Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. The body and blood of our Lord being our nourishment to strengthen us and imbue us with our Lords very self, is the most central tenet of our faith. The Eucharist and its nature can be both a grace our Lord gave us, but also a stumbling block of belief if we do not accept the words our Lord spoke.

There is perhaps no passage in the New Testament that has caused more controversy, and at the same time provided more hope than those found in John 6. At the time that our Lord spoke this discourse, He had well over a hundred followers that had been with him wherever He went. Yet at the close of what He taught that day, He was left with only the twelve disciples. You see the very words that tell us the path to nourishing our spirits so that we can gain the strength we need to persevere were simply too much for many of those gathered there at the time, just as many find them difficult to accept today. Our Lord knew the audience He was addressing at that time, and that many would not be able to accept the idea of consuming His body and blood, because like most of the Jewish people, they believed that the teachings they had always heard warning them against the consumption of blood sacrifice still applied there. What they could not grasp was that those things which apply to the actions of men, did not apply to God, and so many left Him. Our Lord knew this would happen, and He did not mince words in what He described, and He did so for a reason – the people needed to eventually understand His sacrifice that was to come, and that it would require His body and blood, as the new Paschal Lamb to bring them to salvation. That He would shed all of this on their behalf, and that they needed to partake of His gift in order that they might live. This accepting of His words and partaking of His body and blood is an ultimate act of faith, and that is what our Lord requires of all who profess to believe in Him.

What we receive in the Eucharist is truly His body and blood. Yes, it looks like bread and wine through human sight, but when we look with the eyes of the soul, we see far more clearly what has been placed before us. When our Lord healed, it was always with the soul as His primary focus through forgiving sins, the healings of the physical body were secondary. Just so, when He nourishes us, it is with our true bodies, our spiritual selves in mind, that He is nourishing and strengthening so that we can live with Him eternally.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, the uniquely Christian core belief, that God is at the same time one God, but also three distinct persons. Other faiths acknowledge God, but only Christians acknowledge his trinitarian nature – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

God our Father we know as creator and founder of all reality as we know it. He is perhaps our most immediately thought of incarnation of God. Yet, we also know and follow the Son, Jesus Christ, who came to earth and shared our human form while still fully God. He lived among us, taught us, healed us, and ultimately died for us, so that we might have hope in His resurrection, and in a resurrected relationship with the Father. Jesus, as the Son who saved us, is our Mediator and High Priest before the Father, and is our Judge because He existed as one of us and experienced all of our conditions except sin. When He ascended back to Heaven, He did not leave us alone, but left us with the Holy Spirit to guide us. The Holy Spirit is often described as the love that exists between the Father and the Son and completes the trinitarian circle and nature of God as a whole. It is the Holy Spirit who guides us and comes to us as that quiet voice that is God revealing himself to us in our daily lives.

The nature of God, we acknowledge as a mystery. Three, and yet one. Each distinct, and yet all the one true God. As human beings confined to a physical reality, this is a difficult thing to grasp and understand, yet we must think beyond this reality, and allow ourselves to acknowledge that the One who existed before the fabric or time and space was even created is not constrained in the manner that we are, and so can exist in whole form that is both singular and trinitarian without conflict to either logic or faith. God is perfect, and His perfection comes to us in love, in all of the persons of the Trinity.

As we celebrate this Pentecost Sunday, we hear of the action of the Holy Spirit, as it descended upon the Disciples. How they began to speak, and how the crowd gathered from all over the known world, could hear and understand them through the Spirits grace. When we hear this, we often think simply of a difference in languages that was overcome through this grace, but there is more.

Each one of us, when we receive the Holy Spirit through the Sacraments is imbued with the Spirit and with the gifts that are part of that. The gifts themselves are many, and varied depending upon our needs, what our Lord sees as the help we require to do His will, and where we are with our relationship with Him. You see it is not just languages that can be stumbling blocks for those who are trying to listen for the message our Lord wants to convey, whether it be through others guided by the Spirit, or from what we experience directly. For all of us, our hearts and minds must be open to the Holy Spirits message and gifts, at least as much as our spiritual ears.

The message to each of us is completely unique, just as we are unique parts of the Body of Christ. There is no greater or lesser gift or gifts, it is simply what we as unique creations of our Lord require to do His will. They will come when He knows we are ready for them, and in the exact proportion required. The gifts and the way they come to us are perfection, it is then up to us to use them to the best of our ability, and even beyond that through the action and grace of the Spirit. 

When our Lord came to his Disciples, and breathed upon them, they received His peace, and His authority to forgive or bind sins, because of the common mission they had been called to. This mission continues today, but it is not the only one. Be open to God’s place for you in His plan, to the unique mission that He has in mind for you to perform in His service. To sit idly by and simply watch as those around us are in need, is the only incorrect course of action. No matter who we are or where we are in life, we are still here because He has things for us to accomplish, and we in turn need to submit humbly in loving service to those tasks. There is no greater peace or fulfillment than when we serve in Gods plan.

There is a whole world of untruth that exists, and each day it is working to draw us into its ways so that with each person it lures away, it increases its perceived legitimacy by the sheer number of people it calls its own. To be drawn into this world that lures with false comforts and compromises is remarkably easy, since it preys upon the very weaknesses that we struggle with and uses them to further weaken our efforts to resolve them. This is the seduction of untruth and sin in the world.

Our Lord tells us plainly, that if we desire to be close to Him, that we must keep his commandments. These very commandments are more often than not at odds with the promises of the world. Yet when we cleave to these commandments and do our best to fulfill them, we are infused with the Spirit of God, and something amazing happens – our lives are living reflections of Gods will, and testimony to others of His plan all of us. For this reason, we are then targets of those who seek to draw people from faith in Christ. We conflict with their plans, and we are seen as intolerant or even hateful by those who have been seduced by the ideologies that profess what appears on the surface to be kindness, tolerance, and acceptance of all. Yet not really all, only those that will succumb and agree with them unreservedly.

Our Lords plan for each of us involves sometimes struggle as refinement of our faith, it involves patience with all, and love of all, even if we do not agree with what they profess to believe. We hold fast to Gods teachings out of love for Him, yet we show love for those who do not. We speak what we know to be true, for the good of anyone who is within hearing, rather than cave into socially acceptable dialogue that is filled with falsehoods that sound pleasant but rob us of the ability to lead others to truth. We do not preach at people, but we do not shy away from telling the truth and stating our beliefs. We live our lives according to those beliefs and do so with the aid of the Advocate that Jesus promised to send us, and that will remain with us. This Advocate Spirit is hated by the world, and so we too who are infused with it, will often be hated by the world, yet we still will respond with love, and will take strength in the knowledge that this has been foretold to be the way of things, and that Gods plan fully accounts for all of this. Not a hair on our heads is ever forgotten or unaccounted for by God, and those He loves go nowhere without his watchful gaze.

I think this Sunday’s readings could perhaps be best described as having a theme of adaptation, but also of caution to ensure we always orient ourselves around Christ’s teachings. Our first reading from the book of Acts chronicles the solution that the disciples developed to address both the needs of the people and the need of maintaining their focus on their core responsibility to the emerging Church. This was not something that was lightly pondered or decided upon, but the needs of the people were also recognized and required addressing.

The need to grow and adapt is something the Church has always been challenged with, and in a very good way, as it is usually the result of more people coming to Christ and desiring to be part of the Universal (Catholic) Church. The challenge that comes with such growth is multifaceted but does seem to manifest a great deal in two key areas. The first is simply dealing with the addition of people, and with that the logistical challenges that come from a growing population within the Body of Christ – this is a good problem to have. The second, though, is a bit more complex and can sometimes come from those who are newly added as members of the faith (perhaps a bit like the Hellenists that needed to be accommodated), but sometimes also as a result of new challenges within the world that many of the members of the Body of Christ find themselves needing to come to grips with. This can be thought of in terms of dealing with new situations within oneself, on an intellectual and spiritual level, and looking to the Church for guidance in doing so. Or, perhaps in terms of how to interact with others in light of new societal changes and challenges.

The Universal (Catholic) Church has sometimes been criticized for its reaction speed (actually, the lack thereof) so that people perceived it to be guilty of not addressing some of those societal changes quickly enough. While being the focus of criticism is usually not a pleasant prospect, there are times when it can still be a sign of a misunderstood but commendable attribute that others simply do not immediately recognize. In terms of the Church being careful with its responses to newly presented challenges, I think this may be the case. It is always tempting to want to rapidly accommodate the emotions and feelings of others, so that there is no discord, but that can sometimes result in compromising too much on what you know to be the truth, and what is truly beneficial to others in the long term; ultimately focusing on their path to eternal life. This last part is the ultimate mission of the Church – the salvation of souls. All else comes well after that. The stance of the Church therefore cannot always bend to public opinion, even if the emotion of the moment and the short-term benefits seem to clearly call for this. There may be greater and longer-term considerations that need to be considered for the ultimate good and salvation of those created in Christ’s image, and rushing to appease others is not complimentary to that effort.

For those who are followers of Christ, the litmus test of any response to a newly developing area of societal controversy is relative straightforward in focus – what would our Lord say, or respond with? This is of course keeping in mind His true teaching, and not simply some of the warm fuzzy moments that we like to sometimes relegate His entire persona to. Jesus was indeed a loving and compassionate being, but He is God, and as such hates sin, and the destructiveness of it, and so seeks to always draw us away from that. He did not come to condemn, but He did indeed come to call us out if we were not following Him in truth, truth

being the salvific message and teachings of how He demands that we conduct ourselves. If we adhere to this, He is the unshakeable foundation that will support us. However, if His truth is not in us, or if we misinterpret or choose to misrepresent His teaching, He is the immovable stone that will cause us to stumble. The hope being that after that initial stumble, we will get back up, dust ourselves off, and with humility in our hearts truly seek out His will for all of us, and then press on. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Light, and through Him and intimate knowledge of His teaching, we have insight into the spirit and mind of God to guide us through any uncertainties in life.

Today we celebrate the fourth Sunday of Easter, and as you can imagine from hearing todays Gospel, it is also rather appropriately called Good Shepherd Sunday. Our Lord uses the term shepherd to describe how He guides us, and cares for us. For our part, we are often lost and aimless in our lives, and we need to be guided. Even when we are not necessarily the one sheep that goes astray from the other ninety-nine, we still need to be guided, cared for, and shielded from the multitude of destructive influences that are present in our world, and which can try to lead us away from following the one whose voice we know and trust.

There is certainly no shortage these days of those who would seek to lead us away from Christ’s teachings and to replace them with their own agenda and ideas. We hear it all day every day in anything from the news to social media, in conversations we have with others, even the songs that we find pleasant to listen to are sometimes subtly (or perhaps not so subtly) trying to change the way we think and draw us away from what we know to be right. This is nothing new, it is something that every generation has to deal with, but I submit to you that the means of conveying this cacophony of false wisdom has reached new heights both in terms of its persistence and the sheer number of sources that it emanates from. Today more than ever, we need to understand how much we are subjected to influences that seek to draw us away from Christ – and do something about it.

The people that Saint Peter addressed in our first reading, likely had no idea just how badly they messed up, until Saint Peter called them out rather bluntly. It was only then that they realized the scope of what they had done, and their first question is actually a plea for help – “Brothers, what must we do?”. This same entreaty is one that we should be echoing today – what must we do to stay focused on Christ, on the only one whose unselfish love can save? We can’t completely blot out the sources of the distractions that seek to lead us astray – we would in the process also likely miss too many other pieces of information that we perhaps need to hear. We can though emulate the example that our Lord left us. We can be persistent in our prayer, and truly make it a continual part of our every day – think of it as a counterbalance to the weight of all the other junk that is being heaped our way. We can take the time to listen to his word either through our reading of the bible, or perhaps with some of the Apps that are oriented toward spreading God’s word. We can follow the example of taking some time to retreat to a quiet place and re-connect with our Lord just as he so often did when He was here among us. All of these things are achievable, we simply need to put forth a small amount of effort to get used to having them as a part of our daily lives. Think of them as a spiritual wellness exercises. We are only partially physical beings, we are also comprised of spirit, and that needs to be tended to just as much as our physical bodies.

Our Shepherd knows our needs, he still guides us to places of refreshment and peace if we will simply listen to His voice and then follow. Our souls innately recognize his voice, it is our intellect that must be channeled to pay more attention and to trust. We are meant to have mastery over ourselves, and this includes our minds. This is part of being a child of God, and it means allowing our spirits to have sway over our minds and bodies, as it should be. If we allow this to happen – the voice of the Shepherd will be clearly heard.

In the days following His resurrection, our Lord revealed himself to His followers to continue to impart His teaching to them in ways that would open their eyes. He does so with us as well to this very day.

In our Gospel today we hear of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, and how as they journeyed along, they encounter our Lord, though without first recognizing him. They continue along, and talk with Him and listen to his words, but never really perceive who He is until He chooses to let their eyes be opened through the breaking of the bread, the Eucharist that He shared with them at their evening meal. With this, their eyes were opened to Him, and they realized how many things should have tipped them off earlier to His presence. His words and teaching, His imparting of understanding and wisdom as they journeyed along together. All things that should have revealed Him to them if their hearts had been more open, and yet they simply did not perceive until they encountered Him in the Eucharist.

We need to ask ourselves how often we fall into this same lack of perception in our lives? How many people do we encounter that our Lord has placed in our lives to impart His message to us, and yet we do not see them as such? How often do we read or hear His word through the Gospels and not take in His message because we only hear words and are not listening with our hearts? All these things happen to us throughout our lives and often we do not even realize it. Yet, there is reason for hope even though we may have been oblivious. Our Lord gave all of Himself to us, including His precious body and blood in the Eucharist. Like those who were traveling with Him on the road, we too, when we receive the Eucharist can have our eyes opened to Him. When we receive this precious gift, our spirits are strengthened, our bodies come into balance between our physical and spiritual selves, and our eyes are able to see more clearly Jesus Christ present in those around us. Each time we receive, we need to do so with the awareness of who and what we are actually taking in. When we ponder this, we then leave ourselves open to meditate on the deeper experience and meaning, and this insight can’t help but impact our lives as we go forth after Mass to encounter the world and those who inhabit it, each created in the image of God, and each imbued with the divine spark of His presence. To walk the road then with such awareness opens each of us to new possibilities and intimacy with our Lord, and with one another. The Eucharist was given to us out of selfless love, and the nourishment that it provides allows us to see clearly those around us who we can in turn love in the same way, and in doing so draw closer to Christ.

As we celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, we hear of our Lord coming to the twelve Disciples and revealing himself to them. The Disciples were overjoyed at this, and after offering them His wish of peace, he breathed upon them so that they received the Holy Spirit and commissioned them to go forth with the power to forgive sins. This was a difficult mission, as they would be going out among the very people whom they had seen crucify our Lord, yet this was not a mission given to them without preparation – they had seen our risen Lord and had received the Spirit to strengthen and embolden them.   

Seeing Jesus standing before the disciples must have been an amazing moment, to see Him standing there despite the wounds to His hands, feet, and side. To hear His voice once again, and to simply know that no matter what they thought previously about what He suffered, He was there right in front of them, and none could deny that He had vanquished death itself.  

Think about this for a moment, if you are called to go out among people who mean to do you harm because of what you stand for, that can be rather intimidating. However, if you know that no matter what they do, there is still a power greater than they are, that will ultimately save you and preserve you from that which you fear, that is a game changer. It was for the disciples, and it can be for us. We too are called to go out amongst people and to proclaim what we believe, and that will not always be popular with those who do not accept Christs teaching. Yet we have no reason to fear, because like the Disciples, we have the assurance of our Lords protection and help. We too are commissioned to go forth, and we too have received the Spirit through the Sacraments we have received and through God’s grace. We have mission, just as surely as the Twelve, and we are called to go forth into a world that is full of uncertainty. We need to trust in only one thing, that Jesus rose from the dead, and has changed the game for all of us as well.  

Saint John Paul II had a consistent message for all who follow Christ that is worth remembering as we ponder our own commission as disciples of Jesus Christ – he told us “Be not afraid!” 

He is Risen! Each Easter of my life, I can remember these being the first words that I would hear from my family. It was a greeting, and a statement of rejoicing, all in one. It is these words that give each of us any hope in their being something more to this life than the struggles that we deal with each day, and the misfortunes and pain that come with life on earth. I think that Saint Paul addressed this the most directly and appropriately when he told the people in Corinth, that if it were not for the resurrection of our Lord, there would be no basis for our faith, and we would in fact be the most pitiable of people. Yet this is where we have great cause to rejoice, because we do KNOW that our Lord has risen from the dead, and in doing so broke the bonds of death that held all the people captive for so long.  

On that morning of the first day of the week, when Mary first came to the tomb of our Lord, all the events that had transpired in the days preceding had to be in her mind, and the weight of those events must have been crushing. To see our Lord crucified after enduring so much humiliation, pain, and suffering had to seem almost too much to bear. Now as she approached our Lords tomb to do what she could, in what she must have thought were some final acts of love for the one who had died. All that sorrow, disappointment, and pain must have weighed down every step – until she reached that empty tomb!  

Can you imagine the glimmer of elation that must have come from first seeing that tomb empty? The initial thoughts that must have begun to course through her mind wondering if in fact there might just be hope after all, and yet still not completely knowing if this really meant that He was risen. She still had not seen Him, but the glimmer of hope was now there. As she continued to see what had taken place and heard the words of the angel that Jesus had risen, and eventually when she, and Peter and John saw the empty burial cloths, can you imagine the mounting joy that must have come from all that.  

After witnessing all that mounting evidence, they may still not have had the full picture or sensed the complete impact of what was coming, yet they were no longer devoid of hope either. All this would be completely overshadowed by what would come later that evening when our Lord appeared to them and showed them His hands, feet, and side, and even ate a piece of fish in front of them to show them it was really Him. Those moments must have been indescribable, and their echo is here with us to this day. We who call ourselves followers of Christ have the joyful hope in Him specifically because of his resurrection, and as part of that we have the promise and anticipation of eternal life with Him. Today our joy in the Risen Christ should brim over and bring us peace and confidence that can only come to people who have a reason to not be afraid. We are no longer under subjection, and we can look forward to what is to come both in this life, and in the next. He is Risen! 

As we celebrate this Palm Sunday, we get to hear the complete narrative of our Lords Passion. The words very often touch us in a way that lets us relate to some of those present. If we are honest with ourselves, the failures of so many of those present may ring true in our own self-analysis. The betrayal of Judas, Peters denial, and the Pilates pandering to those in the Jewish hierarchy whom he knew were in the wrong out of sheer jealousy and malice, because it was easier than sticking to his convictions. Yet in the midst of all this failure, there is an illumination that comes from our Lords unwavering adherence to the will of the Father, from His gift to us of His body and blood through that first Eucharist, and ultimately from His giving all that he had by laying down his very life to pay the price for our salvation. Yes, in the midst of all of the faults and evil that humanity brought together on that day, there was still a blinding radiance of love and sacrifice from the only one capable of giving so much, and of so completely emptying of himself that there was absolutely nothing left to give.

When we hear of the failures of love that came together to set in place the tools of destruction that were needed to sacrifice one who was both God and man, we should indeed contemplate our own role in this, because we were there amongst the jeering crowd as surely as we are present in the here and now. You see for our Lord the timeline of this universe flows a bit differently than it does for us, He sees the past, present, and future as completely one. The sins that we commit or have committed yesterday, today, or tomorrow were all on full display to Him as he emptied himself on our behalf so that we could be joined to Him in heaven one day. Nothing was, is, or will be omitted in the timeless accounting of the price that was paid.

Yet, despite the gravity of the realization of our own culpability and presence on that day when our Lord gave so much of Himself, we have also a reason to rejoice. If we allow it, our sins have been addressed, purchased and ultimately cleansed by the one who was born into this world for that specific purpose. Our lives have been given new life through the Eucharist that He has provided us with so that we might have life within us. Our being has been blessed by His teaching that we have before us in scripture to guide us and to steer our lives in such a way that they lead on a path home to Him who loved us so much that He endured the suffering of a brutal passion of endurance and forbearance to carry  the very instrument of His physical death to that hill upon which He was crucified. We are cleansed by the willing acceptance of suffering that He endured on the cross, and so that our sins would be washed away in the flood of blood and water that flowed from His side in a torrent that reaches to all men and women everywhere and in all times if they simply choose to accept being loved so much that such a gift of overwhelming tenderness, self-sacrifice, and love will become part of the fiber of their beings if they simply humbly submit and allow it to manifest within them. This is the magnitude of what was given to us that day so long ago, and that we still struggle to infuse into ourselves to this day.

The gift of the Cross is an enigma in the sense that it is the greatest gift ever given, and yet is one that is so often refused simply because we cannot find it within ourselves to bear that much love being given to us so unselfishly. Our human inclination defies all logic and natural choice to sometimes refuse this, and yet it is a gift that is always unrelentingly there and will never depart from us right up until the moment we draw our last breath. The love, and the call to draw close to the one who gave all for us on that hill will be waiting for us to draw it in, so that we can be drawn home to our Lord.