5th Sunday of EasterActs 14:21-27 Revelation 21:1-5 John 13:31-32, 34-35 The Gospel this weekend is this: John 13:31-32, 34-35 When he had left, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32 (If God is glorified in him,) God will also glorify him in himself, and he will glorify him at once…. 34 I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. 35 This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." The first reading is this: Acts 14:21-27 After they had proclaimed the good news to that city and made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. 22 They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, "It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God." 23 They appointed presbyters for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, commended them to the Lord in whom they had put their faith. 24 Then they traveled through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia. 25 After proclaiming the word at Perga they went down to Attalia. 26 From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now accomplished. 27 And when they arrived, they called the church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of faith to the Gentiles. The second reading is this: Revelation 21:1-5 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, God's dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them and they will be his people and God himself will always be with them (as their God). 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, (for) the old order has passed away." 5 The one who sat on the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." Then he said, "Write these words down, for they are trustworthy and true." MEDITATION: This 5th Sunday of Easter is calling us to be people of hope and love that the world can see. Therein will the risen Christ be seen. It's the 5th of 7 Sundays between Easter and Pentecost. Christ died on the Cross, but the Good News doesn't stop there. Rather, it begins there! We all have problems, but we're happy because God will make all things new (Apoc 21). He could even make of us a decent bunch of Christians! From a bunch of fishermen, He forms Apostles. From a persecuter of Christians (Saul), He forms a St Paul! And from us, what will He form? It's up to us. On their initial missions, Paul and company bear fruit... as you may, the first time you openly tell someone of your faith – maybe even helping the Church in preaching! And of course it needn't be alone. Note that it's along with Barnabas that St Paul evangelises Antioch. The Bible doesn't hide the fact that they had problems (Acts 14:22), but they were happy! The resurrection of Love overcomes problems! If we face up to them with faith, hope and love. then we'll make it into Heaven with Jesus. We'll enjoy the 'new heaven and the new earth' (Rev. 21). But will there be a new missionary Christian today? There will if we open up to the call! The image of the bride preparing for her wedding makes me think of the profession of 'vows' of us missionaries. Jesus is asking us today if we live our vows as a cold fulfillment of regulations, or with a loving heart that's off to the wedding? The Gospel today describes how to dress-up well: “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn 13:34). Missionaries often have to prepare their preaching and study theology, but it's important that the motivation not be just to fulfill rules or to give people a good impression, but in order to truly love God. Let's not base our Christianity on superficial appearances. We can all take communion at mass today with hearts like people getting married. Then we'll love all people generously, and Jesus says “they'll know then, that you're my disciples”. Missionaries try to love by preparing preaching, but all acts of love in themselves, in their many different forms, are forms of 'preaching'. Hopefully, our hearts 'convert' this Easter season. What we call 'conversion', isn't just about seeing our mistakes in the past, but about seeing the potential we have for doing well in the future. I can't think of any more beautiful plan in life than to become living replicas of Christ (male and female – young and old), and that's precisely the plan to which He calls us! When Saint Agustin was imagining how the 'devil' must feel to see us coming back to Life after conversion, he imagined the devil regretting having got us to sin in the first place! One thing is to realise that God created you, and another is to appreciate that he intends to continue his work. Appreciate and support it. Maybe you've become accustomed to many things in life and you've closed the door to changes, but God keeps 'planting his seed of love'. I think that St Peter writes well for anyone who lives Easter as if it were the first time: 'You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed.' (1 Pt 1:23). So let's not just ask God for forgiveness of our past faults but for a new beginning of our lives from here on. The place in which Christ wants to live now, is in us! I like the example of Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric light bulb. A young lab helper broke the first bulb and Edison made a second. Then in order to have it carried, he asked the same helper! Perhaps he reckoned that the guy would be extra-carefull because he realised his first mistake. I like that as an example to describe the way Christ asks us all to carry his Life inside of us in spite of past mistakes that we remembered on Good Friday. It's natural for us to doubt that we'd be able to engender Christ, but that's O.K.. From that humble position, we realise that it's Christ himself who intends to do the engendering through us! He just wants us to participate and thereby we're opening the door for Him! To answer the call is challenging and needs effort, but at the end of the day, the words of Jesus are true: "My yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Mt 11:28). The founder of our Community says that as a 14 year old, he wasn't sure of what he wanted for life but he was pretty sure of what he didn't want: to be a priest! But the day he realised that the cross wasn't just another statue and the sacristy isn't just a fancy box, things changed. He meditated how Jesus gave his life volunterily. It's a cry of love that moves our hearts. But it doesn't end in Jerusalem many years ago. The image of the crucified Christ and the Eucharist in a box is like a call to us: “Any chance you'd let me use your lives now?”. So many in the world are enjoying nice things, but maybe they're really only half living. The call of Christ is to live life to the full. It involves curing our vision – our vision of others as brothers and sisters who need Love and our vision of ourselves as people who can help. The sister of Thomas Aquinas asked him "What do we need to do to be 'saints'?", and he replied: “You need to want it”! Do you really want it? This brings challenges, but I like what Martin Luther King said in 1963: “If a man hasn't discovered something for which he will die, then he isn't fit to live.”. On the cross Jesus said “I'm thirsty” – can you recognise Him saying “I'm thirsty for you”?! The 'good thief' on the cross asked Jesus “Please remember me when you come into your kingdom”. I think Christ is asking us all back: “Please remember me when you get back to your life in the world”. The marvel is that He calls us precisely so that we'll make it up to his kingdom! It's not a question of deserving the call of Christ out of some kind of sanctity in your life up to now. It's a question of lifting yourself up now and beginning anew. Saul of Tarsis, who became St Paul, is a good example. He had been a leader of the Jews persecuting Christians – as the Bible says of St Stephen being led away: 'They threw Stephen out of the city, and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul' (Acts 7:58). And that Saul, later on, became St Paul! It's good to be ambitious in life, but only God really knows how high we can climb and how far we can reach. Abraham really got going at the age of 65! So it's worth paying attention to God's plans. And the more we pay attention, the more He lets us know! That's where a life begins which will never die. Allow Christ to rise in you! We'll make it to eternal happiness together. Happy Easter! ..........Dara. En Español: 5° Domingo de Pascua: Hechos 14:21-27. Apoc 21:1-5. Jn 13:31-32, 34-35. Este 5° Domingo de Pascua nos llama a ser personas de esperanza y amor que el mundo pueda ver. Así se verá el Cristo resucitado. Es el 5° de los 7 Domingos entre la Pascua y Pentecostés. Cristo murió en la Cruz, pero la Buena Nueva no acaba allí. ¡Más bien, empieza allí! Todos tenemos problemas pero estamos felices porque Dios renueva todo (Apoc 21). ¡Aún podría hacer de nosotros una panda de Cristianos decentes! De una panda de pescadores, forma Apóstoles. ¡De un perseguidor de Cristianos (Saulo), forma San Pablo! Y de nosotros ¿qué formará? El balón está en nuestros manos. En sus misiones iniciales, Pablo y compañía dan fruto… como quizás darás tu al comunicar a alguien tu fe – ¡quizá aún ayudando a la Iglesia a predicar! Y, claro, no hace falta que lo hagas solo. Fijaos que es junto con Bernabé que Pablo evangeliza en Antioquia. La Biblia no esconde el hecho de que tuvieron problemas (Hechos 14:22), pero ¡estaban felices! ¡La resurrección del Amor supera problemas! Si los afrentamos con fe, esperanza y amor, entonces llegaremos al Cielo con Jesús. Disfrutaremos del ‘nuevo cielo y nueva tierra’ (Apoc 21). Pero ¿habrá un nuevo Cristiano misionero hoy? ¡Lo habrá si nos abrimos a la llamada! La imagen de la novia preparándose para la boda me hace pensar en la profesión de votos de nosotros misioneros. Jesús nos está preguntando hoy si ¿vivimos nuestros votos como cumplimiento frío de regulaciones, o con un corazón enamorado que está yendo a la boda? Cristo describe hoy como vestirnos bien: “Amaos unos a losl otros como yo os he amado” (Jn 13:14). Los misioneros a menudo tienen que estudiar teología y preparar su predicación, pero es importante que el motivo no sea simplemente para cumplir reglas o para dar buena impresión al público, sino para amar profundamente a Dios. No fundamentemos nuestro Cristianismo en apariencias superficiales. Podemos comulgar todos hoy con corazones como personas casándose. Entonces amaremos a todos generosamente y dice Jesús “Entonces sabrán que sois mis discípulos”. Un misionero intenta amar preparando predicaciones, pero todos los hechos de amor en sí, en sus muchas formas distintas, son formas de ‘predicación’. Ojalá nuestros corazones se conviertan en este tiempo pascual. Lo que llamamos ‘conversión’ no es cuestión de simplemente darnos cuenta de lo que hemos hecho mal en el pasado, sino también de darnos cuenta de la potencia que tenemos para el futuro. Yo no puedo ver proyecto de vida más bonito que el de ser replicas vivientes de Cristo (masculino y femenino – joven y viejo), y ¡es justamente el proyecto al cual nos llama! Cuando San Agustín imaginaba como debe sentirse ‘el diablo’ al vernos volviendo a la Vida después de la conversión, ¡imaginaba al diablo arrepentido de habernos hecho pecar! Una cosa es darnos cuenta de que somos criaturas de Dios, y otra es darnos cuenta de que Dios no ha acabado su obra. Date cuenta y apóyalo. Quizás te has acostumbrado a muchas cosas en la vida y has cerrado la puerta a cambios, pero Dios sigue ‘plantando su semilla de Amor’. Creo que San Pedro lo escribe bien para alguien que ha pasado por la Pascua como si fuera la primera vez: ‘Has nacido de nuevo, no de semilla perecedera sino de semilla incorruptible.’ (1°P 1:23). Entonces, no pidamos a Dios el perdón de nuestras equivocaciones de antes, sino pidamos un comienzo nuevo desde ahora en adelante. El sitio donde Cristo quiere vivir ahora ¡es en nosotros! Me gusta el ejemplo de Tomás Edison, el inventador de la bombilla eléctrica. Un joven ayudante de laboratorio rompió la primera bombilla y Edison hizo una segunda. Para llevarla después, ¡se lo pidió al mismo ayudante! Quizá pensaba que el joven tomaría muchísimo cuidado porque sabía bien lo que había hecho mal la primera vez. Me gusta como ejemplo para describir como Cristo nos pide a todos llevar su Vida por dentro a pesar de las equivocaciones que hemos recordado en el Viernes Santo. Es natural para nosotros dudar que pudiéramos engendrar a Cristo, pero esto no está mal. De aquella postura humilde, nos damos cuenta de que ¡es Cristo mismo quien va a engendrarse a través de nosotros! Simplemente quiere que participemos y ¡así estaremos abriendo la puerta para Él! Responder a la llamada trae desafíos y hay que poner esfuerzo, pero al fin de cuentas las palabras de Jesús se cumplen: “Mi carga es ligera y mi jugo llevadero.( Mt 11:28). El fundador de nuestra comunidad dice que a los 14 años, no sabía que quería hacer en la vida, pero al menos sabía lo que no quería: ¡ser un cura! Pero un día se dio cuenta que la Cruz no es una estatua más, y el sagrario no es simplemente una caja bonita, y le cambió. Meditó como el Hijo de Dios se entregó voluntariamente. Es un grito de amor que mueve nuestros corazones. La imagen del crucifijo y la Eucaristía en una caja es como una llamada a nosotros: “¿Sería posible que vosotros me regaléis vuestras vidas?”. Muchas personas disfrutan de cosas bonitas, pero puede ser que estén viviendo solamente ‘a medias’. Cristo nos llama a vivir en plenitud. Supone curar nuestra vista – para ver a otros como hermanos y hermanas sedientos de Amor y a nosotros mismos como gente que puede ayudar. La hermana de Tomás de Aquino le preguntó “¿Qué hay que hacer para ser santos?”, y él respondió: “Necesitamos quererlo”! ¿Lo quieres tú de verdad? Esto trae desafíos, pero me gusta lo que dijo Martin Luther King en 1963: “Si uno no ha descubierto algo por lo cual está dispuesto a morir, entonces no merece vivir.”. En la Cruz Jesús dijo “Tengo sed” - ¿te parece a veces que te está diciendo “Tengo sed de ti”?! ‘El buen ladrón’ en la cruz pidió a Jesús “Por favor acuérdate de mi cuando entres en tu reino”. Creo que Cristo nos está devolviendo la pregunta a todos nosotros “Por favor acordaos de mi cuando volváis a vuestras vidas en el mundo”. La maravilla es que Él nos llama justamente ¡para que lleguemos hasta su Reino! No es cuestión de merecer la llamada de Cristo por haber vivido una vida santa hasta ahora. Es cuestión de levantarte ahora y empezar de nuevo. Saulo de Tarsis, que llegó a ser San Pablo, es un buen ejemplo. Había animado la persecución de los Cristianos – como dice la Biblia del martirio de San Esteban: ‘Los Judíos echaban a Esteban fuera de la ciudad y le apedrearon. Los testigos pusieron sus mantas a los pies de un joven llamado Saulo.’ (Hchos 7:58). Y ¡aquel Saulo llegó a ser San Pablo! Está bien tener ambiciones en la vida, pero solo Dios sabe hasta donde podemos llegar. ¡A los 65 años, Abraham estaba solamente empezando! Entonces conviene prestar atención a los planes de Dios, ¡y cuanto más lo prestemos, más Él se nos revelará! Allí empieza una vida que no morirá nunca. Déjale a Cristo resucitar en ti. ¡Pasaremos a la felicidad eterna! ¡Felices Pascuas!
I always post your sunday reflection and make my FB friends read and understand the readings more and going to church with familiarity already of the gospel. Continue Fr Dara because it inspires me a lot to use my Social network worth reading for, and your expertise is a good means that I can share the word of God, not only posting my pictures and make my friends like but to post about the living word of God thru VD thru you. God bless you. Comments are closed.
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