Wednesday of the 4th Week of Easter
“While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.”
Isn’t it interesting that something very much like the story in today’s first reading took place in Rome yesterday? The Holy Spirit spoke to the Cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel and said, “Set apart for me Joseph Ratzinger for the work to which I have called him.”
Our new leader is chosen by God just as surely as Barnabas and Saul were chosen all those centuries ago.
Yesterday on Yahoo News the headline read “Controversial German Cardinal Elected Pope.” The article called Cardinal Ratzinger “the strict defender of Catholic orthodoxy for the past 23 years and said he was chosen “despite a widespread assumption he was too old and divisive to win election.”
So being a defender of Catholic orthodoxy is divisive? People outside the Church just don’t get it, do they? God doesn’t change. Why should His church? We belong to a church that believes what Jesus taught. “Thou shalt not kill.” “Love one another as I have loved you.” “You are my friends if you do what I tell you.” Simple, unchangeable truths. But, someone who holds to these truths is considered “divisive”, at least by some.
But then, the Son of God was pretty divisive, too, wasn’t He? His words cost Him His earthly life. People loved Him. People hated Him. Later in John’s Gospel, He will tell the apostles that people will hate them because of Him.
“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.”
“If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.”
Of course, those same apostles were the predecessors of today’s bishops and Pope, and Jesus was speaking to them, and to us, just as surely as He was speaking to the twelve. So, if holding to the faith is divisive, then I pray that I always have the courage to be divisive. If holding to the faith is controversial, then I pray that I always have the courage to be controversial.
The words Jesus spoke in today’s Gospel are still true today, “Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak: And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me.”
Isn’t it interesting that something very much like the story in today’s first reading took place in Rome yesterday? The Holy Spirit spoke to the Cardinals gathered in the Sistine Chapel and said, “Set apart for me Joseph Ratzinger for the work to which I have called him.”
Our new leader is chosen by God just as surely as Barnabas and Saul were chosen all those centuries ago.
Yesterday on Yahoo News the headline read “Controversial German Cardinal Elected Pope.” The article called Cardinal Ratzinger “the strict defender of Catholic orthodoxy for the past 23 years and said he was chosen “despite a widespread assumption he was too old and divisive to win election.”
So being a defender of Catholic orthodoxy is divisive? People outside the Church just don’t get it, do they? God doesn’t change. Why should His church? We belong to a church that believes what Jesus taught. “Thou shalt not kill.” “Love one another as I have loved you.” “You are my friends if you do what I tell you.” Simple, unchangeable truths. But, someone who holds to these truths is considered “divisive”, at least by some.
But then, the Son of God was pretty divisive, too, wasn’t He? His words cost Him His earthly life. People loved Him. People hated Him. Later in John’s Gospel, He will tell the apostles that people will hate them because of Him.
“If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.”
“If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.”
Of course, those same apostles were the predecessors of today’s bishops and Pope, and Jesus was speaking to them, and to us, just as surely as He was speaking to the twelve. So, if holding to the faith is divisive, then I pray that I always have the courage to be divisive. If holding to the faith is controversial, then I pray that I always have the courage to be controversial.
The words Jesus spoke in today’s Gospel are still true today, “Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak: And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me.”
posted by Mike at 5:58 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home