Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter

“Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak.”

Today’s Gospel from John begins in Jerusalem as Jesus “cried out” to the crowd. One with the Father, he tells the crowd that he came not to condemn the world but to save it. It sounds as if the crowd is off the hook, that Jesus saves with no questions asked. But then he says, “the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day,” and it’s clear Jesus isn’t playing Monopoly, handing out free get out of jail cards. “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me,” Jesus says. This is the story of Adam and Eve all over again: God gives us a choice to observe his words or reject them. Jesus, the Son of God, comes in mercy to say, “Let’s try again.”

God, help me understand that your Son’s obedience to you, following your commandment of mercy and eternal life, is a model for my words and actions. Whatever pleases you, whatever brings your light into the darkness, is a gift I am able to choose to give back to you for the life of the world; whatever is a rejection of your gift, whatever brings darkness into the world will by my choice condemn me on the last day. God, you are just, and I know the words of your Son will judge me.

My Jesus, mercy! In your mercy, I ask that you remove any obstacles that prevent me from believing in you and doing your Father’s will. Let me look back at the end of this day and know that what I have said and done, I have said and done as the Father told me.

Today I want God’s light to shine on me even as I see more in others than myself the darkness where the light needs to penetrate. Let me believe in Jesus and the Father who sent him and leave judgment to the only just judge, God the Father.

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Tuesday of the Fourth Week of Easter

“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

Jesus says these words near the Portico of Solomon during the Feast of the Dedication, during winter. A footnote in the reading says that the Portico of Solomon faces east and offered protection from the cold desert winds. So people gathered around Jesus not only because of what he had to say but because they wanted to seek basic comfort, protection from the cold.

The people surrounding Jesus don’t believe that he is the one with the Father but instead believe he is “keeping them in suspense.” This makes for a long winter of the heart for them because, as Jesus says, “I told you and you do not believe.” God, help me understand the suspense is over; you sent your Son Jesus, the Good Shepherd, to give us eternal life, and you are one with your Son.

When my plans and hopes for the day bend and break, Lord, help me step out of the winter of frustration and into your own will. How will I be able to hear and follow your voice if my own mind is a beehive of noise and activity, if I refuse to come out of the cold?

Today I want to rest in knowing that the winter is over. Jesus has come into the world and destroyed death. He himself is the Eternal Word and has the words of eternal life. God, keep me from the suspense of unbelief.

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Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter

“Amen, amen, I say to you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate.”

In this Gospel passage from John, Jesus says to the Pharisees that he is the gate for the sheep. Yesterday, in the Good Shepherd Sunday Gospel reading, Jesus tells the Jews gathered around him at the Portico of Solomon that the sheep hear his voice and follow him. So Jesus identifies himself as both shepherd and gatekeeper. Although this is a mixed image, it shouldn’t raise unnecessary questions since just as Jesus is the second person of the Trinity, isn’t it conceivable that he is both gatekeeper (perhaps the Holy Spirit) and shepherd (Son of God)?

God, help me understand that it is the voice of Jesus that I should seek from day to day and as I grow in faith and understanding. Other voices abound—the voice of strangers, the voice of thieves who come to steal my attention, the voice of thieves who come to destroy, the voice of Satan who denies “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious.” Help me, God, hear the voice of your Son and give me the wisdom to know that what I find in him is the truth.

God, you are the Lord of time. In you, I have all the time I need because all time is in your hands. Be with me today as I try to make the best of the gift of time that you give, hearing your voice and going where you want me to go.

Today I want to listen for the voice of the shepherd in making big and small decisions. How will I respond when I’m given a choice between time-wasting activities that steal time from me and destroy my opportunity to participate in what is good and life-giving and a God-given gift?

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Fourth Sunday of Easter

“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”

In just a few words, Jesus summarizes his identity and purpose. Although taken from a different part of John’s Gospel than last week’s Bread of Life readings, Jesus makes clear why he is able to give eternal life to those who believe in him and follow him. He has power over life and death because in his words, “The Father and I are one.”

In those same words, Jesus affirms his place within the Trinity, a person distinct within it yet part of the undivided unity. God, help me recognize how to place myself in the Father’s hands. Help me understand that the place I want to be for eternity is with before the throne of the Lamb. An image of this, an image of martyrs in heaven, is presented in the second reading: “For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” How many ways are there to call on the name of the Lord to hear his voice: Abba, Father; Father in heaven; Lamb of God; Word Incarnate; and countless others. Or simply, Jesus. Whatever way I speak the Lord’s name, let it please him and bring him near me so that I can hear his voice.

Today I will let a lot of things slip through my fingers—wishes, desires, possibilities. I will let opportunities go, some of them losses; some, by God’s grace, near misses I might have willed. But I will let them go because the day ends and because I must; I have no choice. But let me ask the Lord to help me stay in his presence or have him come after me, especially after Communion, when I stand before God’s throne and have within me the “body and blood, soul and divinity” of the Lamb, the one who sits at the right hand of God.

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Saturday of the Third Week of Easter

“As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer walked with him. Jesus then said to the Twelve, ‘Do you also want to leave?’ Simon Peter answered him, ‘Master, to whom shall we go?’ ”

Some of the disciples turned away from Jesus after he said to them, “It is the Spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words that I have spoken are Spirit and life.” They returned to their former way of life in a way that reminds me of a daily choice: Do I turn and go a different way, or do I say like Peter, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life?”

Help me understand, God, the meaning of “the flesh is of no avail.” In the first reading, Peter cures a paralyzed man and raises Tabitha from the dead. The flesh is subject to the spirt; the flesh is of no avail. God, help me believe this and put into practice my belief that Jesus is the Holy One of God. Are these only words, and are words of no avail? Jesus is the Word Incarnate, and the words he has spoken are Spirit and life.

I am impatient to begin the day. There’s so much I dream of doing that won’t get done. I want to invite God to be with me today, remembering him especially in the most ordinary moments. I don’t know that I can do that on my own, but by God’s grace, I can.

Today let me remember that some words, like fruit from a tree, have the power to sustain for a while and then fall into decay. But the words of Jesus are Spirit and life. The risen Jesus, himself the Word, is the way to eternal life.

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Friday of the Third Week of Easter

“For my Flesh is true food, and my Blood is true drink.”

In saying “true food” and “true drink,” Jesus’ words catch my attention. What does that even mean? Every time I eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a snack, isn’t that true food, true drink? What is not true about the food and drink I take daily?

God, help me understand your words more clearly. I can venture to say that true food sustains me spiritually, that it is the bread of life come down from heaven, that taking it will not leave me hungry again soon, as earthly food does. I have heard true food described as the living bread, that which does not die and become assimilated when taking it. Unlike earthly food, the Flesh and Blood of Christ continues to live and transform what is dead in me into life in the spirit. And unlike earthly food, the more that take from it, it is no less diminished or fragmented. An example: in the Multiplication of the Loaves, Jesus takes the loaves and what would ordinarily be divided into fragments he multiplies into superabundance!

The quiet rain and call of the chickadee this morning remind me that silence is never lack of sound but an act of quieting down to know that God is present with me. That’s true for any given moment. I want to turn to him throughout the day and realize I have in that the true food that gives me life.

Today, like Paul in the first reading when scales fall from his eyes, I want to see clearly where God directs me. I want to take from the true food and true drink that will sustain me, and God willing, give me eternal life.

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Thursday of the Third Week of Easter

“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.”

Today’s Gospel continues the Bread of Life Discourse. The claim Jesus makes is out of this world. It reminds me of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: the food and drink of immortality. Does Jesus mean this in a symbolic sense as he seeks to speak to the crowd to move them to conversion? Hardly! Instead, he says as clearly as possible, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my Flesh for the life of the world.” He’s speaking of the first Eucharist, the Last Supper: “Take; eat; this is my body which is given for you.”

God, how can I begin to comprehend this? It’s an essential facet of Christian faith that one accepts early on and becomes taken for granted, or taken as an event in human history, it is a staggering reality: the Son of God came down from heaven, gave his body and blood, soul and divinity, so that whoever believes has eternal life. How much am I able to trust Jesus if he himself gives an account of his Father’s plan?

God, I believe; help my unbelief! There is no exaggeration in saying that Jesus is speaking to me and everyone who hears his words just in the same way he speaks to the crowd when he says, “whoever eats this bread will live forever.” He is the bread of life, and in him I have eternal life. That’s Easter joy!

Today, on this Thursday of the Third Week of Easter, let me remember that Christ rose from the dead. Let me remember to pause from time to time, even for a moment, and be “overcome with paschal joy,” knowing Jesus fought and conquered death for everyone.

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Wednesday of the Third Week of Easter

“I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst. But I told you that although you have seen me, you do not believe.”

This Gospel reading continues the Bread of Life Discourse from two days ago. The crowds had come to Capernaum, looking for Jesus, who had fed them in the breaking of the bread. By the end of this reading, Jesus is one hundred percent clear in his Father’s purpose for sending him: “ ‘For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.’ ”

As I read and re-read this reading, I know very well that I see and believe in the Son right now as much as my capacity allows. Yet, as day goes on, that same clarity seems to dissipate in the din and turmoil of the day. God, help me understand, give me the wisdom throughout the day to be able to see your Son and realize—to really believe—that Jesus came so that in his being raised on the cross everyone may have eternal life. I want to remember and praise you and receive your grace throughout the mundane moments of this day.

The intimate way in which Jesus speaks to the crowds sometimes draws my attention to the boundless goodness of his humanity. Yet, this is the Second Person of the Trinity, the Creator of the Universe who sits at the right hand of the Father. Here, present in this backwater town of my mind is the All Powerful God. If I worry that I won’t remember him throughout the day, can I ask him to take care of that, ask him for the grace today to see him and know he is there? Absolutely!

Today, Lord, help me to see past the ordinary flow of things to lock my gaze on you. Help me also to see the face of your Son in others; in turn, to be given the opportunity to put on Christ for the sake of others.

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Feast of Saints Philip and James, Apostles

“The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves.”

This echoes yesterday’s Gospel, where the crowd asks Jesus, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” The relationship Jesus describes with God the Father expresses a bond between them that suggests the action of the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit through which Jesus speaks and acts. “The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.”

God, help me understand Jesus’ divine identity, animated by the Holy Spirit. This is the same Holy Spirit who “proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified.” Help me understand how it is the same Holy Spirit that dwells in all who believe that Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in him. Just as Philip wanted more proof (“show us the Father and that will be enough”), I want more and more proof so that I can say, “Enough.” God, help me know the peace of believing that you are in the Son and the Son is in you.

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus makes his father Our Father, and opens up the love between the Father and the Son through the Holy Spirit. In the countless distractions of today, my hopes and plans are like wild animals held captive. Let me realize that today and let the Holy Spirit dwell in me so that I can hear the Father and do his work.

Today, “so that the Father may be glorified in the Son,” let me ask anything boldly in Jesus’ name. Let me accept that I have seen the Father in the Son, and let that be enough for me.

Memorial of Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church

“Jesus answered them and said, ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.’ ”

The crowd came looking for Jesus after he had fed them in the Multiplication of the Loaves. They expended energy to find him, believing they would again be filled with food he gave them. Like them, I am daily subject to the hunger-satiety-hunger cycle and am satisfied for a short time before the cycle repeats.

God, help me understand what it means to work not for food that perishes but to accomplish your works through belief in your Son. This is your work, God, believing in the one you sent in order to gain the food that endures for eternal life. Through the sacraments, this is participation in the Eucharist; in daily life, it is not looking for signs but participating in the love between the Father and the Son and seeking the Son.

Even in the quietest moments of the day, I feel the intrusion of anxiety and begin to line up all of the tasks I hope to accomplish. Anticipation and fear pull me in different directions. How will I remember to put myself in God’s presence? How do I stop the billiard balls once they scatter on the table? God, be near me and make clear when you present me with an opportunity to acknowledge you and remember.

The people in the crowd ask a question worth considering throughout the day: “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus makes clear in his response that the works of God are belief in him, on whom the Father has set his seal. Today I want to stop amid the sometimes mindless expense of energy and recognize something I can’t see, taste, touch, hear, or sense; unlike the taking of earthly food that satisfies only for a while, only something invisible and out of grasp will last. The Son of God is present here today, and to gain eternal life, he asks only that I believe in him.