On Account of My Name

May 16, 2009

Saturday of the Fifth Week of Easter

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." When he had seen the vision, we sought passage to Macedonia at once, concluding that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. Acts 16:9-10

Remember the word I spoke to you, 'No slave is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. John 15:20-21

Piety

We pray for our young adults, away at school, in the military, or out in the world on their own. May the Lord be at their side during their times of doubt and stress. For this we pray to the Lord. Lord, hear our prayer. (Thank you, John Germaine for your weekly witness to these needs.)

Study

Communion with Jesus takes many forms. Sometimes that form is joyous when we are at Mass and are able to fully participate in Liturgy of the Word and Liturgy of the Eucharist. But Jesus never promised us everything would go smoothly. In fact, he promised it would not. Yet that is another way we share Total Communion with the life of Jesus.

We can take some further inspiration from the lives of the apostles. The disciples experienced their rights of passage…sometimes working successfully to spread the Good News and other times being blocked.

If our life did not have its ups and downs, then our life would be greater than the Lord’s. He had all of his friends run away. He faced trial without an Advocate. He experienced humiliating execution. Yet he also experienced Resurrection. Our ups may not include Resurrection, but our downs may never go as low as those Jesus lived.

Action

With Spring upon us, we are celebrating the rights of passage for many of our children who are graduating from high school, college and beyond. We also are in the middle of First Communion season and Confirmation in our parishes.

Rights of passage are not reserved for one season. We fill the Spring with many of these rituals because they are signs of new life and new chapters of life. However, all such stages are not necessarily joyous occasions. What passages are you experiencing this year? A new job? A lost job? Overcoming illness? Fighting off a newly diagnosed disease? Loss of a loved one?

Turn to the Lord for strength during your times of stress as well as during your times of joy.