If
you wish to walk securely and be certain of your salvation, if you aspire to a
great crown in Heaven that will never fade, love and honor Mary, and strive to
make her known, loved, and honored by others.
-St.
Joseph Cafasso
If you wish to walk securely and be certain of your salvation, if you aspire to a great crown in Heaven that will never fade, love and honor Mary, and strive to make her known, loved, and honored by others.
-St. Joseph Cafasso
Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Lectionary: 302
Reading 1 Acts 28:16-20, 30-31
When he entered Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself,
with the soldier who was guarding him.
Three days later he called together the leaders of the Jews.
When they had gathered he said to them, “My brothers,
although I had done nothing against our people
or our ancestral customs,
I was handed over to the Romans as a prisoner from Jerusalem.
After trying my case the Romans wanted to release me,
because they found nothing against me deserving the death penalty.
But when the Jews objected, I was obliged to appeal to Caesar,
even though I had no accusation to make against my own nation.
This is the reason, then, I have requested to see you
and to speak with you, for it is on account of the hope of Israel
that I wear these chains.”
He remained for two full years in his lodgings.
He received all who came to him, and with complete assurance
and without hindrance he proclaimed the Kingdom of God
and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Responsorial Psalm 11:4, 5 and 7
R. (see 7b) The just will gaze on your face, O Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD is in his holy temple;
the LORD’s throne is in heaven.
His eyes behold,
his searching glance is on mankind.
R. The just will gaze on your face, O Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD searches the just and the wicked;
the lover of violence he hates.
For the LORD is just, he loves just deeds;
the upright shall see his face.
R. The just will gaze on your face, O Lord.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Gospel Acclamation Jn 16:7, 13
Alleluia Alleluia
I will send to you the Spirit of truth, says the Lord;
he will guide you to all truth.
Alleluia
Gospel Jn 21:20-25
Peter turned and saw the disciple following whom Jesus loved,
the one who had also reclined upon his chest during the supper
and had said, “Master, who is the one who will betray you?”
When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about him?”
Jesus said to him, “What if I want him to remain until I come?
What concern is it of yours?
You follow me.”
So the word spread among the brothers that that disciple would not die.
But Jesus had not told him that he would not die,
just “What if I want him to remain until I come?
What concern is it of yours?”
It is this disciple who testifies to these things
and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true.
There are also many other things that Jesus did,
but if these were to be described individually,
I do not think the whole world would contain the books
that would be written.
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Now is the Time to Supercharge Your Faith!
We look to Jesus for the answers. He certainly dealt supernaturally with the plague of his day (leprosy) and he spoke firmly against those in authority who were working against the ways of God.
As Saturday's Gospel reading points out, there is much, much more that Jesus did than what we read about in the Bible -- more miracles, more proof that he loves us, more teachings that help us understand what God wants to do in us and through us. And Jesus knew this would be so. This is why he told us that the Holy Spirit will teach us everything we need to know (see John 14:26).
The problem is: We want everything but we expect less, so we receive less instead of the abundant "more" that God wants to give us. And we see ourselves as less important to the plans of God than others are (such as your priest, that famous speaker you love listening to, or me perhaps), and so we do less than the great works that God wants to do through us -- each of us!
Why are we stuck in this rut of insufficiency? Because Satan and his cohorts have been doing everything they can to disempower the Church. Why? Because we are a huge threat to them. If the Body of Christ on Earth today (you, me, and all who have faith in Christ) were to become fully active in the Holy Spirit and be who we really, truly, are -- little Christs banded together and covering the whole Earth, doing what Jesus did -- it is Satan and all evil-doers who would be disempowered.
Doing great things for God, with Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Spirit is precisely the plan of God. Jesus made that very clear in John 14:12 and many other times.
This is exciting to hear, but do we believe it? We want to conquer evil. We want to be a Spirit-filled Church. We want to be God's instruments of divine power. We see how it happened on a daily basis in the Book of Acts, and we wish it could be like that today. So then, where is the disconnect? Why can't we stop the coronavirus supernaturally? Why is there so much corruption in politics and in the hierarchy of the Church? Why have so many good Christians lost family members to the other side, and why aren't their demons driven away by our prayers?
"Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus as Lord is not from God but is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, however, are from God and have overcome them, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world." (1 John 4:3-4)
With Jesus in us, we should be able to do everything that Jesus did. Everything and more!
"Truly, truly I tell you: Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." (John 14:12)
And then he said, "The Father will give you the Spirit of Truth to help you and be with you forever. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you." (John 14:16-17)
Wow! With the Holy Spirit in us, nothing should be able to stop us from being God's instrument of divine power. Come, Holy Spirit! Come with Your power! Come in Your glory!
This Pentecost -- and beyond -- we need to identify and then replace (with the help of the Holy Spirit) all of the wrong programming that's infiltrated our ideas about the Christian life, all of the weak teachings about Christ that's convinced us to be weak of faith.
Do not conform to the ways of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to know and do God's will -- his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)
We also need to overcome all of the bad assumptions that tell us it's okay to be mediocre because only a few special Saints can do what Jesus did. Before Jesus arrived on the Earth, the Holy Spirit manifested through only a few special holy men. After Jesus died, rose, and ascended to Heaven, he gave the Holy Spirit to everyone -- all those who believe in Jesus as their Savior -- not just a few special people.
Now more than ever we need to repent of cooperating with the idea that we cannot perform miracles. In our world today, more than ever we need to rely on the Holy Spirit to replace our subnormal faith with the manifestations of the Spirit that were normal in the Book of Acts. The Holy Spirit -- the Spirit of Truth -- has truths to teach us so we can be set free to be powerful messengers of Christ bringing disbelievers and non-believers to the Faith.
Are you ready for a new Pentecost? Ask for it! Prepare for it by humbly and remorsefully confessing that we have become an impotent Church. We the Church have been compromising with the ways of the world, acting more like people of the world than the people of the Book of Acts.
Oh Lord Father God, forgive us for being content with our powerlessness! Thank you for all the trials and darkness in our world today, for they are making us dissatisfied with the old status quo of sub-normal faith. Come in Your Glory, Holy Spirit, to super-charge our faith. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen!
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God Bless You.....
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