesus will sometimes allow us to face storms in our lives. But it also means, and in this we can rejoice, that he himself has a plan to draw us closer to himself even in and through those storms. Would the disciples have traded this experience at sea for the mere comfort of dry land without the consolation of hearing Jesus say, "It is I", and coming to by degrees to realize that he himself was the great I AM?

They wanted to take him into the boat,

but the boat immediately arrived at the shore

to which they were heading.

The disciples desired what seems to be the natural human tendency after a theophany of God. They desired to contain it, to attempt to control it so that they could always avail themselves of it as they desired. But God himself is necessarily elusive, lest we misunderstand what we have seen. He remains as uncontrollable as a storm. But this is not to say that the theophany has no meaning. His words remain with us, "It is I. Do not be afraid". The next storm need not be the same as the last. We can learn to look for him, to expect him, not on our timing, but when he himself wills. We may even finally learn to trust that all of this is planned perfectly for our growth, for our good.

The early Church was able to operate so powerfully because they had internalized the truth of the identity of Jesus himself, learned during the difficult lessons of storms. Now when they faced storms of their own, challenges and disputes, they put first things first precisely because they knew who Jesus was and therefore what they themselves were supposed to be about. Doing so meant that they were able to address the issues without neglecting what mattered most. To that end they let the Spirit lead them rather than trying to merely arbitrate on human terms. Because they did so they too quickly came to the haven they desired.

They presented these men to the Apostles

who prayed and laid hands on them.

The word of God continued to spread

Jared Anderson - The Great I Am

21 April 2023 - when not enough is enough

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The Jewish feast of Passover was near.

The feast of Passover recalled the exodus from Egypt through the desert during which God himself fed the people with manna, which was "bread from heaven" (see Nehemiah 9:15). Now Jesus himself was faced with a hungry crowd. This was the crowd that had already moved him with compassion to heal their sick. Now that they were hungry he did not want to send them away. Because he himself was the good shepherd he desired to have "the people recline" "in green pastures" (see Psalm 23:2) so that he himself could prepare a table for them (see Psalm 23:5).

he said to Philip, "Where can we buy enough food for them to eat?"

Jesus himself prompted his disciples to consider how such a large crowd could be fed. In response to this question they were overwhelmed by what seemed to be logistical impossibilities. Money was not going to solve the problem and there were insufficient resources to consider an attempt to redistribute or share them.

Philip answered him,

"Two hundred days' wages worth of food would not be enough

for each of them to have a little."

One of his disciples,

Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him,

"There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish;

but what good are these for so many?"

The disciples did not know how to answer Jesus. But they did come forward with what they were able to find. What they had was not enough, but they nevertheless still had the sense to mention it to Jesus. This was important because it would be a model for their entire ministry as disciples in the future. They would never find enough in themselves or in those whom they served, but if they humbly brought what they found to Jesus he himself would make it sufficient.

Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks,

and distributed them to those who were reclining,

and also as much of the fish as they wanted.

How wonderful that the shepherd fed his sheep on this grassy plain rather than leaving them to wander away searching on their own. How touching that it was the meager offering of a mere boy that was made to be enough for all. This boy demonstrated the little way of love even before Therese of Lisieux gave it a label. This little way would always involve being a docile sheep in the flock of Jesus, and in letting him take what seems to be embarrassingly far too little to be useful, and then to himself make it useful.

"Gather the fragments left over,

so that nothing will be wasted."

This command to gather the fragments is actually a bit mysterious when we delve deeply into it. For after all, if Jesus is able to multiply loaves at will, why worry about leftovers? But it seemed that he himself had a plan for these fragments. Perhaps the twelve wicker baskets implied one for each of the Twelve disciples, one upon which they could draw even when Jesus wasn't as close at hand. They remind us of the reservation of the consecrated hosts that remain after the faithful receive communion, those safely returned to the tabernacle, and those given to the sick and homebound. The preservation of the fragments emphasizes their supernatural origin as from the hand of Jesus himself, and that nothing with an origin like that ought ever be wasted.

"This is truly the Prophet, the one who is to come into the world."

Since Jesus knew that they were going to come and carry him off

to make him king,

he withdrew again to the mountain alone.

Jesus was the true heir to King David, and therefore the rightful king of Israel. But he would not accept being made king merely because he satisfied a temporary hunger. Those who would enthrone him only to ensure that their own appetites would be satisfied would always be frustrated, and this for their own good. Jesus desired more than to give bread that would only lead inevitably again to hunger. He desired much more to give himself, the Bread of Life, which alone could truly satisfy. It was those fed by this bread whom he truly desired to inherit his Kingdom, for "the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (see Romans 14:17). Only in Jesus himself could this sweetness be found.

So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin,

rejoicing that they had been found worthy

to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.

Only when we are sated on the bread of life that Jesus gives do we learn to prefer it to world's bread. Only by seeking first his Kingdom are we able to accept even dishonor in disgrace in the world for the sake of the name. But is this really what we experience when Jesus offers himself to us in Holy Communion? Or is instead just a matter of routine for us, during which we are not particularly open to any gift or further transformation? It is likely that we all slip into autopilot at times. But Jesus himself does not wish to send us away, not even to our distractions. He himself desires to nourish us with what we cannot get elsewhere. Let's not leave such a generous offer unanswered, ignored, or forgotten. Come Lord Jesus!

One thing I ask of the LORD

this I seek:

To dwell in the house of the LORD

all the days of my life

Don Moen - Jesus, We Enthrone You

20 April 2023 - higher hierarchy

Today's Readings

(Audio)

The one who comes from above is above all.

The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things.

Our modern world has done its best to insulate itself from heavenly things, willing only to accept and speak of earthly things. If our contemporaries accept any truth at all it is often in the form of scientism which would limit all truth claims to only those which can be verified by the scientific method. Though of course that this should be so cannot itself be thus verified. But the world doesn't want to acknowledge even the unseen realities described by philosophy, even when the world itself implicitly relies upon what are inherently philosophical claims. Yet when this insist on this they cannot provide a good account of morality, cannot say that we ought to choose evil rather than good, or of beauty, nor of truth. To them, anything that is not the result of experimentation is a matter of opinion, and ought to be treated as entirely relative and subjective to avoid conflict. They fear the hierarchy to which truth, goodness, and beauty point because that hierarchy does not find them at its peak, but rather another.

But the one who comes from heaven is above all.

He testifies to what he has seen and heard,

but no one accepts his testimony.

Jesus is the one from above, the one who is himself, together with Father and Spirit, the source of all truth, goodness, and beauty. During his earthly life his opponents refused to open themselves to his spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures and of reality itself. They constrained themselves to the literal, and to that which they could control. Our own contemporaries are similarly concerned with what they can control, concerned with rejecting what to them seems to be mere fantasy. However, the experts in the time of Jesus were only experts in very specific ways, and so too the experts of our day. There is only one alone who has seen and heard beyond the limitations of creatures of this earth, one alone who can tell us the truth of the things of heaven.

Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy.

For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God.

When we are forced to confront Jesus and to decide for or against him it is not merely a philosophical proposition or argument which we must consider. It is something much greater. Will we recognize that the one speaking is speaking the words of God? Or will we rather insist on continuing to play god ourselves? It is possible hear the truth and listen to the voice of Jesus, to concede to him the right to reveal the highest truths about reality. By our response to him we make a response to God himself, to his revelation, and to his plans for us. By believing in him we receive eternal life. But by persisting in earthly ways of thinking we not only don't receive eternal life but we remain under wrath. It is precisely this wrath from which Jesus desires to save us. But often we seem to insist on it for ourselves. We prefer this wrath to ceding our (imagined) authority to another. This is silly, of course, but we often fail to recognize just what it is we are doing, and what our choices actually mean.

Why is the Son so essential? Why not just a glowing indestructible book with answers and knockdown arguments? Because we are meant to be stewards of mysteries that are beyond our merely earthly ways of thinking, realities which we can approach intellectually, but which must ultimately rest on faith. But to navigate in this new world of sacred mystery we would be even more lost than those preoccupied with earthly things without the helper Jesus desired to provide.

He does not ration his gift of the Spirit.

Jesus is the one who pours out the Spirit. And he tells us that he does so without rationing, without limit. For those of us who have received some of this Spirit this means that there is always more for us to receive. This is good news for those of us who often fall back into earthly ways of thinking, ways which tend to see as absolute the temporary things of mortal life. Even dire circumstances need not shake our conviction that what Jesus came from above to reveal is the deeper truth. We see this Spirit-inspired conviction again and again in the Acts of the Apostles.

We must obey God rather than men.

The God of our ancestors raised Jesus,

though you had him killed by hanging him on a tree.

God exalted him at his right hand as leader and savior

to grant Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.

We are witnesses of these things,

as is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him.

Songs In His Presence - The House Of God

19 April 2023 - God so loved the world

Today's Readings

(Audio)

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son

God did not in the end require Abraham to offer his only son Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham had said, "God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering" (see Genesis 22:8), and so he would. 

so that everyone who believes in him might not perish

but might have eternal life.

God's purpose was not that anyone would perish, but that the way to eternal life could be unlocked. The sacrificial surrender of life that would allow it to be transformed and elevated into divine life was not one that Abraham, Isaac, or anyone else could have made, except in symbolic anticipation. But by faith in the one sacrifice of Jesus himself they could come to participate in that self-offering and to partake of its effects.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him.

The Son came into a world that was worthy of condemnation, and one which, on some level, knew it. It was a world of darkness afraid to be exposed by the light. For his part, Jesus was trying to convince this wounded and frightened world to come out of the darkness and into his light, promising that his purpose was not condemnation but forgiveness. The darkness, however, had an insulating effect on those who lived in it, making them unwilling to approach the one who could save them, the only one who could deliver them into the light.

Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,

but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,

because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.

Jesus did not desire the death of sinners (see Ezekiel 18:23), and came to hold out to them the hope of salvation. But for those to whom he came to spurn this unfathomably generous offer meant resigning themselves to the fate of condemnation. It was already the state of things and rejecting Jesus meant rejecting the one hope of deliverance. 

But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,

so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

Jesus did not come only to persuade only some that were already relatively good to follow him. Rather, none were good. No, not one (see Romans 3:1). But we can take heart that he himself was not indifferent to those who dwelt in darkness, that they were themselves the target of his mission. He came to call them out, to persuade them to trust that he had arrived for love and not for judgment, so that they could come to the light while time remained. Only by doing so could works be "done in God" because only by being united to Jesus himself would this be a reality.

I will keep you and give you

as a covenant to the people,

to establish the land,

to apportion the desolate heritages,

saying to the prisoners, ‘Come out,’

to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’ (see Isaiah 49:8-9).

In what ways do we still hesitate to come to the light? In what ways does our fallen nature still mistrust God as though he is looking for excuses to condemn us? He is rather looking for the slightest pretense to show us mercy. He responds even to the most meager and half-formed desires within us for the light, desires which he himself places within us. He is trying to crack the windows and prop open the doors, however slightly, that his light can begin to shine.

"We found the jail securely locked

and the guards stationed outside the doors,

but when we opened them, we found no one inside."

When we begin to learn "everything about this life" that Jesus came to teach and demonstrate, and which he himself empowers us to live, it is then that the darkness loses its hold on us. No prison walls, no matter how secure, will then keep our souls away from the light.

for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (see Ephesians 5:8).

DC Talk - In The Light