May 3, 2010
Feast of Saints Phillip and James, Apostles
Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7
Piety (The Way)
Father, help us to know you and the truth revealed through the life of your only Son our Lord Jesus Christ. But send the Holy Spirit to give us the strength we need to put that truth into action as we meet the challenge to love one another – including our enemies – as Jesus challenged his followers. Amen.
Study (The Truth)
Sometimes, the Magisterium must want to know if we are truly paying attention. As I read the Gospel for today, it seemed eerily familiar. Had not we reflected on this passage recently? How long ago was it? You only had to go back two days to read and hear nearly the same passage in Saturday’s Mass.
Despite the temptation to just reprint what I thought two days ago – after all, it is a beautiful Sunday and I had a lot to do today – I resisted plagiarizing myself and looked to see what the difference was in the reading. There is was, right at the very top. As the universal Church commemorates the Feast of Saints Phillip and James, the nuance in today’s Gospel is the opening quote from Jesus which further illuminates His relationship to the Father and to us.
Jesus is the way we get to know the Master. Even though he has not walked among us for 2010 years, through sacred scriptures, the traditions of the Church, through the Holy Spirit and through the love of each other, we come to know Jesus and therefore we also come to know God.
Piety is our unique way of communicating with God through our public and private prayer life.
Study reveals the truth about God as we encounter Him on the pages of the Bible, as we engage in Lectio Divina, and as we learn from commentaries and other writers more about the meaning of sacred scriptures.
Action is how we live our Life. As we learned in the readings from the Fifth Sunday after Easter, Action equals Love. Love is how people know we are Christian. “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35
Action (The Life)
How will you live out today’s Gospel? Do you daily engage in one of the Spiritual or Corporal Works of Mercy? How else can we show that we love one another? Society throws many such challenges at us every day.
Last week, Bishop John C. Wester of Salt Lake City, who heads the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Migration, spoke out in solidarity with the bishops of Arizona, against the new immigration law in that state. He said: “This new law, although limited to the State of Arizona, could have impact throughout the nation, in terms of how members of our immigrant communities are both perceived and treated. SB 1070 gives law enforcement officials powers to detain and arrest individuals based on a very low legal standard, possibly leading to the profiling of individuals based upon their appearance, manner of speaking, or ethnicity.”
Bishop Wester called SB 1070 “symptomatic of the absence of federal leadership on the issue of immigration” and called for “the Administration and Congress to work in a bipartisan manner to enact comprehensive immigration reform as soon as possible.”
Just days later, Bishop Wester, commenting on the immigration reform framework issued by Congress, called the move an important first step. On behalf of the USCCB, he added, that the bishops “stand ready to work with the Administration and our federal elected officials of both parties to address these concerns and to improve the legislation in all areas. We call for a robust but civil debate. This issue can no longer wait and should not be politicized or held hostage to ideology. Our immigration system is badly broken and is in need of immediate repair.”
Let your voice join those of other Catholics in calling for us to love one another and express that love of everyone, including the stranger/alien/immigrant through comprehensive reform of our immigration laws.
