Category: 1 Corinthians

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Pentecost Sunday

The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost draws a connection with the events of the Old Covenant.  Fifty days after the Passover lamb was sacrificed, Moses received the Law of God on Mt. Sinai.  Fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection, the New Law is given: the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit Himself is able to direct the lives of the baptized – the eyes of our heart are trained to fix themselves upon Him by our own acts of faith, hope and love.

This Spirit is none other than the Spirit of Jesus.  He is Jesus’ lasting gift to us, enabling us to be with Him forever – and already in this age.   This lasting gift takes the form of deep peace: burning away all anxiety and fear.  The worst fear we have to face is of the judgment beyond death.  The Spirit of God, a Spirit of forgiveness and peace brings us safely through that judgment and sets us on a mission to bring the grace of forgiveness to the world.  Jesus is the Word of peace, of forgiveness – the Word of the Father.  This Word abides in us and inspires us in the person of the Spirit.  The Spirit is the Witness, the Spirit unites us to the joy of God, the peace of eternal glory and victory. read more

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Saturday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

When worldliness becomes a scandalous gaping wound in the Body of Christ, let us not forget that persecutions condemning the mystery of the Church will inevitably accompany it.  When wrongs have been committed by leaders of the Church, we may be tempted to lower our hands in disappointment, disgust, discouragement, and sadness.  It is important to perceive with the eyes of faith that not only are the guilty being condemned by the scandal that they caused, but the innocent one – Jesus – whose Body we are, is also being persecuted.  Faith leads us forward in our attachment to Christ and to one another, recognizing the part that belongs to scandal and the part that belongs to persecution. read more

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Tuesday of the Twenty-Fourth Week in Ordinary Time

The Lord’s command, “Do not weep,” certainly seems frustrating – as though there were a more obvious appropriate response.  In the past healings we’ve seen in Luke’s Gospel, some kind of request was made – Jesus was asked to heal.  In today’s Gospel, we see that the tears of a mother weeping over the death of her only son is stronger and more pertinent than the various forms of intercession.  Jesus does not wait for her to ask something of Him: her tears and her devastation are enough to move Him.  God does not remain unmoved by our suffering or grief until we make some kind of effort to pray.  The Word became flesh so that flesh itself might become instrumental in our healing and our relationship with God.  The young man is brought back to life in the flesh at the mere touch of Jesus.  That contact, that physical gesture, brought the full power of the Word of Life to bear on the flesh of the dead. read more