Happy Mother's Day.
The Gospel describes Jesus as our good shepherd who cares for us as we navigate toward our heavenly dwelling place. This reminds me of Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd” etc.
What a magnificent image as we recognize in our mothers God’s love and care for us in our daily lives. Moms encourage, mentor, teach, and patiently listen. And the most important thing a mother can give a child? Unconditional love! We can never fully measure their love, acceptance, and forgiveness of us.
My mother taught me logic. When I asked why I had to do something, she explained, “Because I said so!” Mom also taught me about justice, saying “Millions of kids are starving so eat your liver; it has plenty of iron!” Sound familiar?
Thank you, mothers, for all you do.
The book of Revelation describes a vision in which a symbolic number of people are glorifying God and enjoying God’s presence. Someone asks, “Who are these people?” The answer: they are the ones who were martyred because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
The passage reminds us to stay true to our faith, to keep our baptismal promises, especially when things are not going “our way.”
The word of God in the Book of Acts takes us back to St. Paul’s first missionary journey through the country we know today as Turkey. The spirit-filled Paul and Barnabas told the Jews the good news: Jesus Christ is gloriously alive.
This outraged some in the synagogue. So Paul and Barnabas went out and proclaimed the Gospel to the Gentiles. And God gifted them with faith in Jesus. They repented, were baptized and focused their lives on God. The author may ask, where is our focus today?
During this Easter season, we have been meeting different biblical personalities: Thomas, the doubter or questioner; Peter, the spontaneous or impulsive disciple. This Sunday, we meet Paul, also known by his Jewish name, Saul. Well-educated in Judaism and Greco-Roman philosophy, he also was a rabid persecutor of Christians.
Suddenly, Paul was struck by an amazing visionary experience of the crucified Jesus, now gloriously alive, on his way to Damascus. That experience turned Paul’s life upside down. He became God’s “chosen instrument” to the non-Jews. This religious genius established Christian faith communities throughout the eastern Mediterranean, authored letters that shaped the history of Christian thought, and eventually was beheaded by order of the emperor Nero.
Yes, Paul and the apostles lived and died for their faith communities. With generations of heroes and heroines before us, our response is gratitude to God for our faith community, which gives purpose to our lives. Here's why:
1. We are a worldwide community of believers: over 1.3 billion people, men and women of all shades of language, race, and color, rich and poor, charismatic and traditional, a diverse family that celebrates the presence of the living Christ, especially in our Eucharist. Jesus Christ, in all his fulness, dwells within this community. The triune God abides in us, and we abide in God.
We are the people of God, heralds of the good news, servants, called to wash the feet of one another. This is an awesome image of the vocation of all of us, the people of God.
One of my favorite images of the Church is a boat. Why? This early Christian image symbolizes all of us. We’re on a journey, with a map, stormy weather, people slipping overboard, survivors being pulled in, mutinies, sometimes off course, attacked. And a boat of course needs a captain. He may not be ideal—too lax, too strict, too single-minded (like Ahab in Melville's Moby Dick)—but if everybody grabs the tiller, we’re all in trouble. Remember, Peter wasn’t ideal for a time, yet what his crew managed to do has lasted two thousand years.
2. We are a community with splendid heroes and heroines. Consider the litany of saints. These men and women lived the beatitudes. They recognized who they were: creatures of an all-mighty Creator. They sought God in their daily lives, forgave wrongs, were peacemakers, bridge-builders. Yes, they always tried to do the right thing. They challenge us to live the beatitudes.
3. We are moved to serve the basic needs of the poor. I paraphrase a hymn: Christ has no hands but our hands to do his work today. He has no feet but our feet to lead people to Him, who is the way, the truth and the life. He has no voice but our voice to tell people that He is gloriously alive. Yes, we belong to the mystical body of Christ attempting to meet the needs of people, especially the poor.
Alas we are a community made up of saints and sinners. Some people behave scandalously. But we have to live as best we can, serve others, and stay true to Jesus Christ, gloriously alive.
The word of God, especially in the Book of Acts, prompts us to thank God for a community that calls us to be in relationship with God forever. For that is our ultimate purpose of life—to abide with God and God with us forever. Amen.
