Do not be afraid to set your sights higher, to allow yourself to be loved and liberated by God. Do not be afraid to let yourself be guided by the Holy Spirit. Holiness does not make you less human, since it is an encounter between your weakness and the power of God's grace. For in the words of Leon boy, when all is said and done, "the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.”
POPE FRANCIS Gaudete et Exultate
Today’s solemnity honors two conversions that underpin the entire foundation of the Church. Two saints who were converted, literally turned around, by their discovery of mercy, better still by their discovery that they were discovered by Mercy in the person of Christ Jesus the innocent victim, who though he has suffered and died for his people’s sinfulness comes back from the dead without recrimination as forgiving victim. In fact he absolutely refuses not to forgive. This continues to astound and unnerve us just as it did Peter and Paul. Because if God will not punish us, we often try to figure out ways to punish ourselves because of our guilt. But God in Christ will have none of that. None of it. He returns from the dead full of wounds and speaks only, “Peace.” It does not mean nothing happened, too much has happened; sin has made a horrendous mess of his body, but forgiveness is more powerful. This is the confusing grace and ridiculous truth that both Peter and Paul experience in Christ. And we are invited as Church to find ourselves as they did, within the overwhelming reality of a wounded, resurrected and forgiving God.
Peter says he is ready to die with Jesus; then betrays him in a heartbeat to save his skin. “Wait a minute; you’re one of that Galilean’s followers,” says the maid in the high priest’s courtyard. “I’d know that accent anywhere.” “Get out of here,” Peter mutters. “I don't know who you’re talking about.” Meanwhile, Jesus is next door being slapped, ridiculed and roughed up by soldiers. Regret over this will break Peter’s heart. But the risen Jesus will appear to him first of all the disciples, without any hint of blaming. And later he will forgive Peter over breakfast at another charcoal fire on a beach, as he gratefully receives Peter’s confession, “Lord, you know well that I love you.” Peter’s heart has been transformed.
And Paul. Well, as an expert in the Law, he knows that Jesus the blasphemer has been rightly executed for leading the people astray. So he has been ruthlessly tracking down Jesus' followers, dragging them from their homes to prison and persecution, and most recently cheering on those who stone the deacon Stephen. But soon during a journey northeast to Damascus, in a blinding light the resurrected Jesus will introduce himself to him with a heartbreaking question, “Saul, why do you persecute me?” The God who is purely and unambiguously love has raised this Jesus from the dead; the Law has been fulfilled and radically eclipsed in the person of Jesus the forgiving victim. Paul the angry persecutor becomes Paul the messenger of grace.
Peter and Paul have hurtled headlong into divine Mercy. And so they must revise their whole lives; for a deeply affective personal love for Christ now grounds their entire existence. They have fallen in love. Their encounter and ongoing relationship with Jesus have transformed, reformed them. And it is this radical reprioritization that gives such power and authenticity to their preaching and ultimately leads them most willingly, even joyfully to suffer the loss of all things even their very lives for Christ’s sake. Paul will say it best, “All I want to know is Christ Jesus and him crucified and the power flowing from his resurrection.” Surely Peter would agree.
Today we celebrate with joy what mercy can accomplish in hearts emptied, made available to Christ because of bitter self-knowledge. Neither Peter nor Paul have anything to boast about but their dependence on Christ. For Peter and Paul, as for each of us, the resurrected Innocent Victim will always be “made present to us as forgiveness.” Willing at last to admit that we have reached the limits of our own prowess and possibilities, we no longer need to “fortify ourselves against” our own shabby embarrassing truth. Perhaps then with our hearts broken open, we will be ready to surrender like Peter and Paul, finally able to make ample space for the incomprehensibility of grace, because we realize that we like them have nothing to boast about except our dependence on Christ Jesus.
Finally, Jesus’ question to Peter and to each of us in this morning’s Gospel, situates us with him, poised to listen to our Master as he whispers this most compelling question, “Who do you say that I am? Who am I for you? What is your experience of me in your life, in your history?” What will each of us answer? Perhaps when we come to understand ourselves as sinners desperately beloved by God in Christ and found by his mercy incessantly, then with Peter we can say, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” For as forgiving victim, Jesus, ever marked by his wounds, has radically reinterpreted and expanded the meaning of Messiah.
He, who is our Lord and Master, invites us once again to feast on his Body and Blood.
Lifestyle and prayer grow or diminish together. If people today or in any age lack mystical prayer, it is not because it has been tried and found lacking. It is the Gospel that has not been tried.
THOMAS DUBAY, S.M. Fire Within
Talking to Mary is very simple. She will tell you about her Son who took upon himself your pain and mine, your sin and my sin. She will tell you about the fantastic obedience to his Father that her Son had…. She will speak in a low voice about her own fiat which simply means “yes" to God…. Mary is as powerful as an army ready for battle. The Holy Trinity fills her and she is a help to everyone who has recourse to her…. She is the most powerful enemy of Satan, next to the cross of Christ, next to the Holy Trinity itself….
CATHERINE DE HUECK DOHERTY
The Church draws her life from the Eucharist. This is the theme of Pope St. John Paul’s encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia. Something similar could be said about our community: Our community draws its life from the Eucharist. Without it we might as well pack up and go home. Today’s feast is our opportunity to affirm this and adore Our Lord Jesus present in the Blessed Sacrament.
It is good to remember that Our Lord had our community in his heart on the night he was handed over. “Father, I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one…” That we may all be one. We have difficulty with this. It means setting aside our own wills, being on time for meals and prayers and lectio divina. But that is precisely what Jesus did for our sake. He was always on time. And when the ultimate hour arrived, he was there with his community of disciples, and he “…took bread, and after he had given thanks, broke it and said, ‘This is my body that is for you.’” He would go so far as to hand over his body and blood to make our community possible.
St. Paul understood this. He had received a share in our Lord’s mission to gather communities. When we read the Letter to the Corinthians, we can see how difficult a task this was. Paul emphasizes that it is Jesus who made the community at Corinth, not Paul, not Apollos, not Cephas. He says: “I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over…” Paul was referring to the handing-over that took place on the cross. It was not Paul who was crucified for the Corinthians but Jesus. He goes further and warns them not to receive the gift of God in vain: “…whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord…For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.” We must discern daily how our very life and the life of our community depends on the Eucharist. Any goodness we have flows from the body and blood of Christ.
Finally, it is not only Paul who has received the mission to build up a Christian community. This mission has been entrusted to us also. Community flows first and foremost from Jesus, but we are responsible to draw from this source and to imitate him. Jesus made this clear in today’s gospel when his disciples urged him to send the people away to get food. He said very simply, “Give them some food yourselves.” We need to gather what bread and wine we have, even the hidden portions, and bring them to Jesus. A response like “Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,” will not do. We must be ready to help others with the necessities of life. We must give ourselves as Jesus did in order to sustain our community.
The Eucharist makes our community possible, because it makes present the Lord Jesus, to quote, “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do…If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.” Let us begin anew today and eat this bread and drink this cup worthily that we may proclaim the gift of Jesus’ life and death until he comes.
No one makes it in life unless he possesses a deep, exclusive love. By "makes it in life" I do not mean simply surviving. Anyone can survive without love. By "makes it in life" I mean reaching a fullness-of-person beauty and happiness. By "deep, exclusive love" I do not refer to any merely human love, not even love found in an ideal marriage. No merely natural relationship is the ultimate answer to the human puzzle. By "deep, exclusive love" I refer to a love that is given to one alone and with no reservations whatsoever. That kind of love can be had for God only.
THOMAS DUBAY, S.M. …And You Are Christ’s
The saint is the person who is so fascinated by the beauty of God and by his perfect truth as to be progressively transformed by it.
POPE BENEDICT XVI