10 - 15 MAY 2021, HOLY MASS REFLECTION
10 MAY 2021: ACTS 16. 11-15; JOHN 15. 26 - 16. 4 (Damien the Leper)
Focus: Mission is all a matter of opening up space: opening of a heart to the grace of God. When there is an interior space, there is an exterior territory called mission
Mission is an interaction and interplay between grace and space. When the human heart creates space for God's grace, there is an expansion of mission space. This is what we recurrently see in the Acts of the Apostles. In today's Acts text, the Lord opens Lydia's heart and she makes space for God's word and the gift of faith. Consequently, space is made for a new mission for Paul and company as she offers to stay at her home.
Such an opening and receiving is made possible only when there is an opening to the Spirit. It is not the spirit of the world that resents and resists God and His work. The spirit of the world is so false and pretentious. It sacralizes and legitimizes as religious and just duties, even the affliction and killing of the true followers. This is what the Lord forewarns: indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. This is because it does not know God. The world may abound in its mundane knowledge but it totally falls short of divine knowledge and spiritual illumination. But the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, Spirit of Jesus. He proceeds from the Father. He is sent from Him. He will testify to Jesus and continues the same mission of witness.
The same mission of witness is entrusted to every follower of Christ. For sure, it is beset with struggles and adversities. But they shall not fall away, because the Lord accompanies them through the light and the power of the Spirit. All that is needed is to open our hearts as Lydia did and to persevere as the apostles did.
This was the same Spirit that filled and geared St Damien from Belgium to commit himself selflessly and fearlessly for 16 years to the care of the lepers in Molokai in Hawaii, and to die eventually of leprosy. Passion and dedication mark this great saint whom we commemorate today.
Direction: God's work and good work is a mission that never stops or finishes with certain persons or situations. What matters the most is that the Spirit of God continues it perpetually
11 MAY 2021: ACTS 16. 22-34; JOHN 16. 5-11
Focus: Those who stand for God will never fall away from His way nor will they fall down before the worldly powers
In the continued first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, today there is a touching narration of the details of the apostles’ painful fate: attacked, garments torn, beaten with rods, many blows inflicted upon and then thrown into prison. What follows then is dramatic. The story of the imprisonment of Paul and Peter, their miraculous release off the chains by the angel, their honesty in not escaping from the prison, their concern for the jailer so that he will not get incriminated at their escape, the consequent conversion of the jailer and his entire household - this is all a vivid and convincing testimony of the powerful working of the Holy Spirit.
Humanly speaking, this is all just incredible and impossible. But for God, nothing is impossible. As promised by the Lord, the Spirit continues to accompany the Apostles and sustain all their efforts. The Spirit justifies and sanctifies them. But on the other hand, the same Spirit convicts the unbelieving Jews for their sin. Their sin is their unbelief in the Lord, their rejection of the LORD, the Righteous, and the righteousness offered by him. This consequently brings upon them condemnation. The Spirit is an Advocate who defends the Lord, defends on God's behalf, and also defends the Lord's disciples as well.
The whole episode is a vivid contrast between faith and unfaith. We see a clear difference between what faith does and what unfaith does. Faith makes one convinced, confident, docile, courageous, honest, and totally committed even to the point of death. This is seen in the apostles and also very touchingly in the case of the jailer as well. Amidst all the focus on the miraculous aspect of the scene, perhaps the greatness of the jailer’s faith may lose our attention. What a praiseworthy faith his is! Once he believes in the Lord through the apostles, he thinks nothing of the consequences, and interestingly nothing is told about what happens next. He releases them, takes them home, serves them, and the whole family gets baptized. On the contrary, the unbelieving Jews continue closed, stubborn and opposing, and thus culpable.
Direction: Submission to the power and work of the Spirit leads to a deep-rooted conviction, while defiance and rejection of the Spirit leads to a negative "conviction" by the same Spirit
12 MAY 2021: ACTS 17. 15, 22 - 18. 1; JOHN 16. 12-15
Focus: The knowledge of God does not depend on mere human intelligence but on docility to the Spirit of truth
"I have many things to reveal and teach you but you will not be able to understand them now" until the Holy Spirit comes. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you to all truth", thus declares Jesus to his disciples. Yes, knowledge of God, faith in God, and life in God are ultimately not human enterprises and accomplishments. If it were so, there will not be so much defiance and resistance to the Word of God and the way of Christ, as preached and testified by the Apostles. Rather, they are the evocations and instillations of a higher realm, the donations of the spiritual domain. One comes to know, believe, and live God's way, only because it is "in God we live, move and have our being", only because He does not leave us to our human fragility or fate. But he induces us "to seek Him and find Him", through His only Son, Jesus Christ, the real way, the Truth and the Life". He guides us on the way, he forms us in the truth and gives life, because he knows the way, the truth, and has life. These are inherited from God the Father, because of his intimacy. Not only this. He himself IS the way, the truth, and the life because they are inherent to him. This is in virtue of his total oneness with the Father and the Spirit. It is the power of the Holy Spirit that works on a transparent human spirit like Paul. And it is no wonder that it touches and converts some of the Athenians.
We may wonder many times why the so-called great and intelligent people fail to know and believe in God, while the simple are deep-rooted and fervent. This clearly shows us that ultimately faith is a matter of divine grace and the human openness to it, and not a human capacity or enterprise.
Direction: Growth in spirituality and spiritual living is not a matter of a heightened Human intelligence or acumen, as if to unravel and grasp the divine realities. Rather, it is the humble submission and insertion into the unfathomable divine abyss.
13 MAY 2021, ACTS 18. 1-8; JOHN 16. 16-20 (Our Lady of Fatima)
Focus: For those who confide in God and sincerely try to walk His way, the way is never closed. New vistas will always open up, even if the old and familiar ways get closed
The Acts of the Apostles is a continuous holy expedition with its moments of exciting successes and also crushing failures. But no pressures or afflictions could make any difference in their focus, passion, and commitment. They had an indomitable spirit in which they strove with courage and renewed vigour. The more they were obstructed, the more they were marching forward; the more they were bound, the more they worked freely; the more they were slandered, the more they praised God; the more they were persecuted, the more they were reinvigorated; the more they were cursed, the more they blessed; the more they were shaken, the more they remained firm.
This is clearly the power of the Spirit. It is this which enables them to stand solid against all odds. It is the same power that comforts them to tide over the incomparable anguish of the physical separation of their Master. And still, it is the same power that charges them to bear witness to Him through His Spirit.
Jesus is quite aware of this painful struggle of the apostles against the world and his absence. That is why he says that the world will rejoice by making them weep and lament. But all their sorrow will turn into joy because he will accompany them through his Spirit. Therefore, they need not sink into the abyss of depression at persecution or his separation. Courage! He is with them.
The apparition of Our Lady at Fatima that we commemorate today is a great mark of this unfailing assurance and accompaniment of God with us. God is deeply concerned for us. He wants us to be free from the bondage of sin. Thereby, we would enjoy the freedom of the Spirit and live as free and joyful children of God. What then is required is repentance, reparation, and prayer. The message given to the three children Lucia, Jacinta and Francesco in 1917 is valid for all and for all times.
Direction: As we grow mature in our faith, we should realize that we must constantly rise above the merely physical and the external, and surge ahead into the spiritual realm
14 MAY 2021: ACTS 1. 15-17, 20-26; JOHN 15. 9-17 (Feast of St MATTHIAS, Apostle)
Focus: True faith should constantly teach us that life is not something fortuitous but a gratuitous and gracious choice and the gift of God given to us
In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we have the process of choosing Matthias into the team of the Twelve in the place of Judas Iscariot, who fell away. The reason is quite simple. Twelve is a number significant and symbolic in the history of Israel. It refers to twelve tribes of Israel, twelve patriarchs, twelve apostles of Jesus. In so far as the Twelve symbolize the twelve patriarchs of the new Israel, the Twelve pillars of the new edifice of Christ, the church, it is filling that the place of Judas Iscariot, the traitor should be filled up by another disciple.
But it is not an act of chance or a totally human enterprise. Perhaps, in modern times, often we are forced to wonder whether the human factors override the divine will with regard to many choices to the sacred offices of authority. But Jesus in the gospel dispels all such false concepts and trends. He declares emphatically, “you did not choose me, but I chose you”. This is clearly indicated by the casting of lots for the election of the twelfth apostle (Mathias). The call is essentially a choice of God. This process does not mean leaving the choice to mere luck. It is surrendering the whole process to God's action. This submission to God's choice should reign over all our human processes of election or appointments and should be an unfailing norm. It is God who chooses us, so that we love Him, abide in His love and follow His commandments. The greatest commandment is to love Him and to love others as He loves us. The obvious outflow of such love is the bearing of abundant fruits. This is the best witness. The greatest effect of this is the completion of joy, experiencing the complete joy.
Direction: It is so sad that at times in our modern times, human considerations and manipulations overpower God’s will and plans, and human dictates dominate the divine norms. It is high time to reawaken the spirit of submission and mission
15 MAY 2021, ACTS 18. 23-28; JOHN 16. 23-28
Focus: The thought of the end of one's life should not fill us with fear and anxiety but should deepen our sense of mission and completion
Many may like to speak of their targets and goals because they can give them a sense of "kick", a thrust and push to strive and achieve something. But the same many may not be happy to think of the final end that is beyond these set goals. It is because such thinking of the end and thereafter can disturb one with a sense of transience, a sense of shallowness in earthly pursuits and accomplishments. Whatever you do and achieve, ultimately the end of life is sure and definitive.
But a constant awareness of the end of life can make one deeply wise to be clear of the priorities in life, to be unattached, to be balanced and mature. The truth that the earthly life will end one day would imbue one with a sense of mission and completion.
This is what we see in Jesus: he is unceasingly conscious of where he came from, what he came for, and where he will return at the completion. He came from the Father, he came for the mission of salvation, and he would return to the Father. The same mission is entrusted to his disciples. But, they are not left alone in completing it. He would recommend it to the Father on our behalf. He would obtain the light and the power needed. In fact, the action of the Holy Spirit is the clearest proof of his presence, accompanying and sustaining us.
Direction: God's work and good work is a holy contagion that spreads from one to one; the Apostles were touched and transformed by the Lord and they as a mission touch and transform others as a mission, like Apollos, Priscilla, and so on. And these still in their turn do the same to many others.
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