Saturday of the Third Week of Easter
Peter sent them all out and knelt down and prayed. Then he turned to her body and said, "Tabitha, rise up." She opened her eyes, saw Peter, and sat up. He gave her his hand and raised her up, and when he had called the holy ones and the widows, he presented her alive. This became known all over Joppa, and many came to believe in the Lord. Acts 9:40-42
It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. John 6:63
Dear Lord, come to me in my hour of need and heal me. Give me the strength and determination to accept the mission to spread your Good News throughout the world. Welcome into your Kingdom our departed brothers and sisters. Command the rest of us to “Rise up” for you and go out into the world and profess your Holy Name in our words and through our works. Amen.
http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/041208.shtml
All week long, we have seen God reach out to people on the road, in whatever condition they were found. God met them where they were and helped them move forward from there.
Peter plays two roles in our readings today. First, he shows the Lord his commitment and belief in the Gospel reading from John. Then, the implications of that belief are played out in the reading from the Acts of the Apostles.
Today, God sends his obedient and believing servant Peter to meet the people of Lydda and Joppa. Aeneas was crippled and he was healed. Tabitha (Dorcas) was dead and she was brought back to life. Then Peter stayed with Simon, a tanner, in Joppa. These were ordinary people, living ordinary lives. They were not kings or generals or millionaires or bishops or even Popes. God went to these ordinary people where they were and helped to open their eyes and ears to his message.
Where are you today? Are you lying on your death bed like our brother George Washko? Are you in a hospital? Are you heading in to work? Or maybe you will be heading to a grocery store or shopping mall to take care of things your family needs. Look around you. God is coming to meet you. You don’t have to be on the road to Emmaus, or Gaza or Damascus. God knows the roads to Alexandria, and Fairfax and Herndon and McLean, too. He knows every sub-division and development and cul-de-sac and stovepipe. Once God meets up with you, he has a few questions to ask and then he will send you out to also carry forth his Spirit to others like he asked Peter.
Jesus has gone beyond the tangible body to the Spirit. He has passed along his mission to the Spirit so the mission of the church can go beyond the reach of one man and his two feet marching the dusty roads of the Holy Land two thousand years ago. The Spirit can go places that the flesh can only dream of reaching.
When the Spirit reaches us, what will be our reaction? Will we stay around and believe or will we leave with the others?
Like Simon Peter, we will be given the choice to leave. If we don’t walk out on the Lord, we may find ourselves, like people, commissioned to pick up where the Lord left off…bringing the Spirit to Joppa or Lydda or Danville or Norfolk.
We must carry the Spirit in our lives. And one of the biggest tasks that we face in our public lives is to vote for a new leader for our nation in the coming months. The Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns has just published a thought provoking study guide for the upcoming U.S. 2008 Election. “Loving Our Neighbor in a Shrinking World” provides us some background on how our faith challenges us on the issues that will determine how we will vote in the coming months.
How will our belief affect how we act? The Maryknoll guide presents some thought provoking examples and questions you may want to pose to the candidates and campaigns of your choice.
Take some time to look it over and pray over the issues it raises.
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