Tag: divina

Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter

USCCB Readings

One of the lines that strikes me in today’s readings has been made famous by wherever large crowds appear, John 3:16: “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” Also in today’s reading, what stands out for me is “so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.”

Today’s reading is a continuation of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, who said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one can do these signs that you are doing unless God is with him.” At the end of today’s Gospel passage, John follows Nicodemus’s statement to its conclusion: “But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.”

I love the imagery of light and darkness. But what’s hard to acknowledge is my participation in the latter: “And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.” Evil is abominable, wickedness has been personified throughout history by names instilled in all of us by sixth grade. “That’s not me; I’m not them,” I might reassure myself. But evil is impartial, and every reasoning person of age succumbs at times to evil. No question, no exceptions. It is to will the harm of the other just as love (as Saint Thomas Aquinas describes) is to will the good of the other. God, help me understand always the way to avoid evil and live in the light.

Father in heaven, I have a full agenda today. Some of it is good and necessary; some, pie in the sky. Help me be remain in your light today and be responsive to the Holy Spirit. As Jesus says to Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” God, help me stay in the light.

Today, among the many junctions I will come to, I have a moral choice set before me: avoid the light so that my actions might not be exposed; that is, live in darkness; or, live the truth and come toward the light to receive and act in God’s grace.

Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter

USCCB Readings

Jesus said to Nicodemus, “No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

Jesus refers to the Old Testament account that foreshadows his crucifixion and resurrection. Because the people complained against God and Moses, God sent seraph serpents among the people that bit them and caused them to die. Moses prayed to the Lord to take the serpents from them, so God told him to make a seraph serpent and mount it on a pole. Everyone who had been bitten would look upon it and recover.

“The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” God, help me understand that you had to be lifted up so that you could bring eternal life to everyone who believes in you and who is born of the Spirit. You have heard the cry of your people and have given us eternal life through your crucifixion.

Jesus made clear the purpose of Moses lifting up the serpent and himself being lifted up: eternal life for all who believe in him. I ask God to make clear to me how I am to be a witness to the resurrection and to my faith.

I want to remember today that when Jesus says, “. . . so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life,” it means being a witness to my faith. From today’s first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Luke says that among the community of believers there was no needy person among them because what they did have they distributed to each according to need. “With great power the Apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all.” Today, let me see the needs of others around me, bearing witness to God in my works, joys, and sufferings, in communion with them through the risen Christ.

April 23, 2022—Saturday of Easter Week

USCCB Readings

“But later, as the Eleven were at table, he appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised. He said to them, ‘Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature.’ ”

It’s difficult to hear Jesus rebuking the disciples for not believing the others after his resurrection. The flip side of this is that he asks the disciples to go out into the world to proclaim the Gospel to every creature. (Saint Francis took these words of Jesus literally, preaching to the birds.)

Three times this Gospel passage refers to the unbelief of the disciples (“they did not believe”; “they did not believe them either”; “they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised.”). God, help me understand the unbelief endemic among the disciples, the witnesses of the Messiah, the first Christians. Yet, Jesus is patient with these disciples, slack in faith, to the point where he charges them to proclaim the Gospel to the entire world. Humbling to consider!

Many distractions today, many twists on how I thought the day would go. On any given day, I hope to accomplish dozens of things. Today is no different, yet there is consolation today in letting God take the helm, peace in knowing that my unbelief doesn’t stop God from asking me to share humbly in his mission.

Today let me put aside as best I can the unbelief that prevents me from seeing Jesus even as I see his face in others and in the humble appearance of bread and wine. As Peter says in the first reading, after Jesus appeared to the Eleven and his unbelief he put behind him: “It is impossible for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.”