O
Mother of God! If I place my confidence in thee, I shall be saved; if I am
under thy protection, I have nothing to fear; for the fact of being thy client
is a possession of a certainty of salvation which God grants only to those whom
He intends to save.
-St.
John Damascene
O
Mother of God! If I place my confidence in thee, I shall be saved; if I am
under thy protection, I have nothing to fear; for the fact of being thy client
is a possession of a certainty of salvation which God grants only to those whom
He intends to save.
-St. John Damascene
May 18, 2021
Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Lectionary: 298
Reading 1
From Miletus Paul had the presbyters
of the Church at Ephesus summoned.
When they came to him, he addressed them,
“You know how I lived among you
the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia.
I served the Lord with all humility
and with the tears and trials that came to me
because of the plots of the Jews,
and I did not at all shrink from telling you
what was for your benefit,
or from teaching you in public or in your homes.
I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks
to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus.
But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.
What will happen to me there I do not know,
except that in one city after another
the Holy Spirit has been warning me
that imprisonment and hardships await me.
Yet I consider life of no importance to me,
if only I may finish my course
and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,
to bear witness to the Gospel of God’s grace.
“But now I know that none of you
to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels
will ever see my face again.
And so I solemnly declare to you this day
that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,
for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God.”
Responsorial Psalm
R. (33a) Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your inheritance;
you restored the land when it languished;
Your flock settled in it;
in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.
R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed day by day be the Lord,
who bears our burdens; God, who is our salvation.
God is a saving God for us;
the LORD, my Lord, controls the passageways of death.
R. Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R. Alleluia.
Gospel Acclamation
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I will ask the Father
and he will give you another Advocate
to be with you always.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
“Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.
“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”
******************************
Finishing the Work Despite Hardships
If we could foresee the hardships that lay ahead of us on our paths of service in the kingdom of God, we'd come up with good excuses not to do it. (Hey, we do that already, just by imagining possible hardships! No wonder there are so many of us who do so little ministry or volunteer services or fighting against injustices.)
As we see in our first reading, St. Paul knew that going to Jerusalem would mean "chains and hardships." So why did he go? Wouldn't he be just as useful to the Lord if he stayed where he was accepted and appreciated?
Back in 1996, during prayer as I was praising God for the Good News Evangelization School that we were holding in my parish, I felt God ask me, "Are you willing to suffer to become a better minister for my kingdom?" I wrestled with him over that question until he reminded me: "I'm safe. Trust me." And thus began a series of chains and hardships that have not yet ended. And I am very grateful for them all, thanks be to the Holy Spirit for continually helping me learn from them and by sharing what I've learned.
St. Paul trusted God, even while he knew that he was not safe from those who would imprison him and eventually kill him for preaching the truth. What makes a person willing to say yes to God's calling when it's a certainty that it won't always be easy and fun, when being safe in God does not mean being safe from persecution and hardships?
Paul answered this question. He said, "I put no value on my life. I only value finishing the service that the Lord Jesus has assigned to me." Jesus also answered it in John 17:1-11: "I have given you glory, Father, by accomplishing the work you gave me to do."
Which matters more: your life (your comfort, your security, your freedom from problems) or God's work, which he gave you to accomplish and which no one else can do the way you can do it? -- work that you were specifically designed to do, work that will be more fulfilling than any other activities.
We all have our assignments. You are in the middle of a very important one right now. Recognize the worth of what you're doing; notice how it glorifies God, how it makes a difference for his kingdom. If you don't see the difference yet, well, notice the difference it's made in you as it's helped to shape you more into the image of Christ. Realize the value of your hardships: how they're increasing your holiness, your compassion, and your ability to help others.
My sufferings, as distressing as they have been sometimes, have greatly enhanced the ministry I do now. They account for many of the insights that I share with you in these daily Good News Reflections.
Don't focus on the hardships; keep your eyes on the goal -- the finish line, heaven -- and on the Lord for whom you're doing this. If we quit, we forfeit our souls to the world, where we are not safe at all. Only in God are we truly safe. He kisses our nail wounds and raises us above the trials into his warm embrace and cozy lap, where we are always safely loved.
Today's Prayer
My Lord, Let me have an experience of Your love for me, so powerfully that nobody and nothing can take that experience away from me. Amen.
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God Bless You.....
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