24 May 2026 - he breathed on them

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Jesus came and stood in their midst
and said to them, "Peace be with you."

We read about an encounter of the disciples with the Risen Lord in our Gospel this morning. We read this same Gospel on Divine Mercy Sunday to learn what it teaches about the gift of forgiveness. But the reason we do so today is that it also teaches us about the giving of the Holy Spirit, and what marks his coming. When we think about receiving the Holy Spirit we often think of situations where Jesus was apparently absent, on the morning of Pentecost itself, or at our own Confirmation. And yet, we always receive the Spirit from the Father through the Son. Jesus is always present when the Spirit is given. At Pentecost the strong driving wind was the same breath with which Jesus breathed on the disciples in the reading from the Gospel. The tongues of fire that descended on them were different manifestations of the one tongue of the Body of Christ. It was precisely for that reason that they could speak to all those gathered and why the Church can speak her message to all the nations. The tongues were manifestations of the Spirit working through the many parts of his one Body. His breath united them to himself and equipped them to continue his mission. But before they went out into the streets it is clear that they received a more full measure of the peace that Jesus gave them in his resurrection greeting in our reading from the Gospel. His giving them peace when he was still present and the peace they received on Pentecost were the same fruit of the Spirit. It was, perhaps, from the perspective of heaven, only one event of giving forth the Spirit, even if it had an initial and then a more complete fulfillment from an earthly point of view. Thus we can see that the coming of the Holy Spirit is always marked by this fruit of peace.

We suggest that our own Confirmations were also a participation in the one breathing forth of the Spirit from heaven into the Body of Christ on earth. Jesus was present in a myriad of ways on the day that happened for us, particularly in the person of the bishop or his representative. Thus, in a way, Jesus himself breathed forth his Spirit on us, just as on his disciples. Bishops in particular make this greeting, "Peace be with you", there own, whereas priests tend to use the familiar "The Lord be with you", reminding us of their special role in imparting the Spirit. But it is Jesus himself who gives the Spirit to us, no matter who administers the sacrament. And along with it it is his peace, not that of the bishop as an individual, that we are meant to receive. It is meant to be a peace that both empowers us with charisms for mission and casts out the fear that holds us captive. Without peace as a fruit of the Spirit in our lives we remained locked in the upper room for fear of the Judeans as surely as did the Apostles.

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.

Jesus breathed on his disciples, giving them an initial experience of the Holy Spirit, along with the power to convey the central Gospel blessing of forgiveness, and yet there was more they needed before beginning their mission to the nations. They truly received the Spirit at that time, for who could deny the the verity of the words of Jesus? But they needed to have another more powerful experience of receiving him in order to experience the fullness of peace that was initially promised, and to be transformed and equipped for mission. So too with us, especially if we did not experience the grand majesty of Pentecost on the day of our Confirmation, it is not too late. We can open ourselves to more just as the disciples on whom Jesus had breathed opened themselves to more, precisely because he told them there was more, and that they were to seek it. He told them to do it first and only then go forth, saying, "stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high" (see Luke 24:49). It's not just any one of us, as though we in particular failed at Confirmation or a Life in the Spirit seminar, and now need to make up for it. Rather, it is for everyone because there is always more. Our openness to receive never measures up to the generosity with which Jesus himself desires to bestow blessings. This, no doubt, is why Pentecost is an annual event. So we should pray with great expectation, "Come Holy Spirit", and never grow tired of that prayer or let it become more routine. Can't we feel the wind of the breath of Jesus even now, just thinking about it?

Paul Wilbur - Let Your Fire Fall

 

Matt Maher Featuring Martin Smith - Come Holy Spirit

 

23 May 2026 - what about him?

Today's Readings
(Audio)

When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, "Lord, what about him?"

Peter was still not thrilled at the prospect of his own martyrdom. If it was necessary for Peter to die for the glory of God, what about the others? In particular, Peter wasn't going to let John, the beloved disciple get off easy. If Peter couldn't settle for less than giving his life for the Lord he would ensure that his friend/rival John wouldn't either. Or so his motivation seems to us.

Jesus said to him, "What if I want him to remain until I come?
What concern is it of yours? 
You follow me."

Jesus responded to Peter that it was no business of Peter's how he worked in the lives of others. Comparison of what the Lord asked of one person to what he asked of another would be unhelpful. He could purify a soul through a long life or a short one. He could receive glory through a death bearing witness to him or a long life of hidden fidelity. If Peter fixated on forcing others into a certain mold it would be unhelpful for them and a mere distraction for him, a detour from the purpose that was now before him. We are often like Peter in this way, using other peoples' business to distract us from our own unique path with the Lord. We do want to be known and loved by him as individuals. But we often hope that means he will let us off easy rather than challenging us to rise to the level of our potential. So when we see others who seem to have it easier than ourselves let us say, 'What concern is that of mine? I will follow Jesus', and all will be well.

So the word spread among the brothers that that disciple would not die.
But Jesus had not told him that he would not die

There was some confusion after the statement of Jesus, as though he actually implied that John would remain until the second coming. But nothing about John's future was actually implied. The only point was that, to Peter and the others, it was of no consequence.

And yet, after a fashion, John is still present with us glorifying God to this day. He is present through the text of this, his Gospel. When we believe his words we receive life in Jesus's name and God is indeed glorified. Peter too is still present after a way. He speaks through his successors, the bishops of Rome, teaching us how to interpret the Scriptures and Tradition that have been handed on to us by Apostles, the deposit of faith. So rather than striving for the longest possible life, let us think of our legacy more in terms of glorifying God through every opportunity he gives us. What matters is not so much life here below but the life that comes from faith in Jesus, both receiving it, and then sharing it with others, as Paul never ceased to do.

He remained for two full years in his lodgings.
He received all who came to him, and with complete assurance
and without hindrance he proclaimed the Kingdom of God
and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.

Chris Tomlin - I Will Follow

 

22 May 2026 - do you love me more than these?

Today's Readings
(Audio)

"Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?"
Simon Peter answered him, "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you."

Peter was always one to insist that he had love greater than any of the others. He had said, "Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away" (see Matthew 26:33). And yet he had betrayed him before a charcoal fire, just like the one he was at now. At the time he must have rationalized it, telling himself that they were just words, that there was no need to bring down any additional scrutiny on himself. But eventually he came to realize that he had fulfilled the Jesus's prediction of his betrayal. He may have thought that words didn't matter. But they represented choices that ultimately did amount to abandoning his Lord in his hour of need. Here after the resurrection Jesus asked about his love in such a way that it almost seemed like he was saying 'I told you so', in that he had always been correct about his perception of the weakness within Peter. Even referring to him as Simon seemed to put whether or not he was deserving of the title of 'rock' in question. In response, Peter tried to muster the old bravado, but to us he did not seem convinced. It seemed rather that he was going through motions ingrained by habit than that he was truly boasting about his indefectible spirit. 

Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time,
"Do you love me?" and he said to him,
"Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you."

Peter may have thought that Jesus continued to ask because Jesus was not convinced. But when he repeated the question three times it became more evident that it was because he knew that Peter was no longer convinced, no longer fully able to believe in himself. Jesus knew that Peter would need to again have certainty about his place in the mission. It would be a more realistic certainty, now with a built-in awareness of his fallibility. But it would in fact be a stronger certainty, because it was based now on the unwavering love of Jesus for him first, and his own response second. Even when his own response wavered and failed Jesus allowed him to fully repent. The threefold denial was erased by the threefold affirmation. And thus there was nothing, not even Peter himself, that could destroy the love of Jesus for him or prevent his plans for him from being fulfilled.

Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.

The words of Peter affirming his love for Jesus were more than just words, they were firm resolutions to begin again after his former failures. In the same way that his words of betrayal determined his actions opposing Jesus so too did these words determine his future of loving and serving him. The words themselves could not provide the comfort of knowing he was fully restored and rehabilitated. In order to know that for sure he actually had to live it out. His act of betrayal had to be erased with his love for the sheep. But the words were firm enough to ground him in the certainty afforded to him by the strength of Jesus, allowing him to believe that is was possible. 

Amen, amen, I say to you, when you were younger,
you used to dress yourself and go where you wanted; 
but when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will dress you
and lead you where you do not want to go.

Peter would indeed do what he had naively promised before he understood his own weakness and die for Jesus. But he would not do it through his own strength. Rather it was through grace that he would persevere, without running from his destiny. It did not ultimately depend on him, and would not be ruined by him any more than he had been able to ruin his role as rock or shepherd. All he had to do was to never give up on Jesus since Jesus, for his part, would never give up on him. Nor will he give up on any of us. So let us join Peter in showing him our own response of love by doing what we can in our own lives to feed his sheep.

 

Songs In His Presence - Song of Peter (Lord, You Know)

21 May 2026 - till all are one

Today's Readings
(Audio)

When we think of being in union with others we often have a thin or shallow conception of unity. We are typically content to act without interfering with one another, toward goals that are similar enough that we all benefit from our common effort. But it is not necessarily a deeply personal unity, unless we're talking about marriage or particularly strong friendships. And even these are often tactical, with each person pursuing the relationship for his own benefit, although also providing benefit for the other to enjoy.

so that they may all be one,
as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
that they also may be in us,
that the world may believe that you sent me.

The union that is possible and that is meant to characterize Christian relationships transforms the merely mercenary alliances that tend to define relationships outside the Body of Christ. It is built upon something more substantial than egos, and rooted in something deeper than individual neediness. It is a supernatural sort of unity, which is only possible because God allows us to share in the relationship between Father, Son, and Spirit, that is properly his. This union is possible when being-for-self is replaced with being-for-the-other, as with the Father, who loves the Son completely, and the Son, who gives everything for his Father, and for the Spirit who is the manifestation of the love between them. They are not three pieces of a whole that together yield a result greater than the sum of its parts. Rather they are both a true unity, and yet also real distinction. Their relationships don't ultimately collapse into a bland and monotonous oneness. There is space, yes, even necessity, for individual identity in the Trinity, because only thus can the love that exists from all eternity be received, only by Persons.

And I have given them the glory you gave me,
so that they may be one, as we are one,
I in them and you in me,

The glory of Jesus is a consequence of the fact that his existence is a revelation of the Father himself, that he himself is a perfect image of the Father's glory. He gives this glory to his disciples and to us precisely by enabling us to enter into relationship with his Father and himself. He goes beyond the normal forms of self-introduction that contain information about one's past, family, or other interesting anecdotes, and reveals the luminous inner life that is at the very essence of the identity of the Triune God. When we receive this revelation we are transformed by it. We have to be. Only by being rewired for this higher level of life and participating in it can we know it in any meaningful sense. Love that only reaches the level of talk amounts to no more than idle words. But the love Jesus reveals is a force that is poured into us by the Spirit and it does not leave us unchanged.

I in them and you in me,
that they may be brought to perfection as one,
that the world may know that you sent me,
and that you loved them even as you loved me.

In general it seems fair to say that we have been inadequate witnesses to the glory we've been given. We barely even manage a political or utilitarian unity, even in the bounds of the Church. And this political agreement to which we tenuously cling is not often polite. It is not the result of a unified and selfless pursuit of God. It is rather the compromise of many conflicting agendas when absolute victory for any one of them could not be achieved. We are surely meant for more than this. And indeed, it must be possible, since Jesus prayed that it would be so. 

It may be a deficiency on the part of we, the members of the Church, that has rendered Christianity impossible for the modern world to believe. Our unity is no more impressive than that of the Sadducees and Pharisees in today's reading from Acts. They were ultimately prevented from achieving their common purpose in opposing Paul by their lack of true union. But we miss out on something much greater when we don't allow the glory of the Father and the Son to be the source of our union, the strength of the Church, and her truest identity. We are meant to live that union now, and to know a foretaste of the glory to be revealed, because that glory is also where we are headed, and meant to abide for eternity.

Father, they are your gift to me.
I wish that where I am they also may be with me,
that they may see my glory that you gave me,
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

John Keating - Come Holy Spirit

20 May 2026 - that they may be one

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Holy Father, keep them in your name
that you have given me,
so that they may be one just as we are one.

Jesus prayed that his disciples would remain spiritually united, precisely because he knew that the tendency of the Evil One was to separate and to scatter. His Church was meant to be a gathering force, drawing together women and men, Gentiles and Jews. It was to be compromised of people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. It was to be a manifestation on earth of the love that united the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in heaven. The supernatural glue of love known as the Holy Spirit was to be its binding force. 

Unity was directly related to living out the commission of love. It was therefore to be the core identity of the Church. Obviously if the Church was to be the Body of Christ, severed limbs were antithetical to this identity. The Evil One sought to attack the unity of the Church precisely because he realized how essential unity was to its mission. If everyone was grounded in the same truth they would be, as a consequence, united. But if their unity was shattered so too would be their connection with the truth. They would be reduced to the postlapsarian state of Adam and Eve who lost their unity with God when they chose to decide for themselves about good and evil rather than consenting to the way things actually were in reality. 

In many ways that Evil One has been sadly successful in his efforts, both by causing heresies and schisms leading people away from the true Church, and even by the political divisions and personality cults dividing the Church from within. Yet the prayer of Jesus has not failed, nor has it ceased to be efficacious. It is still possible for us to enter and remain in the unity Christ desired for us. But to do so we must remain in the care of those consecrated to continue the unifying ministry of Jesus toward us. The bishops and priests who remain in communion with the ancient Church and the modern Magisterium are the ones who can protect us in Jesus name, and guard us, so that none might be lost.

I know that after my departure savage wolves will come among you,
and they will not spare the flock.
And from your own group, men will come forward perverting the truth
to draw the disciples away after them.

Paul too realized that attacks on the Body of Christ would come from within as well as without. He commended the presbyters to vigilance, ensuring that they remained faithful to "that gracious word of his". It was not just an abstract word, but had the power to build up, both individuals, and the Church as a whole. This word is conveyed to us through the Scriptures and Apostolic tradition as authentically interpreted by the Magisterium of the Bishop of Rome and those in communion with him. As long as we remain under the protection of that powerful word we will be safe from the Evil One's attempts to undermine us. The result of preserving the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (see Ephesians 4:3) is not merely synchronicity of movement, as though we all become marionettes dancing in harmony. External conformity is not in itself union. True union, of the sort for which Jesus prayed, can be recognized because it results in the genuine joy that only love can give. It is what happens when we live for the purpose for which we were created.

I speak this in the world
so that they may share my joy completely.

So let's allow the mighty word of Jesus to build us together in union with one another, and to build, even a little more, his joy within our hearts.

 

Matt Maher - Hold Us Together

 

 

19 May 2026 - what it's all for

Today's Readings
(Audio)

In the high priestly prayer of Jesus he imitated the prayers made my the high priests, first for themselves, then for the priests, and then for the people. But it wasn't as though the people came last because they were the least important. The priesthood existed at the service of the people. The high priest had the most important role in ensuring the fidelity of the nation to the covenant, the most critical role in the ritual atonement for sin. It was, in a way, the cornerstone of the edifice. The priests were pillars. But the people were the ones who put the structure to its intended use. Thus, when Jesus prayed for himself, it was not because he had unmet wants or needs of his own. No, his prayer for himself was that he could be the one whom the Father meant him to be, "so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him".

Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

The kind of knowledge that conduces to eternal life is not conveyed through data, but rather through glory. It was glory that was made manifest in the cross and resurrection of Jesus himself, and opened up a vision of the divine life he shared with the Father. Glory was the love of the Father for Jesus, and the obedient outpouring of the life of Jesus to the Father. This glory captivates those who witness it, but does not stop there. It is the glory of Jesus lifted up from the earth, drawing all to himself, uniting all those who behold it to both his dying and his rising. In short, one cannot truly see this glory and remain unchanged. The full effect of the change is to become so like Jesus that we become able holy; able and desirous to share in his life with the Father and the Spirit forever.

Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.

Jesus prayed for his disciples who shared in his mission in a way that was unique. They were the ones who would ensure that the grace of Jesus, and thus his glory, would be available after he returned to the Father. Their successors, the bishops, would have the duty of preserving the availability of that grace in all subsequent generations. But, like him, they would do so in a world that was ultimately opposed to his mission, hostile to the idea that any kind of change from the status quo was necessary. The clergy of the Church does face this world own its own strength. It is not run primarily on its own power. Nor does it succeed on the basis of the skills possessed by its members. Rather it has run and is still running on the power of this prayer of Jesus, which was not terminated when he finished speaking, but is still pleading and efficacious before the Father's throne.

We can see the way the high priestly prayer of Jesus had immediate consequences for the first generation of his Apostles in the way it impacted Paul. In his own prayer at Ephesus about which we read in Acts this morning we see desires that transcend what fallen, wounded, and selfish human nature would seek.

Yet I consider life of no importance to me,
if only I may finish my course
and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,
to bear witness to the Gospel of God's grace.

Jesus cared about nothing more than accomplishing the work the Father gave him to do. And now Paul, because he belonged to Jesus, also belonged to the Father, and cared about nothing more than completing the task given to him by Jesus, such that he too was among those who "have kept your word". He tasted the glory of the Lord and could no longer turn back to the world for satisfaction. The mission did indeed look dire. The Holy Spirit warned him again and again of the suffering that he had to endure. But the revelation of glory, given by Jesus himself, assured him it was worth it.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal (see Second Corinthians 4:17-18).

Vertical Worship - Open Up The Heavens

 

18 May 2026 - living in victory

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Jesus answered them, “Do you believe now?

There are different degrees of belief. It is one thing to acknowledge that Jesus is from God and knows everything. It is another to live on the basis of that knowledge. There are the facets of belief that we accept. But they prove whether or not they are real to us when we are tested. When the hour comes, do we flee? Are we scattered? Or does what we believe about Jesus cause us to hold our ground and remain near him? We remember his exhortation, "Remain in me", precisely here, when we considering doing otherwise. In the moment of testing everything in our flesh tells us it is unwise to continue trusting Jesus. It may seem that he is calling us to persist at a hopeless task or to win and unwinnable battle. It may seem like Jesus alone is not enough to face the very real problems of our lives. 

But I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

Jesus is not alone, because his Father is with him. It may seem as though Jesus is the one at a disadvantage, and if we believe this it will make us afraid. But if we believe that everything is in the hands of the Father, playing out according to their shared plan for the world, we can have peace. This is why Jesus tells us in advance that we will have trouble in the world. Not simply so that we can brace ourselves for it. But so that we can believe that his providence extends even so far as that. He is not surprised. The troubling circumstances of life do not put his plan at risk of failure. The victory is in fact already his. From the divine perspective he shares with the Father he already possesses it even before everything finishes playing out here on earth.

take courage, I have conquered the world.

Our beliefs may remain at the level of mere data, without practical consequences in our lives, without the Holy Spirit connecting our heads to our hearts by deeper revelation. We can be like the disciples in Ephesus who had done all of the proper preparation that could be expected of them, but had not yet experienced the power of the Holy Spirit. We have been baptized with a baptism of a different order from that of John. But even so, the full power of that baptism has probably not been fully unleashed in us, or, for that matter, in anymore. It is basically an infinite power source. There is always more. That is why the infilling of these disciples in Ephesus through the laying on of Paul's hands is supposed to be more than a pleasant reminder of our own experience of sacramental confirmation. Rather, we are meant to see how the Holy Spirit filled them in a way that clearly transformed them. And, we are meant to hunger and thirst for more of that transformation in our own lives. As we approach Pentecost there is no better time to seek it. The great feasts make the grace of the events on which they are based present again in a special way. Not that the Holy Spirit is limited to one weekend a year. But there is one weekend a year when he characteristically goes out of his way to make himself as available as possible to us. This is what we've been leading up to all Easter. Let's brace ourselves for his coming and expect to be changed by the wake of his drawing near.

Rend Collective - More Than Conquerors

 

17 May 2026 - up, up, and away?

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.

Jesus ascended to heaven and the Father seated him "at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come". This was an enthronement of the glorified humanity of Jesus, about which we read in today's psalm: "God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord". But was this mere pomp and circumstance, or was there really a reason for Jesus to say, "it is to your advantage that I go away" (see John 16:7)? 

The reason Jesus gave to explain his going was not immediately intuitive. Why did the coming of the Counselor (or Helper) depend upon it? Could Jesus not stay and still send the Spirit? Yes, perhaps, it was a prerequisite for Jesus to be glorified and enthroned in his humanity in order to connect our own humanity to the circuit of divine power. But we still might imagine that he could have done this well enough while his body remained with us, perhaps on sitting upon a physical throne that corresponded to and represented the heavenly one. But the physical presence of Jesus in the world suggested a certain way of being in relationship with him. It meant that he was to be sought specifically in one place and not others. As God he was of course always present everywhere. But when people wanted to talk to him they went to where they could see his face and hear his voice. With such a mode of presence he was always going to be the primary actor with others approaching him and then deferring to him as he acted through his own human nature. But he wanted to change that relationship so that the human nature which he acted through was our own. The head wanted to henceforth move in the world by moving his body, the Church.

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations

We tend to look longing after Jesus, transfixed by his departure, hoping that he will come and establish the kingdom himself, but not moving forward ourselves as much as we ought. We need to heed the words of the angels to the apostles and stop standing and looking up at the sky. We need to set about the work entrusted to us, and allow the Spirit Jesus has given us to animate his body. We can do this fearlessly since we do so in union with the one to whom all "power in heaven and on earth has been given". But in order to ensure this connection to him is as robust as possible we must first heed his words wait for the fulfillment "the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak". We have received the Holy Spirit in our baptism. But we may have never truly opened ourselves to the power he is meant to unleash in our lives. With only a week until Pentecost we are invited to prepare ourselves once more and open ourselves anew to the coming of the Spirit, falling on our hearts and giving us life like the sweet dew of the morning.

And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.

Though we can no longer see him with our physical eyes Jesus is nevertheless more present than ever to the eyes of faith. No doubt this was why Paul prayed for the Ephesian that, "the eyes of your hearts be enlightened that you may know what is the hope". It was not only about their hope in the hereafter that he wanted them to know, but even the "surpassing greatness of his power" not only for those who were dead and saw him face to face, but "for us who believe". The Ascension is therefore not the end of Jesus as Emmanuel, God with us, but rather a new beginning. He remains present among us through Word, Sacrament, and community. But these all conduce to where he truly desires to be present: within us. And when he is present there our chief priority will be to secure that experience for as many others as possible. We too must do our part "and make disciples". We are the arms and legs of Jesus that are moving and reaching to gather all nations into union with him.

Songs In His Presence - The House Of God

Maranatha! Music - Lord I Lift Your Name On High

 

16 May 2026 - full clearance

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Until now you have not asked anything in my name;
ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

Jesus was commending to his disciples a new way of praying. It was not like in previous stages of the covenant where, to be sure, people prayed to the Father, but where the truly important matters were handled through chosen mediators. There were different degrees of closeness to God that were possible based on one's status, with the high priest having the highest clearance to access the presence of God. Jesus was not suggesting that his disciples forego the direct route and rely on him to make their requests instead of them. It was not so much "that I will ask the Father for you" as  that "you will ask in my name". It was as though the disciples were given permission to use the access which Jesus himself had to the Father in order to appear before him and make their petitions. 

For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me
and have come to believe that I came from God.

By faith and love the disciples of Jesus had become so united with him that the Father recognized Jesus in them. It wasn't so much that they were going straight to the Father and leaving Jesus behind, as if in answer to Philip asking, "Lord, show us the Father" (see John 14:7), Jesus pointed him out and stepped aside. No, it was precisely in their union with Jesus himself that they had access to the Father. Jesus revealed him because the more they were united to Jesus the more they experienced his own relationship of mutual love with the Father. This was indeed the only way to have such access. When Jesus said, "I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you" he meant to imply, not that he wouldn't be involved, but rather that the disciples themselves would be involved, much more than they imagined. It was not Jesus on their behalf alone. Nor was it them without further need of Jesus. It was the union of both before the throne of the Father that would be efficacious in prayer.

Amen, amen, I say to you,
whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.

We tend to interpret "in my name" to be a caveat that means that prayer doesn't actually relate to things that we desire or that are relevant to us. It seems to mean we have to impose on our wills that of another if prayer is to yield results. And we tend to assume that prayer isn't really that meaningful if it can't get us what we want. And yet, if it does not result in the things we want, or even necessarily in those things that we think are necessary for others or ourselves, it does fulfill us in a different way. It does not necessarily immediate transform the circumstances of our lives or the world. But it is meant to tend to ever increasing joy.

Until now you have not asked anything in my name;
ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

True joy is found in being united to Jesus and preferring the Father's will to anything else. When we, together with Jesus, ask that his will and not ours be done, and when we mean it, we are never disappointed. And if we trust the Father with trust like Jesus has in him we are not cynical about what he wills or even how he wills it to happen. This means that no matter how things seem in the world we can be routed in peace and in joy. But this requires an active posture of not just tolerating God's will, but desiring it, as Jesus does. He wants to share his joy with us, and does so in the only way he knows how, by bringing us with him to the Father.

For the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me
and have come to believe that I came from God.

If we want to know the Father we need to open ourselves to Jesus revealing him. We no longer live in the ages of where he speaks in figures, where we might imagine that we have to solve the mystery ourselves. Rather, this is the age when the Spirit himself speaks within our hearts.

The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures
but I will tell you clearly about the Father.

We ought not avoid the Father as though he is too distant or unapproachable, much less because of suspicion on our part. We should ask the Spirit of Jesus to help us to know the Father as Jesus knows him, so clearly that asking him for what we need in the name of Jesus feels real to us, rather than like a mere ritual or pretend. When this happens his promise of joy will be realized in us. It is not only not wrong to seek that joy, but it is meant to be a guiding star for our lives.

 

Matt Maher - Run To The Father

 

15 May 2026 - she no longer remembers the pain

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Amen, amen, I say to you, you will weep and mourn,
while the world rejoices;

The world rejoices in the absence of Jesus because it believes this means it is off the hook and can continue business as usual, that no drastic changes of behavior are necessary, and that the usual trifecta of pride, pleasure, and power can still be endlessly pursued. Such joy is not really worthy of the word, and is always short lived. A party of this kind can't go on forever. The longer it is forced to do so the more diminishing are the returns it offers.

The disciples were grieved during the hour of Jesus because he was taken from them, because it was painful, and because they didn't understand why it was necessary or what good could come from it. But there was a process of growth and transformation happening that was leading to a result so great that it made all of the pain negligible by comparison. 

When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived;
but when she has given birth to a child,
she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy
that a child has been born into the world.

During our walk of discipleship we often experience grief because of these same reasons. Jesus sometimes seems distant and unavailable, or disinterested, or powerless. We don't understand why we have unmet needs or what good can come from our suffering. We fail to understand the big picture, the way that our hour of pain is truly leading to the coming of new life into the world. 

Eventually, however, the child is born, and sorrow gives way to joy. This ought to inspire us to follow Jesus ever more closely, and teach us to trust him even during the dark and difficult hours that we will always have to face. After all, the life that resulted was much greater than the death that preceded it. The death was temporary, transitional. The life is increasingly lasting and eventually eternal. The wrong attitude is remembering only the pain and deciding on that basis to never have another of these metaphorical children. Instead we are meant to be defined by the joy that results, the truly lasting change, rather than the momentary difficulty. Joy is something in which we can grow, and can mark our lives more and more as we connect ever more deeply with the risen Lord Jesus himself. But we don't typically grow when we avoid the process of growth for fear of the pain that is often entailed. We should celebrate what Jesus has done in our lives and treasure it in our hearts so that we can remember that trusting him is worth it. Then, the next time that trust seems to be all we have, we will cling to it.

But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice,
and no one will take your joy away from you.

We are shakable because we are not yet fully spiritually mature. But the joy of the risen Lord is unshakable. The more we experience the risen Lord, the more our lives are defined by encountering the fullness of life he offers, the more joy will predominant over sorrow in our lives. This is true even if, for a little while longer, there is more suffering that we must endure. As we grow increasingly united to Jesus himself, our wills become so conformed to his own that we are no longer ever disappointed in not receiving what we want from the Father, since all we want is his will.

Rend Collective - Joy Of The Lord

 

14 May 2026 - command performance?

Today's Readings
(Audio)

If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.

If we view the words of Jesus with suspicion we will not understand him correctly. The point is not that his Father forced him to prove himself in order to earn his love. It is not that we have to prove ourselves to Jesus in order to be loved by him. The point is not demonstrating our loyalty by adherence to arbitrary rules. In fact, we are invited to remain within a love and approval we have already been given as a gift. Keeping the commandments is not about anything arbitrary. Rather, the commandments describe reality itself. In the same way that, at a lower level, gravity is a rule that describes how life on earth functions, which we ignore at our peril, so too do the moral laws given to us by God describe the truth of the way things are. Thus, they cannot be mere suggestions any more than gravity is a suggestion. The point of their being commands is not the imposition of a superior being's will over one who is inferior. After all, Jesus himself was obedient to the Father. The point is that the Father loved Jesus enough to make the all things known to him. And Jesus believed, accepted, and lived in accord with that knowledge. As creatures with free will we have another option. That option is to pretend that the commandments are arbitrary, to respond with suspicion, and to prefer our own view of reality to one which is divinely revealed. But we exercise this option at our peril. In doing so we walk off of a moral cliff, expecting, somehow, not to fall.

I have told you this so that my joy might be in you
and your joy might be complete.

The commandments aren't designed to be repressive or to make us suffer. The reason Jesus came and revealed himself to his disciples and, in turn, to us, was that we might share in the joy of being united with the Father that was properly his own. The Triune God thought the joy the had in one another was so good that they wanted to share it. That was, in a way, the whole reason for creation.

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

On the one hand the goodness and necessity of what Jesus commands seems obviously right and just. But on the other it is often difficult to live out in this fallen world of ours. Love usually entails suffering and sacrifice. But the commandment reminds us that it isn't optional, or only for those who chose to go above and beyond. We are all meant to be defined by love of this kind. To fall short is to fall short of who we are meant to be as human beings. Without the example of Jesus, and his commandment to follow in his footsteps, we would be tempted to excuse ourselves when the going got tough. Without Jesus showing us what love was meant to be we would almost certainly be content to give less than all of ourselves. But he holds us to a higher standard because he desires more for us than even we desire for ourselves.

You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.

Jesus is not arbitrary in the criteria he gives for friendship with him. He desires all of us to be his friends. Yet to be his friends means we need to share his passion. We must want to walk with him on the shared path of the Father's plan. Without this we would have nothing in common with him, no basis on which to establish friendship with him. We can almost hear how excited he is to let us in on the mystery of his Father's will, and the degree to which that matters to him. And we can also hear the degree to which we matter to him in his eagerness to share all of that with us. He is naturally trying to combine the enjoyment of his two favorite things, his Father, and his creatures.

It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you

We tend to get this backwards and assume that it was we who chose Jesus, that it was the result of a carefully calculated cost-benefit analysis on our part. Because we think we initiated the relationship we tend to insist on earning it. But the terms we impose on our worthiness are always our own arbitrary conditions. He already loved us before we thought of him for the first time. We became aware of him because he chose us and was directing our lives toward him all along. But he also has a purpose for us which we did not decide for ourselves, a purpose that is better than anything we could make up, since it directs us beyond ourselves to our destiny with him. That purpose is love. And in this world it takes the form of going forth and bearing fruit. Yet we know that the fruit is not properly our own, but rather the gift of his Spirit working in us. So we need not strive desperately, but rather cooperate with his gentle guidance in our lives.

Switchfoot - Meant To Live

 

13 May 2026 - guide

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.

Jesus did not simply impart to them the full contents of the modern universal Catechism. He knew that they were limited in what they could receive at any one time. He had explained to them the necessity of his death and resurrection as the climactic fulfillment of the Old Testament. But they did not fully comprehend it until after the fact. Once they had seen it and only then did his words about it become more than mere words. We might infer this was true for much of what Jesus had to reveal. Nothing that happened in his life, death, resurrection, Ascension, or in the sending of the Spirit, happened exactly in the way they would have expected. Yet it Jesus had in fact predicted all of it beforehand. It was only once the realities he described became experiences that the disciples were able to make all the necessary connections. It was when his teachings encountered reality that their full depth was revealed. 

What Jesus imparted to his disciples in the deposit of faith was complete, lacking nothing, capable of answering any question. But not all of the questions presented themselves immediately. Thus doctrine only developed when someone like Arius said something that sounded almost true, but not quite. The lived experience of the orthodox faith had to be clarified against all of the many permutations of possible error. What Jesus had said about his relationship with the Father and the Spirit was always the unchanging core. But there were a lot of ways to be wrong about what he said, about who Jesus was. A short list might include Gnosticism, Montanism, Sabellianism, Arianism, Nestorianism, and Monophysitism¹. Because there were so many possible ways to be wrong and only one truth it was necessary for God to provide a way to protect the truth and ensure its availability in subsequent generations. We know the the Scriptures alone were insufficient since most of these famous heresies used them, and found plausible verses that seemed to be in agreement with their teachings, but which were in fact distortions, removed from their proper context.

But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth.

Jesus promised the Spirit of the truth to his Church. It was a concrete way to ensure that his promise to Peter, that the gates of hell would not overcome it, was guaranteed. After all, losing the truth was to lose everything, since Jesus told us that, "the truth will set you free" (see John 8:32).

Yet the promise of all truth had to extend beyond the Church to the lives of individual believers, although not in the same way or to the same degree. Believers could not be expected to all be such scholars as to determine the true Church from others on their own. They would need the Spirit within them to direct them toward the full manifestation of the Spirit in the Church. The Church herself was radiant with truth in such a way as to be a supernatural sign to believers. And this would correspond to a growing hunger in them for a truly timeless truth, and a definitive source of meaning, a hunger placed in them by the Spirit himself. This too would only happen as they gradually become more open and ready to receive it. We see this in the reading from Acts this morning, where some didn't listen, some wanted to hear more later, and some converted immediately. It was not the clever words of Paul alone that made the difference. It was their openness to the guidance of the Spirit in their hearts. Paul himself would later lean into this aspect of evangelization, about which he said, "my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power" (see First Corinthians 2:4). He learned that too much cleverness could obscure the core of the message, and the necessity of faith to receive it. The more practiced at evangelization he became the more he learned to allow the Spirit to speak for himself.

He will not speak on his own,
but he will speak what he hears

The Spirit doesn't guide us into innovation in the form of clever new ideas with no historical precedent. Rather he guides us ever more deeply into the words of Jesus himself, since "he will take from what is mine and declare it to you". But this content remains relevant, illuminating not only the past, but even the future since he "will declare to you the things that are coming". We tend to prefer innovation, assuming that we already tried standard textbook Christianity and achieved only a mediocre result. But more probably the words of Chesterton on the subject also apply to us: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried". So rather than seek something new, let's try it the way it was meant to be tried: in the power of the Spirit. As we move through Easter and toward Pentecost there is no better time than now to invite him to fill us once more.

¹) Learn  more about the Great Heresies at Catholic Answers.

 

John Keating - Come Holy Spirit

 

12 May 2026 - convicted

 

Today's Readings
(Audio)

"Now I am going to the one who sent me,
and not one of you asks me, 'Where are you going?'
But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts.

The disciples were sad because  the best and most loving person they ever knew told them he was leaving them. He had predicted has coming death, but they could not see this is anything other than an unintended disaster. Jesus, though, continued to insist that it was a part of the plan. His going forth from them was not merely in death via the cross, but also victoriously via the Ascension. Because his visible withdrawal from the world was actually the result of his plan, because it was actually the procession of his victory, and leading to his enthronement in heaven, it had the potential to produce immense results even on earth that the disciples had not imagined.

But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go.
For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you.
But if I go, I will send him to you.

Somehow the invisible mission of the Holy Spirit would surpass even the visible presence of Jesus. The ministry of Jesus was confined to a single locality at a time. But the Holy Spirit would be able work everywhere at once, and without the need for rest. Jesus conveyed the truth in a way that was still external to those who heard him. But the Spirit would testify from within peoples' own hearts. 

And when he comes he will convict the world
in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation

When we here this trifecta of conviction we might first think they aren't so wonderful that we would trade them for the presence of Jesus. But if we consider them more deeply we will realize their importance. 

The Holy Spirit would convict the world of sin. Where previously people tended to blame others they would learn of the reality of their own culpability. The Spirit would bypass the external defenses of peoples personalities in order to reveal to them their own hearts. But this conviction was not condemnation. It implied the possibility of change, and included the invitation to transformation. The focus was chiefly on the matter of belief in Jesus himself. They would come to see the ways in which they were resisting his appeals, the fact that their unbelief was in fact culpable. They would come to see that it wasn't merely that Jesus hadn't done enough or said enough to be persuasive. Rather they had put him too the test by setting the bar unreasonably high. But when they realized this they would be free to open their hearts to him.

Moreover, the Spirit would help believers to understand in a deep and experiential way the reality of the victory of Jesus. The world held him to be a criminal. And even in our day it does not think highly of many of his teachings. But the Spirit would join believers directly to the one the Father vindicated by raising him from the dead. It was the resurrection power of Jesus that also gave new life to those who were reborn in him. Thus, they were meant to be overwhelmingly convicted of the validity of his claims. The resurrection was to be a reality so central to their lives that they could not second guess Jesus or his words even when the whole world seemed to oppose them. It is confidence of this sort that we see in the scene from Acts where Paul and Silas were in prison, yet still singing praise. They were able to escape, yet stayed to share the Gospel.

We are still tempted to believe that this world is ultimately in the grip of the evil one. It doesn't often look like a place under the sway of divine providence, at least as far as appearances are concerned. If not the devil, we often concede, at least at the level of our feelings, that we dwell in an uncaring world, ruled by abstract laws, or impersonal chance. But in Jesus we already share in the victory over the way things now seem. We already possess the reality of his heavenly victory, which will one day extend even to the physical creation. This makes it possible for us to live with hope in a fallen world. It makes us certain that there is a point to everything, and in particular to our efforts for the name of Jesus.

But Paul shouted out in a loud voice,
"Do no harm to yourself; we are all here."
He asked for a light and rushed in and,
trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas.
Then he brought them out and said,
"Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus
and you and your household will be saved."

Matt Maher - Because He Lives (Amen)

 

11 May 2026 - testimony

Today's Readings
(Audio)

I have told you this so that you may not fall away.

From this statement we can know that it is possible to fall away. It might seem as though this should not be the case, as though once we have known the mercy and love of Jesus that we could never forget him. We know that there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus (see Romans 8:1). But we also know that it is possible for those who are in Christ Jesus to not remain in him, else he would not waste words saying to us "Abide in me" (see John 15:4). Like even his own disciples, it is possible to make the mistake of putting ourselves first and leaving him. It is possible through our actions to choose the kingdom of this world to a degree that renders us unfit for the kingdom of God. In many ways this makes our condition worse than being without Jesus in the first place (see Second Peter 2:20). But it only remains worse if we do not repent. As long as we return to the Lord he can use even our sin to help dispose us toward humility and docility in the future. We can become even more unshakable in our devotion to him, more firmly united to his abiding presence.

They will expel you from the synagogues;
in fact, the hour is coming when everyone who kills you
will think he is offering worship to God.

From the perspective of the world robust and orthodox Christianity does not seem normal. It seems rather more like a plague to be eradicated. It seems hostile not only to supposed legitimate moral freedom, but even to the healthy self-image of individuals. Humility is antithetical to the aspirations of the world. The word does not admit of the possibility of culpable error in oneself but only of mistakes committed through ignorance. But because we know ourselves, we know better than that. We know that we have at times known what we should do and failed to do it. We have known what we ought not to have done and yet did it nonetheless. Does it hurt our feelings to know that we are not only not all knowing but not even consistently good? Of course. But should we have artificial feelings based on false pretenses? If we do, it will make it almost impossible to find a cure.

The world outside of us is always at work normalizing something other than Christianity. Sometimes Christianity is directly villainized. Other times the world urges a mediocre and lukewarm version of Christianity that is not dangerous to its hegemony. But both of these poisons infect the very water we drink. It is hard not to internalize some of their implications even without realizing it. And the more this subtle process happens without notice the more likely we are to find ourselves more aligned with the world than with Christ and to eventually make the choice to leave him.

When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father,
the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father,
he will testify to me.

We need a voice, one in addition to our own memory, or the merely human voice of the shepherds who have charge over us in the Church. We need the testimony of the Spirit who can win the battle against the world from within us, not merely from the outside. He can remind us of what is true and help us to keep things straight when we are tending toward confusion. We might not be able to persuade ourselves that the world is wrong when it just seems so normal. Even the arguments we craft to convince ourselves might not be convincing enough, even when they are true arguments. We need the voice of the Spirit within us. Just as no one had ever spoken in the way that Jesus did, with authority, so too does the Holy Spirit speak with authority in our souls, in a way that is not possible for others, not possible even for ourselves.

And you also testify,
because you have been with me from the beginning.

If we want to testify to Jesus (and we should at least want to want that) then we need to be rooted in a principle that is more unshakable than ourselves. We need to possess a testimony that can give us certainty no matter how strongly the world opposes. It is often as though we expect that evangelization of the culture ought to always be easy and smooth. But this is more likely to be the exception than the rule. Easy evangelization might more often be merely self-congratulation among people who mostly already agree. But we are called to let the light of Jesus shine in the darkness. The darkness can and will overcome us alone. But it will not overcome him and us together, united in the power of his Spirit. Evangelization is not finally about human efforts or decisions. It is about preparing the way for the Lord and letting him do the work, as we see in our reading from Acts.

One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth,
from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened,
and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention
to what Paul was saying.

Songs In His Presence - Abide, O Lord

 

10 May 2026 - Spirit of truth

Today's Readings
(Audio)

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.

Although they could not see the Spirit of truth, they would see Jesus, risen from the dead and, as Peter wrote, "brought to life in the Spirit". They didn't see the Spirit directly, but they witnessed the transformative effect he had in the life of Jesus, beginning from his baptism, and culminating in the resurrection. Thus, as Jesus revealed the Father who was invisible so too did he revel the Spirit. He did so preeminently by his resurrection. It is therefore appropriate that the creed calls the Spirit "the LORD, the giver of life". Because of this can understand that the situation described in Acts, when Peter and John prayed for and laid hands on those in Samaria to receive the Holy Spirit, that what they in fact experienced was like a spiritual resurrection. It was the being "born from above" about which Jesus spoke with Nicodemus.

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.
On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.

The disciples experienced the sorrow of feeling as they had been orphaned when, Jesus, the one who revealed the Father was taken from them in his crucifixion. It seemed for a time that the talk about the unity of the Father and the Son was an unhelpful abstraction at best and a falsehood at worst. The world around them seemed to celebrate while they mourned. But this feeling was only their experience of reality. It was not reality itself. The resurrection corrected this misapprehension. It not only proved that Jesus was the one beloved and chosen by the Father. It opened the door for his disciples to be united to him through his Spirit. They not only saw the words of Jesus fulfilled and proven. They experienced the truth of the reality of his claims in their own lives. They began to participate themselves in the very reality about which Jesus had been teaching them, the life of the Trinity that he himself shared with his Father and with their Spirit. Far from being orphans, they were now sons and daughters, united with the Son to the Father in the Holy Spirit.

The world remains fixed in opposition to the truth because it is invested in falsehoods and addicted to sin. Thus it cannot receive the Spirit and does not want to do so. It would spoil all the fun, or so the thinking goes. Moreover, the world was not privileged to witness the resurrection of Jesus and thus continues to function as if death is the end. It therefore tries to impose its own ideas about making the best of things. The result of imbibing what the world is selling is the darkening of the intellect. It involves succumbing to the spirit of the age, which is a spirit of falsehood. It is this since it is the spirit of the devil himself who "is a liar and the father of lies" (see John 8:44). Since Christians will have to consistently contend with this spirit, directly and indirectly, from without and even from within their own minds, they need the Spirit of truth. The Advocate is not optional with an Adversary of this hostile, hateful, and deceitful. We can't rely merely on what we think and feel. We need God's perspective. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit makes it possible to for God's perspective to become our own. It is not just superimposed externally. Rather we choose it and cooperate with it. We know him not so much because we see him or understand him abstractly as because he remains with us and dwells in us. Thus the trajectory of degeneration on which the spirit of the age sets our minds is more than outmatched by the renewal in the Holy Spirit. We can no longer say with the world that we are not loved, that things are pointless, or that they are heading nowhere. We know that we are loved, the reason God made us, and that it is toward him that our lives are meant to lead.

Always be ready to give an explanation
to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope

Obviously it is impossible to describe the exact nature of the experience of the Holy Spirit, or what it is like to share in the life of the Trinity. But we should be able to say something. We know that Jesus is the reason for our hope. We know that it is him that made the difference in our lives. It is because he came back to us that we are not now orphans. It is because he gave us his Spirit that we see things differently from others. We might not be able to give the precise formulae from Nicea or recite the Athanasian creed from heart. But we can tell others the difference it makes to know and to love the adorable Trinity.

Elevation Worship - Resurrecting

 

9 May 2026 - if the world hates you

Today's Readings
(Audio)

If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.

If we can't win the approval of others it doesn't necessarily mean that we did something wrong. It might just mean that there are certain games that the world plays that we as Christians can no longer indulge. Approval in the world is not typically awarded to the virtuous or the excellent. Rather, approval is given quid pro quo in return for expressed allegiance, and is paid for in favors that are often unsavory. Others implicitly ask, "To what lengths will you go for me? Won't you compromise your stubborn values for my sake?". Needless to say, they don't take kindly to a negative response. But if we value the opinions of those still trapped in the corrupt systems of the world too highly we won't be able to resist trying to please them. 

I have chosen you out of the world

What can counterbalance all of the lack of acceptance and indeed often outright hatred from the world? Only approval that matters more can do so. And this we have from Jesus himself. On the one hand there are all those many people who refuse to except us because we refuse to play along. On the other, there is Jesus who has chosen us specifically, from all those many people in the world, to be especially his, peculiarly his own. The love of Jesus not only explains why the world hates us. But it makes that hate bearable. On our own the only option we might find in response to the hatred of others could be to express hatred in response. But because we have been loved by Jesus we remain free to love even our enemies, just as Jesus himself loved us even while we were yet sinners. 

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

We can't do things so perfectly that we never provoke a response of negativity from others. Neither should we assume that it was our skill or ability that provoked a positive response. Sometimes we do fail and provoke others beyond what the truth requires of us. But a positive response from others never really comes down to a lack of skill of cleverness on our part. Rather their response really comes down to the word of Jesus. All we can hope to do with this word is express it clearly and without creating scandal by our example. When we do this, it is more than able to speak for itself, to persuade, to change hearts, transforms minds, and alter the course of lives forever, just as it did for us. The messengers should not think overmuch of their own importance. They should not fixate on receiving adulation from those to whom they deliver the message because of their presentation. Instead they should deliver the message, knowing that, if nothing else, this pleases Jesus. And pleasing him is what matters.

When it is the approval of Jesus that we seek we will be sufficiently detached from our own plans that the Holy Spirit can change our direction and alter our course when he desires. Imagine the wasted effort if the disciples insisted on trying to go on into Bithynia even when the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. If they had been looking to one another for approval they might have been dragged down by mutual disappointment at the failure of their plans. But they were only about pleasing Jesus, so they happily allowed him to reroute their journey. This not only saved them wasted effort, but even opened opportunities they might have otherwise missed.

During the night Paul had a vision.
A Macedonian stood before him and implored him with these words,
"Come over to Macedonia and help us."

Whom is God putting before us, imploring our help? Are we sufficiently free from the world's games to do it? If not, let's try to remember the fact that Jesus has chosen us. And that should matter more than anything the world has failed to give us.

Know that the LORD is God;
he made us, his we are;
his people, the flock he tends.

Newsboys - It Is You

 

8 May 2026 - to be his friends

Today's Readings
(Audio)

I have called you friends

Jesus desires us to be his friends. He reveals to us everything he heard from his Father, making us more the mere servants, but rather, co-conspirators in accomplishing his Father's will. But he asks us to respond to his love for us by loving him in return. This means we can't stop at knowing what is important to the heart of Jesus. We must cooperate to bring it about. And what is this plan with which he expects us to cooperate? Is it finally a matter of arbitrary behaviors and rituals? No, rather: "love one another". But it is not love by any standard whatever. It is specific, "as I love you". What Jesus revealed to his disciples, and what he is inviting us to understand, is the magnitude of his love for us. This love is meant to be the starting place for our own response and effort.

It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain

We often get things precisely backward. We believe that we ourselves evaluated Jesus and chose to follow him after careful consideration and cost-benefit analysis. Then we assume that we earn his friendship by obeying commandments which we often do not fully understand or accept. After that, we hope that he will explain things and, perhaps, finally begin to love us. But he reveals his love first and only then asks us to respond and cooperate. He explains the plan for our salvation from the beginning so we can work with him to help bring it about. The fact that his friendship is in some way conditional on doing what he commands us is only true after that friendship is established. It is not the reason for the friendship. It is rather a definition of what sort of friendship it is meant to be, the shared interest we must pursue. If we will not pursue it we will be the ones walking away in another direction, not Jesus.

Since we have heard that some of our number
who went out without any mandate from us
have upset you with their teachings
and disturbed your peace of mind

The Apostles and presbyters described in Acts were concerned that other people were making things overly complicated for the early disciples. What was meant to be about the love of Jesus and friendship with him was being dragged back into rituals that were now obsolete, having been fulfilled in Jesus himself. So the messengers chosen to clear up the confusion were themselves exemplary friends of Jesus, Barnabas and Paul "who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ". They, together with Judas and Silas, explained to the early disciples that the point was not a sort of rules maximalism. Instead they commanded only simple necessities to ensure that all of the friends of Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile, could share a common life, directed toward the one common goal of responding to his love. 

Is it true that the Church has probably more rules than any other institution on earth, and if so is this not excessive? Yes, but no. The rules of the Church are precisely in response to all of the many ways in which she has been challenged by people going out without mandate from her and saying things that sounded just true enough to disturb the peace of mind of those who listened. Perhaps when we are in the middle of reading some finer point of canon law we don't realize it. But the Church is designed to be the place where friendship with Jesus can flourish and grow, drawn by his Father, and united in his Spirit. It is meant to be a place where all of us can join together with one voice in the psalmist's song of praise.

My heart is steadfast, O God; my heart is steadfast;
I will sing and chant praise.
Awake, O my soul; awake, lyre and harp!
I will wake the dawn.

CityAlight - He Calls Me Friend