Crybaby

After Lily was put to bed tonight, I turned the TV as usual to EWTN to watch the Mass.  Tonight’s Mass also included the ordination of two of the Brothers to the permanent diaconate.  Things were going along swimmingly until I watched the bishop as he laid his hands on the young men.  It sounds crazy, but it was as though I saw the Holy Spirit descend upon them!  Then I lost it.  I don’t know what came over me.  I cried with the same tears I cried when I got married and when my children were born.  They were the same tears I cried when my children and Godchildren were baptized.  The same tears of pride as when I witnessed the accomplishments of my children.  Why?  I don’t know these men!  I don’t know anything about them, other than that they have been under the direction of the priests at EWTN, and that they have committed their lives to the service of others for the glory of God!

Prayer for the day

“Thank you, Father, for letting me see and hear what many prophets and saints longed for. Thank you, Jesus, for revealing God’s face of love. Come, Holy Spirit, and bring me to a deeper and deeper knowledge of you.”

Reflection

As Scripture says, "To those who love God, all things work together for good."  In Acts 6:1-7, we are told about an incident that could have been a serious division in the early Christian community but actually did become the cause for an important development in its growth.

There were two languages spoken by the new followers of Christ. Those called Hebrews by St. Luke spoke Hebrew and Aramaic, while those called Hellenists in this passage spoke Greek and often followed Greek cultural practices. Tensions were bound to arise since each group had different ways of thinking and acting.
All this came to the boiling point when the Hellenists felt discriminated against in the care given their widows. Very wisely, the Twelve decided to formally establish a new ministry of "table servers" (later known as deacons), so that they could devote themselves entirely to prayer and preaching. They imposed hands on seven men of outstanding reputation (Recall that Stephen, the patron saint of this blog, was one of those chosen). Actually, when the Holy Spirit came upon them, they did much more than wait on tables. In this way, God used a crisis in charity to further the effectiveness of the Church in spreading the word.

"What goes around comes around!"  This crisis in the early Church is similar to the crisis facing the Church of our day. Because of the shortage of priests, the role of deacons and commissioned lay ministers is emerging as an ever more integral part of the Church of the 21st century.  It is why I take my role as a Eucharistic Minister to the hospitalized and home-bound so seriously. 

 The Holy Spirit is urgently calling more and more faithful Catholics to assume a new level of leadership in the life of their local parishes. In conjunction with the beatification of Pope John Paul II, there are signs of a "second spring," a new flowering of faith and works within a restructuring of both liturgical and community life under the authority of the "Rock of Peter”.   Praise God!

The first Letter of St. Peter (1 Peter 2:4-9) uses the image of "stone" or "rock."  Peter, referring to Isaiah's prophecy, tells us that God the Father long ago had established His son, Jesus, as the "cornerstone, chosen and precious."

 Peter, with warm and welcoming tone, urges us to come with hope and trust to the living stone of salvation, and there to become ourselves a holy temple. Of course, there's a price to pay. Through our own sufferings, we offer sacrifice and praise to the Father along with the Son. We do this through our baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Just as many have rejected this rock of salvation to their own condemnation, so too, if we attempt to bypass Christ, we will ourselves stumble and fall. Peter quotes Isaiah as his authority for referring to Christ as a stumbling block to those who reject Him.  All this will become clear on the (real) Day of Judgment.

The Gospel of John (John 14:1-12) contains the farewell address of Jesus to His apostles at the Last Supper. Here, He tells them not to be afraid, for after much trial, the kingdom with its many dwelling places will be theirs.  A good teacher loves students who ask a lot of questions.  We're forever indebted to Thomas who complains to Jesus that he doesn't know the way to the kingdom. In answer, Jesus gives us one of His most quotable quotes: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me."

We could spend a lifetime exhausting the meaning of that sentence.  It's "Christology" in a nutshell.  It means that we'll never walk alone, that God will guide and protect us against evil on the journey, that we'll always be able to know the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, and that, best of all, if we are faithful to the end, we will live life to the fullest.