Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

This is a fairly late feast, going back only to the 13th or 14th century. It was established widely throughout the Church to pray for unity. The present date of celebration was set in 1969 in order to follow the Annunciation of the Lord (March 25) and precede the Birthday of John the Baptist (June 24).

Like most feasts of Mary, it is closely connected with Jesus and his saving work. The more visible actors in the visitation drama (see Luke 1:39-45) are Mary and Elizabeth. However, Jesus and John the Baptist steal the scene in a hidden way. Jesus makes John leap with joy—the joy of messianic salvation. Elizabeth, in turn, is filled with the Holy Spirit and addresses words of praise to Mary—words that echo down through the ages.

It is helpful to recall that we do not have a journalist’s account of this meeting. Rather, Luke, speaking for the Church, gives a prayerful poet’s rendition of the scene. Elizabeth’s praise of Mary as “the mother of my Lord” can be viewed as the earliest Church’s devotion to Mary. As with all authentic devotion to Mary, Elizabeth’s (the Church’s) words first praise God for what God has done to Mary. Only secondly does she praise Mary for trusting God’s words.

Then comes the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). Here Mary herself (like the Church) traces all her greatness to God.

Comment:

One of the invocations in Mary’s litany is “Ark of the Covenant.” Like the Ark of the Covenant of old, Mary brings God’s presence into the lives of other people. As David danced before the Ark, John the Baptist leaps for joy. As the Ark helped to unite the 12 tribes of Israel by being placed in David’s capital, so Mary has the power to unite all Christians in her Son. At times, devotion to Mary may have occasioned some divisiveness, but we can hope that authentic devotion will lead all to Christ and therefore to one another.

Quote:

“Moved by charity, therefore, Mary goes to the house of her kinswoman.... While every word of Elizabeth’s is filled with meaning, her final words would seem to have a fundamental importance: ‘And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her from the Lord’ (Luke 1:45). These words can be linked with the title ‘full of grace’ of the angel’s greeting. Both of these texts reveal an essential Mariological content, namely the truth about Mary, who has become really present in the mystery of Christ precisely because she ‘has believed.’ The fullness of grace announced by the angel means the gift of God himself. Mary’s faith, proclaimed by Elizabeth at the visitation, indicates how the Virgin of Nazareth responded to this gift” (Pope John Paul II, The Mother of the Redeemer, 12).

Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (A)

Dt 8:2-3, 14b-16a
Ps 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
1 Cor 10:16-17
Jn 6:51-58

This Sunday we celebrate the Sacrament of the Eucharist and why we believe it is truly and physically the presence of Jesus.

We're reminded in the first reading that God our Father always provides the food and drink that we need for survival in the desert days of life's hardships. What he did for the Israelites, he does for us today in whatever ways we experience hot trials and dry faith. He provides what we need by giving us the True Presence of Christ, who comes to us not only in the Eucharist but also in his Holy Spirit, who lives within us because of our baptisms, to guide us and nourish our spiritual growth.

The Gospel passage tells us that the Eucharistic food and drink are truly Jesus himself, not a mere symbol of his love. Oh-my oh-my, how we need THIS food and drink to survive the serpents and scorpions and the parched and waterless ground of our desert experiences! Jesus literally fills us and quenches our thirsts. As we consume him, he consumes us. As we draw him into us, he draws us into himself. In this unity, we walk through our trials with all that we need for success.

The second reading tells us that the Eucharist increases our unity with Christ and with Christ's body on earth, the church community, through which he provides the various resources that we need. In this unity — when it's activated as it should be — no one lacks anything good because all necessary goods are shared. And ultimately in this unity, as Jesus said in the Gospel, we're assured of eternal life in heaven, where all needs are met perfectly and completely.

Questions for Personal Reflection:

What are the "serpents and scorpions" in your life right now? In what ways do you feel parched, thirsty to the point of desperation? During Mass, imagine that you're walking through a desert to receive from Jesus what you need. How does it feel to approach Jesus this way?

Questions for Community Faith Sharing:

How has the Eucharist helped you through a difficult time? Why did it make a difference? I kiss the Host before placing it in my mouth; what do you do that helps make the presence of Christ in the Eucharist more real for your needs?

****************************

Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman with the "Sunday Soundbite" for the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ.

As a friar, I've had the privilege to go on pilgrimage. Traveling to a holy place with other pilgrims is an experience of getting to know God, self and others.

An important part of pilgrimage, believe it or not, is the food. You may smile, wondering what pilgrimage meals have to do with spirituality. Well, I enjoyed some of my best spiritual experiences around the table with my fellow pilgrims. The meals on pilgrimage in Assisi, Italy, were, of course, wonderful! But my memory of those meals always includes the wonderful people with whom I shared the food. It nourished both body and spirit.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, and our first reading takes us into the desert, as God's people are completing their pilgrimage to the Promised Land. Moses recalls for them how they depended for forty years on the food God provided. They survived as free people, liberated from slavery, thanks to the manna in the desert, and the other food from God.

In the Gospel, Jesus tells the crowds that he himself will be true food and drink for them—a food that will surpass the manna in the desert. Jesus, the living bread, will give them eternal life. It is the ultimate pilgrimage meal, and we share it each Sunday at Eucharist.

Scripture:

•…who guided you through the vast and terrible desert with its seraph serpents and scorpions, its parched and waterless ground; who brought forth water for you from the flinty rock and fed you in the desert with manna, (Deuteronomy 8:15,16)

•…with the best of wheat he fills you. (Psalm 147:14)

•The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? (1 Corinthians 10:16)

•…unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. (John 6:53)

•For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. (John 6:55)

Reflection:

•Have you journeyed through the desert of hard times or spiritual despair? Was God with you? Was a community with you?

•Do you journey alone or with a community?

•Is your community limited to those who are living now?

•Will you starve without the Lord’s presence in the Eucharist?

•Is the Eucharist an individual or community celebration?

We tend to think of individual human beings as unconnected until they choose to become connected either because it is useful or because of some natural attraction. But there is an important biblical alternative to this interpretation, in many ways countercultural. We are all children of the same God, with the same earth as our common home. We are inter-related and interdependent. We have no choice about whether we live in relationships. Our only choices are whether we tell the truth about our social existence and whether we live in ways that redeem the relational web that is always and forever the matrix of our becoming.

It (Body of Christ) is a way of being in the world with one another and with Christ because of who God is. The body of Jesus in life, the Body of Christ in the Easter event, the Body of Christ who we are, the Body of Christ in the Eucharist, and the Body of Christ that we become more fully in the resurrection of the body—all these belong together in Body’s (of Christ) total meaning.

Most Holy Trinity (A)

Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9
Dn 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
2 Cor 13:11-13
Jn 3:16-18

On the first Sunday after Pentecost, we celebrate and honor God's character as the Most Holy Trinity.

The first reading shows us the Father, as he parented the baby nation of Israel. We see that he is "a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and faithfulness" — the Perfect Father. If we have difficulty seeing him this way, our spirits need healing. We have to mentally differentiate him from our human dads and other authority figures who've imperfectly modeled God.

The second reading shows us the entire Trinity: the grace of Jesus, the love of the Father, and our friendly partnership with the Holy Spirit. In this and because of this, we are to rejoice, mend our ways, and live in peace with one another.

In other words, because Jesus bore our sins as he died on the cross and then conquered death, he provides us with grace so that we can resist sin, and he provides us with the Father's love so that we can love one another no matter what, and he provides us with the Holy Spirit, who fellowships with us and empowers us so that we can continually live as holy Christians.

The Gospel reading shows us the depth of the Father's love. He doesn't condemn us for our sins; he gives us his Son to rescue us from condemnation. Our sins condemn us and sentence us to eternal death, but Jesus saves us from this by taking us to eternal life — IF we want him to!

Questions for Personal Reflection:

Which Person of the Trinity do you know the least? Or feel distant from? Or fear? How have human relationships interfered with feeling God's closeness?

Questions for Community Faith Sharing:

Which Person of the Trinity do you feel you know the best? Why? How is the Trinity the perfect example of a good, loving, healthy relationship?

*************************

Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman with the "Sunday Soundbite" for Trinity Sunday.

As a friar, it sometimes happens that when I've planned a trip by car that another member of my community asks to ride along. I confess it makes me stop and think: Do I want to spend hours in the car with that person? Traveling with another person means forming a relationship or building on one.

In today's first reading, Moses asks God to "come along in our company," to travel with the Israelites to the Promised Land. Moses admits they are "stiff-necked"—perhaps not the best traveling companions.

But in reality, it's God who's invited Israel on this trip. And God will supply what's needed to get them to their destination. Their relationship with God will be life-giving.

Today on Trinity Sunday, we celebrate a divine relationship—Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three divine persons, one God. Understanding how that relationship works may be more than we can comprehend. But understanding what that relationship means is essential.

Through the Trinity we have strength to live in relationship to one another. As today's second reading says: We're to encourage one another and live in peace—and the God of love and peace will, in effect, "come along in our company." Such a relationship is God's plan for us.

The Gospel tells us that in what is perhaps the New Testament's most famous quote, John 3:16—God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.

Scripture:

•“The LORD, the LORD, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.” (Exodus 34:6)

•Blessed are you who look into the depths. (Daniel 3:55)

•The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you. (2 Corinthians 13:13)

•God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Reflection:

•In your life who has always treated you with kindness and faithfulness?

•If you were able to look past the superficiality that is the world and peer into the depth that is your being what would you find residing in that place?

•What is the only way out of the inherent conflict that is the world? How did you find this way?

When I consent to the will and mercy of God as it comes to me in the events of life appealing to my inner self and awakening my faith, I break through the superficial exterior appearances that forms my routine vision of the world and my own self, and I find myself in the presence of hidden majesty. It may appear to me that this majesty and presence is something objective, “outside myself.”…Yet this is a majesty that we do not see with our eyes and it is within ourselves. It is the mission of the Word and Spirit, from the Father, in the depths of my own being. It is a majesty communicated to us, shared with us, so that our whole being is filled with the gift of glory and responds with adoration.

Pentecost (A)

Acts 2:1-11
Ps 104:1, 24, 29-30, 31, 34
1 Cor 12:3b-7, 12-13
Jn 20:19-23

"Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth." This is our prayer in the responsorial Psalm for Pentecost. It's the reason the Church can exist and continues to exist. We live in the age of the Holy Spirit. Without the power and presence of the Spirit of Christ, Christianity would have been unable to change the world and sustain itself for 2000 years. Without the Spirit of Christ, we Christians would be unable to do what Christ did.

Pentecost Sunday re-lives the birthday of the Church, and as it does, it also re-lives our spiritual birthdays, i.e., our initiations as members of the Church. It's a community-wide celebration of the impact that our baptisms have had on our lives and it's a reaffirmation of the Sacrament of Confirmation when the bishop confirmed that we truly received the Holy Spirit during our baptism.

Pentecost reminds us that through these sacraments we received God's power and presence so that we can overcome sin, live in holiness, and change the world around us.

How does God "renew the face of the earth"? Through us! First, God the Father gave the Holy Spirit to Jesus so that he could successfully fulfill his calling on earth. Now, the Father has given his Spirit to us, so that we can continue the work of renewal that Jesus began.

If you feel inadequate for any holy task or any righting of a wrong or any victory over sin and unhealthiness, you're correct: You are inadequate. But the Spirit of God who dwells in you is more than adequate. Proceed forward trusting in this partnership!

Questions for Personal Reflection:

Are you making a difference on the earth because of the Holy Spirit living in you and working through you? What is the Holy Spirit doing — or wanting to do — through you? Make a list answering this, beginning with your home life, then your job, then your parish, then your recreational activities, in that order of priority.

Questions for Community Faith Sharing:

How did you first discover that the Holy Spirit was making a difference in the lives of others through you? Describe a recent time when God partnered with you. How do feel about the Spirit renewing the world through you? What are your hopes and dreams for this?

*************************

Shortly after Easter one year, a woman in a parish who had been received into the Church at the Easter Vigil shared that how welcomed she felt in the Catholic family. The sense of openness and tolerance she experienced was especially important to her.

It’s a characteristic of Catholicism to see God’s goodness in all of creation, in various human endeavors, and in the cultures and histories of human beings wherever the gospel is preached. While we haven’t always lived up to that ideal, it was happy that the new parishioner experienced something of that spirit.

That universal dimension is also one of the themes of Pentecost. The dramatic story of the descent of the Holy Spirit tells us how the Holy Spirit can break down walls we may put up between peoples, races, cultures. What we see as obstacles, the Spirit can use to create a new unity, a reversal of the Babel story in Genesis, when people let human arrogance lead to disunity, as one human language fractured into many different tongues.

Today, across our world, a myriad of voices, different languages, and many cultural expressions will celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit. Let’s join our voices with that Pentecost chorus.

Scripture:

•And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit… (Acts 2:4)

•When you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth. (Psalm 104:30)

•For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)

•Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” (John 20:19)

•And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” (John 20:22)

Reflection:

•Describe “filled with the Holy Spirit.”

•Explain “in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body.”

•What is John saying when he writes, “he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’”?

The problem of forming Christ in us is not to be solved by our own efforts. It is not a matter of studying the Gospels and then working to put our ideas into practice, although we should try and do that too, but always under the guidance of grace, in complete subjection to the Holy Spirit.

For if we depend on our own ideas, our own judgment and our own efforts to reproduce the life of Christ, we will only act out some pious charade which will ultimately scare everybody we meet because it will be so stiff and artificial and so dead.

It is the Spirit of God that must teach us Who Christ is and form Christ in us and transform us into other Christs.

Seventh Sunday of Easter (A)

Acts 1:12-14
Ps 27:1, 4, 7-8 or Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9
1 Pt 4:13-16
Jn 17:1-11a

All the readings for this Sunday's Mass can be best enjoyed, understood and summed up by the message we proclaim in the responsorial Psalm. This should be a favorite scripture that we post at our desks or on our mirrors or anywhere we'll see it often, because it has the power to uplift us when we're experiencing the darkest of times and the most hopeless of situations: "I believe that I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living!" Oh yeah, alleluia!

Repeatedly, God used it to reaffirm that we can trust in his promises. It was going to be a long, painful time before the good things of the Lord that we were praying for would finally come to pass, and not all if it has come to full fruition yet, but this scripture kept our faith intact.

The Gospel reading shows us that Jesus recognized the good things of his Father in the land of the living. Notice how he appreciated the trust that his followers had placed in him. Isn't it delightful when the people we care about believe us and accept everything that we give to them as we offer them our faith!

And when they don't? That's when we turn to Jesus and give to him the love that they've rejected. We accept his words, as revealed in scripture, understanding that he came from the Father, and thus we gain trust in the Father's plan. Jesus is praying for you. Eventually, you WILL INDEED see the good things of the Lord in the land of living!

Questions for Personal Reflection:

What are the good things of the Lord that you're waiting for? How do you feel about the wait? How strong is your trust in God's perfect timing? What is God asking YOU to do so that you will become more available to his blessings?

Questions for Group Faith Sharing:

Think of a time when you had to wait on God. What gave you hope? Which one of next Sunday's readings can you most closely identify with?

- Waiting in the Upper Room to receive the Holy Spirit, not knowing what will happen next (first reading).

- Sharing in the sufferings of Christ (second reading).

- Working hard in a job or ministry and trusting the Father for its outcome (Gospel reading).

****************************

How often do we promise to pray for someone we care about? Did you know there’s a special prayer for each of us, prayed by Christ himself?

Today we read from John’s Gospel from what known as the “Last Discourse.” At the Last Supper, Jesus speaks to his disciples about his coming absence. Scripture scholar Raymond Brown tells us that Christ’s words, addressed to his intimate circle of followers, can also be understood as the Risen Jesus speaking from heaven to all those who will follow after him.

Today’s selection, near the end of the Discourse, is a prayer of Jesus, addressed to the Father. It sums up Christ’s work on earth. He’s revealed God to the disciples and they’ve entered into a relationship with God, in and through Jesus. Now, he prays for those who will remain “in the world,” after he has returned to the Father.

We’re the subjects of this prayer as much as the original disciples were. We remain “in the world.” We need support and affirmation to continue living out the word entrusted to us by Christ.

Elsewhere, the Lord assures us that the Spirit is his gift to us, providing the support we need. We pray for that gift as we approach next week’s Feast of Pentecost.

Scripture:

•After Jesus had been taken up to heaven the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. (Acts 1:12)

•Of you my heart speaks; you my glance seeks. (Psalm 27:8)

•If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. (1 Peter 4:14)

•Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. (John 17:3)

Reflection:

•How do you know Jesus the Son of God and how do you know God?

•What does your heart speak? Where does your glance seek?

•Is there any other way to be blessed by God except to be insulted in the name of Jesus Christ?

•How far can you travel on a Sabbath day’s journey? (Hint: How far do you travel when you receive the Eucharist and where do you arrive?)

The man who communicates loses himself in God like a drop of water in the ocean; it’s impossible to separate them anymore…. In these vast depths of love, there’s enough to lose yourself for eternity.