Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 05-25-04, Opt. St. Bede the Venerable

http://www.usccb.org/nab/052504.htm ^ | 05-25-04 | New American Bible

[Salvation]

May 25, 2004
Tuesday of the Seventh Week of Easter

Psalm: Tuesday 24
Reading I Responsorial Psalm Gospel

Reading I
Acts 20:17-27

From Miletus Paul had the presbyters
of the Church at Ephesus summoned.
When they came to him, he addressed them,
"You know how I lived among you
the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia.
I served the Lord with all humility
and with the tears and trials that came to me
because of the plots of the Jews,
and I did not at all shrink from telling you
what was for your benefit,
or from teaching you in public or in your homes.
I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks
to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus.
But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.
What will happen to me there I do not know,
except that in one city after another
the Holy Spirit has been warning me
that imprisonment and hardships await me.
Yet I consider life of no importance to me,
if only I may finish my course
and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus,
to bear witness to the Gospel of God's grace.

"But now I know that none of you
to whom I preached the kingdom during my travels
will ever see my face again.
And so I solemnly declare to you this day
that I am not responsible for the blood of any of you,
for I did not shrink from proclaiming to you the entire plan of God."

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 68:10-11, 20-21

R (33a) Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R Alleluia.
A bountiful rain you showered down, O God, upon your inheritance;
you restored the land when it languished;
Your flock settled in it;
in your goodness, O God, you provided it for the needy.
R Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R Alleluia.
Blessed day by day be the Lord,
who bears our burdens; God, who is our salvation.
God is a saving God for us;
the LORD, my Lord, controls the passageways of death.
R Sing to God, O kingdoms of the earth.
or:
R Alleluia.

Gospel
Jn 17:1-11a

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,
"Father, the hour has come.
Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,
just as you gave him authority over all people,
so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.
Now this is eternal life,
that they should know you, the only true God,
and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.
I glorified you on earth
by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.
Now glorify me, Father, with you,
with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

"I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.
Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,
because the words you gave to me I have given to them,
and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,
and they have believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,
because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours
and everything of yours is mine,
and I have been glorified in them.
And now I will no longer be in the world,
but they are in the world, while I am coming to you."

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From: Acts 20:17-27

Speech of farewell to the elders of Ephesus

---

[17] And from Miletus he (Paul) sent to Ephesus and called to him the
elders of the church. [18] And when they came to him he said to them:
"You yourselves know how I lived among you all the time from the first
day that I set foot in Asia, [19] serving the Lord with all humility
and with tears and with trials which befell me through the plots of the
Jews; [20] how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was
profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house,
[21] testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance to God and of
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. [22] And now, behold, I am going to
Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit, not knowing what shall befall me there;
[23] except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that
imprisonment and inflictions await me. [24] But I do not account my
life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may accomplish
my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to
testify to the gospel of the grace of God. [25] And now, behold I know
that all you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will
see my face no more. [26] Therefore I testify to you this day that I am
innocent of the blood of all of you, [27] for I did not shrink from
declaring to you the whole counsel of God."

---

Commentary:

18-35. Paul's address to the elders of Ephesus is his third great
discourse related in Acts (the others being his address to Jews in
Pisidian Antioch--13:16ff--and to pagans at Athens--17:22ff). It is, as
it were, an emotional farewell to the churches which he had founded.

The address divides into two parts. The first (vv. 18-27) is a brief
resume of Paul's life of dedication to the church of Ephesus, which he
founded and directed, with hints of the difficulties which he expects
to meet in the immediate future. Two parallel sections (vv. 18-21 and
26-27) frame the central passages of this section (vv. 22-25).

In the second section the Apostle speaks movingly about the mission and
role of elders. Two series of recommendations (vv. 28-31 and 33-35)
hinge on the central verse (v. 32).

The pathos, vigor and spiritual depth of the discourse clearly show
that it is Paul who is speaking. Here we have the Paul of the letters
addressing a community which has already been evangelized, and inviting
them to get to know their faith better and practise it better.

18-20. Paul is not embarrassed to set himself as an example of how to
serve God and the disciples in the cause of the Gospel (cf. 1 Cor
11:1). He has worked diligently, steadily, out of love for Jesus Christ
and the brethren, doing his duty, conscious that this kind of patient,
persevering work is the way of perfection and holiness that God expects
him to follow.

The Apostle has learned to imitate Christ both in his public life and
in the long years of his hidden life, ever deepening in his love. In
this connection, St Francis de Sales writes: "Those are spiritually
greedy who never have enough of exercises of devotion, so keen are
they, they say, to attain perfection; as if perfection consisted in the
amount of things we do and not in the perfection with which we do them.
[...] God has not made perfection to lie in the number of acts we do to
please him, but in the way in which we do them: that way is to do the
little we have to do according to our calling, that is, to do it in
love, through love and for love" ("Sermon on the first Sunday of
Lent").

St Catherine of Siena understood our Lord to say to her something along
the same lines: "I reward every good which is done, great or small,
according to the measure of the love of him who receives the reward"
("Dialogue", chap. 68).

As in his letters, Paul associates the idea of service with humility
(cf. 2 Cor 10:1; 1 Thess 2:6), tears (cf. Rom 9:2; Phil 3:18) and
fortitude to keep on working despite persecution (cf. 2 Cor 11:24; 1
Thess 2:14-16). The Apostle's true treasure is humility, for it allows
him to discover his shortcomings and at the same time teaches him to
rely on God's strength. As St Teresa says, "The truly humble person
will have a genuine desire to be thought little of, and condemned
unjustly, even in serious matters. For, if she desires to imitate the
Lord, how can she do so better than in this? And no bodily strength is
necessary here, nor the aid of anyone but God " ("Way of Perfection",
l5, 2).

21. This very brief summary of Paul's preaching to Jews and pagans
mentions repentance and faith as inseparable elements in the new life
Jesus confers on Christians. "It is good to know", Origen writes, "that
we will be judged at the divine judgment seat not on our faith alone,
as if we had not to answer for our conduct; nor on our conduct alone,
as if our faith were not to be scrutinized. What justifies is our
uprightness on both scores, and if we are short on either we shall
deserve punishment" ("Dialogue with Heraclides", 8).

The presence of grace and faith in the soul equips it to fight the
Christian fight, which ultimately leads to rooting out sins and
defects. "From the very day faith enters your soul," Origen also says,
"battle must be joined between virtues and vices. Prior to the
onslaught of the Word, vices were at peace within you, but from the
moment the Word begins to judge them one by one, a great turmoil
arises and a merciless war begins. 'For what partnership have
righteousness and iniquity?' (2 Cor 6:14)" ("In Ex Hom.", III, 3).

22. The Apostle is convinced that God is guiding his steps and watching
over him like a father; but he is also unsure about what lies ahead:
this uncertainty about the future is part of the human condition.
"Grace does not work on its own. It respects men in the actions they
take, it influences them, it awakens and does not entirely dispel their
restlessness" (Chrysostom, "Hom. on Acts", 37).

"The true minister of Christ is conscious of his own weakness and labors
in humility. He searches to see what is well-pleasing to God (cf. Eph
5:10) and, bound as it were in the Spirit (cf. Acts 20:22), he is
guided in all things by the will of him who wishes all men to be saved
He is able to discover and carry out that will in the course of his
daily routine" (Vatican II, "Presbyterorum Ordinis", 15).

23. "No man, whether he be a Christian or not, has an easy life. To be
sure, at certain times it seems as though everything goes as we
planned. But this generally lasts for only a short time. Life is a
matter of facing up to difficulties and of experiencing in our hearts
both joy and sorrow. It is in this forge that a person can acquire
fortitude, patience, magnanimity and composure [...].

"Naturally, the difficulties we meet in our daily lives will not be as
great or as numerous as St Paul encountered. We will, however, discover
our own meanness and selfishness, the sting of sensuality, the useless,
ridiculous smack of pride, and many other failings besides: so very
many weaknesses. But are we to give in to discouragement? Not at all.
Together with St Paul, let us tell our Lord, 'Forth sake of Christ, I
am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions and
calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong' (2 Cor 12:10)" ([St] J.
Escriva, "Friends of God", 17, 212).

24. Paul has come to love Jesus Christ so much that he gives himself no
importance: he sees his life as having no meaning other than that of
doing what God wants him to do (cf. 2 Cor 4:7; Phil 1:19-26; Col 1:24).
He sees holiness as a constant, uninterrupted striving towards his
encounter with the Lord; and all the great Fathers of the Church have
followed him in this: "On the subject of virtue," St Gregory of Nyssa,
for example, writes, "we have learned from the Apostle himself that the
only limit to perfection of virtue is that there is no limit. This
fine, noble man, this divine Apostle, never ceases, when running on the
course of virtue, to 'strain forward to what lies ahead' (Phil 3:13).
He realizes it is dangerous to stop. Why? Because all good, by its very
nature, is unlimited: its only limit is where it meets its opposite:
thus, the limit of life is death, of light darkness, and in general of
every good its opposite. Just as the end of life is the beginning of
death, so too if one ceases to follow the path of virtue one is
beginning to follow the path of vice" ("On the Life of Moses", I, 5).

26. "He considers himself innocent of the blood of the disciples
because he has not neglected to point out to them their defects" (St
Bede, "Super Act Expositio, ad loc.") Paul not only preached the Gospel
to them and educated them in the faith: he also corrected their faults,
putting into practice the advice he gave to the Galatians: "if any man
trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of
gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted" (Gal 6:1). "A
disciple of Christ will never treat anyone badly. Error he will call
error, but the person in error he will correct with kindness. Otherwise
he will not be able to help him, to sanctify him" ([St] J. Escriva, "Friends
of God", 9).

---

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

[Salvation]

From: John 17:1-11a

The Priestly Prayer of Jesus

---

[1] When Jesus had spoken these words, He lifted His eyes to Heaven and
said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son that the Son may
glorify Thee, [2] since Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, to
give eternal life to all whom Thou hast given Him. [3] And this is
eternal life, that they know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom Thou hast sent. [4] I glorified Thee on earth, having
accomplished the work which Thou gavest Me to do; [5] and now, Father,
glorify Thou Me in Thy own presence with the glory which I had with
Thee before the world was made.

[6] "I have manifested Thy name to the men who Thou gavest Me out of
the world; Thine they were, and Thou gavest them to Me, and they have
kept Thy word. [7] Now they know that everything Thou hast given Me is
from Thee; [8] for I have given them the words which Thou gavest Me,
and they have received them and know in truth that I came from Thee;
and they have believed that thou didst send Me. [9] I am praying for
them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom Thou hast
given Me, for they are Thine; [10] all Mine are Thine, and Thine are
Mine, and I am glorified in them. [11a] And now I am no more in the
world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to Thee."

---

Commentary:

1-26. At the end of the discourse of the Last Supper (Chapters 13-16)
begins what is called the Priestly Prayer of Jesus, which takes up all
of Chapter 17. It is given that name because Jesus addresses His
Father in a very moving dialogue in which, as Priest, He offers Him the
imminent sacrifice of His passion and death. It shows us the essential
elements of His redemptive mission and provides us with teaching and a
model for our own prayer. "The Lord, the Only-begotten and co-eternal
with the Father, could have prayed in silence if necessary, but He
desired to show Himself to the Father in the attitude of a supplicant
because He is our Teacher. [...] Accordingly this prayer for His
disciples was useful not only to those who heard it, but to all who
would read it" (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 104, 2).

The Priestly Prayer consists of three parts: in the first (verses 1-5)
Jesus asks for the glorification of His holy human nature and the
acceptance, by His Father, of His sacrifice on the cross. In the
second part (verses 6-19) He prays for His disciples, whom He is going
to send out into the world to proclaim the redemption which He is now
about to accomplish. And then (verses 20-26) He prays for unity among
all those who will believe in Him over the course of the centuries,
until they achieve full union with Him in Heaven.

1-5. The word "glory" here refers to the splendor, power and honor
which `belong to God'. The Son is God equal to the Father, and from
the time of His Incarnation and birth and especially through His death
and resurrection His divinity has been made manifest. "We have beheld
His glory, glory as the only Son from the Father" (John 1:14). The
glorification of Jesus has three dimensions to it. 1) It promotes the
glory of the Father, because Christ, in obedience to God's redemptive
decree (cf. Philippians 2:6), makes the Father known and so brings
God's saving work to completion. 2) Christ is glorified because His
divinity, which He has voluntarily disguised, will eventually be
manifested through His human nature which will be seen after the
Resurrection invested with the very authority of God Himself over all
creation (verses 2, 5). 3) Christ, through His glorification, gives
man the opportunity to attain eternal life, to know God the Father and
Jesus Christ, His only Son: this in turn redounds to the glorification
of the Father and of Jesus Christ while also involving man's
participation in divine glory (verse 3).

"The Son glorifies You, making You known to all those You have given
Him. Furthermore, if the knowledge of God is life eternal, we the more
tend to life, the more we advance in this knowledge. [...] There shall
the praise of God be without end, where there shall be full knowledge
of God; and because in Heaven this knowledge shall be full, there shall
glorifying be of the highest" (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang.", 105,
3).

6-8. Our Lord has prayed for Himself; now He prays for His Apostles,
who will continue His redemptive work in the world. In praying for
them, Jesus describes some of the prerogatives of those who will form
part of the Apostolic College.

First, there is the prerogative of being chosen by God: "Thine they
were...". God the Father chose them from all eternity (cf. Ephesians
1:3-4) and in due course Jesus revealed this to them: "The Lord Jesus,
having prayed at length to the Father, called to Himself those whom He
willed and appointed twelve to be with Him, whom He might send to
preach the Kingdom of God (cf. Mark 3:13-19; Matthew 10:1-42). These
apostles (cf. Luke 6:13) He constituted in the form of a college or
permanent assembly, at the head of which He placed Peter, chosen from
among them (cf. John 21:15-17)" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 19).
Also, the Apostles enjoy the privilege of hearing God's teaching direct
from Jesus. From this teaching, which they accept with docility, they
learn that Jesus came from the Father and that therefore He is God's
envoy (verse 8): that is, they are given to know the relationships that
exist between the Father and the Son.

The Christian, who also is a disciple of Jesus, gradually acquires
knowledge of God and of divine things through living a life of faith
and maintaining a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

"Recalling this human refinement of Christ, who spent His life in the
service of others, we are doing much more than describing a pattern of
human behavior; we are discovering God. Everything Christ did has a
transcendental value. It shows us the nature of God and beckons us to
believe in the love of God who created us and wants us to share His
intimate life" ([St] J. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 109).

11-19. Jesus now asks the Father to give His disciple four
things--unity, perseverance, joy and holiness. By praying Him to keep
them in His name (verse 11) He is asking for their perseverance in the
teaching He has given them (cf. verse 6) and in communion with Him. An
immediate consequence of this perseverance is unity: "that they may be
one, even as We are one"; this unity which He asks for His disciples is
a reflection of the unity of the Three Divine Persons.

He also prays that none of them should be lost, that the Father should
guard and protect them, just as He Himself protected them while He was
with them. Thirdly, as a result of their union with God and
perseverance they will share in the joy of Christ (verse 13): in this
life, the more we know God and the more closely we are joined to Him,
the happier will we be; in eternal life our joy will be complete,
because our knowledge and love of God will have reached its climax.

Finally, He prays for those who, though living in the world, are not of
the world, that they may be truly holy and carry out the mission He has
entrusted to them, just as He did the work His Father gave Him to do.

---

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

[Salvation]

American Cathlic's Saint of the Day

May 25, 2004

St. Bede the Venerable

(672?-735)

Bede is one of the few saints honored as such even during his lifetime. His writings were filled with such faith and learning that even while he was still alive, a Church council ordered them to be read publicly in the churches.

At an early age Bede was entrusted to the care of the abbot of the Monastery of St. Paul, Jarrow. The happy combination of genius and the instruction of scholarly, saintly monks produced a saint and an extraordinary scholar, perhaps the most outstanding one of his day. He was deeply versed in all the sciences of his times: natural philosophy, the philosophical principles of Aristotle, astronomy, arithmetic, grammar, ecclesiastical history, the lives of the saints and, especially, Holy Scripture. From the time of his ordination to the priesthood at 30 (he had been ordained deacon at 19) till his death, he was ever occupied with learning, writing and teaching. Besides the many books that he copied, he composed 45 of his own, including 30 commentaries on books of the Bible.

Although eagerly sought by kings and other notables, even Pope Sergius, Bede managed to remain in his own monastery till his death. Only once did he leave for a few months in order to teach in the school of the archbishop of York. Bede died in 735 praying his favorite prayer: “Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As in the beginning, so now, and forever.”

His Ecclesiastical History of the English People is commonly regarded as of decisive importance in the art and science of writing history. A golden age was coming to an end at the time of Bede’s death: It had fulfilled its purpose of preparing Western Christianity to assimilate the non-Roman barbarian North. Bede recognized the opening to a new day in the life of the Church even as it was happening.

Comment:

Though his History is the greatest legacy Bede has left us, his work in all the sciences (especially in Scripture) should not be overlooked. During his last Lent, he worked on a translation of the Gospel of St. John into English, completing it the day he died. But of this work “to break the word to the poor and unlearned” nothing remains today.

Quote:

“We have not, it seems to me, amid all our discoveries, invented as yet anything better than the Christian life which Bede lived, and the Christian death which he died” (C. Plummer, editor of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History).

[Salvation]

The Word Among Us

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Meditation
John 17:1-11



There is a parallel between the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel and the words of Paul in the first reading from Acts. Both Jesus and Paul were nearing the end of their earthly ministries, and both were reflecting on the way they had responded to their calling. Jesus knew that he had finished the work that God the Father had given him to do. Paul too had a sense that he had fulfilled God’s commission to the best of his ability.

Yet when Jesus looked around the table at the Last Supper, what did he see? Just a handful of disciples: one would betray him, another would deny, him and most of the others would desert him. Looking at it from a human point of view, his legacy didn’t seem very impressive at that moment. Quite the contrary, everything looked on the verge of collapse. But Jesus didn’t seem troubled. He may have warned his disciples about what was going to happen, but he himself didn’t seem depressed. Why?

Jesus was convinced that he had come to inaugurate the kingdom of God by his preaching and miracles and by his death and resurrection. He knew that God’s kingdom would spread after he returned to heaven because of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Jesus didn’t have to see it all happen before he died. He knew that he was doing his part, and that was enough for him.

God has given each of us something to do in this life. The contribution he wants us to make is only part of something much larger. Perhaps the seeds of the kingdom that we sow will take root and grow through the ministry of someone else. Perhaps the small things that we do for the poor will expand into a source of comfort and provision for many. We are simply called to do the job the Lord has given us and to leave in his hands the things he has not given us.

Let us be faithful to the little things that God has given us to do. God considers them very precious. Jesus is proof that he can do much with a surrendered heart.

“Lord, help me to be faithful to you. Holy Spirit, empower me to carry out all the work of service that has been entrusted to me and not to worry about the future.”

[Salvation]

One Bread, One Body

One Bread, One Body

All Issues > Volume 20, Number 3

<< Tuesday, May 25, 2004 >>

Pentecost Novena - Day 5 Venerable Bede Pope St. Gregory VII St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

Acts 20:17-27

Psalm 68:10-11, 20-21

John 17:1-11

View Readings

SPIRITUAL RECYCLING

“The Holy Spirit has been warning me.” —Acts 20:23

We are halfway through the Pentecost Novena. By this time in the novena, the Holy Spirit has been quite active. The Holy Spirit has been working on preparing our hearts for Pentecost. The Spirit has been consoling us, instructing us (Jn 14:26), leading us to the truth (Jn 16:13), and warning us about repentance and other changes we must make (Acts 20:23).

As the novena continues, the Spirit will be helping us pray, for we know not how to pray as we ought (Rm 8:26). The Spirit will fight against our sinful flesh (Gal 5:17), prompting us to repent more deeply and giving us a greater desire to be holy. The Holy Spirit will give us a greater thirst for Jesus (Jn 7:37-39). Then Jesus will pour out the Spirit in ever greater abundance on us, for “He does not ration His gift of the Spirit” (Jn 3:34). In turn, the Spirit will lead us to the Father, inspiring us to “cry out, ‘Abba!’ (‘that is, ‘Father’)” (Rm 8:15). Then the Father pours out His love “in our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rm 5:5) and Jesus will baptize us anew in the Holy Spirit (Mk 1:8). As Pentecost approaches, we should be so immersed in Trinitarian love that we will literally be “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4).

In five days, the Holy Spirit will be poured out anew at Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is warning you (Acts 20:23) to prepare for an outpouring beyond anything you can ask for or imagine (Eph 3:20). “Follow the Spirit’s lead” (Gal 5:25).

Prayer: Father, I set my heart on the gifts of the Spirit (1 Cor 14:1).

Promise: “Eternal life is this: to know You, the only true God, and Him Whom You have sent, Jesus Christ.” —Jn 17:3

Praise: St. Gregory served as spiritual director to several popes before becoming one himself.

[Salvation]

Homily of the Day

Homily of the Day

Title:	Will You Last Till the End?
Author:	Monsignor Dennis Clark, PhD.
Date:	Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Acts 20: 17-27/ Jn 17:1-11a

If St Paul had been an artist, he wouldn’t have been a painter of miniatures. He would have been a big picture man, painting heroic scenes on vast canvases, beckoning all to take heed and pay attention. That is surely how he lived his life, constantly asking new questions, thinking beyond the edges of his prior experience, and moving courageously into places and circumstances he’d never seen before.

Paul had a powerful sense of mission: to share the Good News with all peoples. And he not only started well, but finished well, remaining faithful to the very end to the vision that Jesus had given him.

For those of us somewhere in the middle of our life’s course, Paul is both an inspiration and a reassurance. His life tells us that, even in the face of weariness or mid-course ennui, we can make it to the finish line, we can be faithful to the life’s work that God has given us. As Paul said, "I can do all things in God Who strengthens me."

Trust that, relax in the Lord, and enjoy the remarkable journey that is your life.

[NYer]

Tuesday May 25, 2004   Seventh Week of Easter

Reading (Acts 20:17-27)  Gospel (St. John 17:1-11a)

In the Gospel reading, Our Lord says something that is a little bit frightening. He says, I do not pray for the world, but only for the ones that You have given to Me out of the world. When we look at the mess that we have in the world today, we can understand why. Our Lord did not pray for the world, nor did He pray for the worldly. The only ones that He prayed for were the ones who were going to believe in Him. Now that is a great benefit for those who will accept Him, but it helps us to understand why the Lord is allowing some of the things to happen that He is.

The real hard part for us, of course, is that as the things of the world get worse it has an effect on each one of us, and it can affect us in one of two ways. It can affect us by either making us stronger in our faith, or it can affect us by sucking us right into its own mess. There are many who are being brought right down into it, but there are also many who are rising up against it. And so when Our Lord says to His heavenly Father in His high priestly prayer, I have been glorified in them, we just stop and think about those words. Here He is praying that God the Father will glorify Him and that God will give to Him once again the glory that He had from before the world began, and we recognize that this is His crucifixion and His exaltation in heaven. But then He says that He has been glorified in His apostles, as well as in those who would believe in Him. And what a wonderful thought, that Jesus has been glorified in each one of us because we are the ones who would believe.

Now if we are going to be glorifying Our Lord, it requires then that we have to do His Will. It requires that, just as He was rejected and crucified, the same is going to happen in us. He has prayed for us. What a consolation! He knew that we would be alive in this time; He knew what the world was going to be like. He is allowing the world to go the way that it has chosen, but He prayed for us. So the grace is there for each one of us to remain faithful, to be strong, to be bold in our faith. What we have to do now is to ask ourselves, “What does it mean for me to glorify Christ?”

Saint Paul could look at his life and say, Here is the ministry that God has called me to, and the only thing that matters is that I finish, that I do the Will of God. Life is of no importance to me. Is that our attitude? Life is of no importance to me. In our society, life is all that seems to matter; and, of course, all the pleasures and worldliness that go with it. That is not the Christian attitude. Our Lord is looking forward to His death – and He tells us that is His glory! Do we look at things that way? Or do we look at our glory as the things we own because we have a more impressive house or a more impressive car or some other junk that is better than somebody else’s, and therefore we think that is our glory? Then we become like the ones Saint Paul speaks about when he says, Their glory is their shame, because if we are caught up in ourselves instead of in Christ then the very things that we should be ashamed of are the things that we find to be our glory, just like the ones who want to immerse themselves in the unfortunate things of this world. Our glory has to be about doing God’s Will.

If Jesus is glorified in us, it is not because of anything worldly; it is because of our faith in Him and because of the way we have lived our lives. That is what He is looking for from us. Considering the condition of the world right now, He needs us more than ever to be faithful, to shine as the lights in the darkness, to do as Saint Paul says when he calls all these people to him and says, I don’t take responsibility for anyone’s blood because I never shrank from telling you the fullness of the truth. Can we say that? Or is being politically correct more important? Is watering-down the truth in order to be accepted more important? Is denying Jesus so that we can glorify ourselves more important? If we are to be glorifying Jesus, and if He is to be glorified in us, it is only by doing God’s Will, by living the truth in all of its aspects, and by recognizing exactly what it means for us: that our life is for heaven, not for earth.

Therefore, with Saint Paul, we can honestly say, “My life means nothing to me.” Our lives are here to serve God and to serve the people that He puts in our paths. But we are sojourners; we are strangers; we are aliens in this world. Our lives are for heaven, and so we want to do the best we can do here in serving the Lord. But our goal is not here; the real goal of our lives is to get out of here so that we can go to heaven. That is why Saint Paul would say that his life means nothing to him; all that mattered to him was the ministry to which God had called him. So what needs to matter to us is our vocations and everything that follows from them and making sure that we are seeking God’s Will and doing God’s Will in our day-to-day lives. When we are doing that, then we can look at it and say, “It’s not me that matters; it is Christ that matters. And if it is Christ that matters, then my life is as nothing because my life is at His service. He is the Lord of both the living and the dead. If He wants me to die, then praise Him! I get to go home. If He wants me to stay here, then I glorify Him by being crucified with Him.” Either way, it is a win-win situation. But if we are caught up in the self then we glorify the self. And the ones who are glorified in themselves in this world are the ones who will be with the one who tried to glorify himself, and that is not where we want to go. We are not here to glorify self – that is what Satan did. We are here to glorify Jesus, Who came into this world to glorify God; that is our call as well. If we put God first, everything else falls into proper order and we recognize then that all that matters is doing God’s Will and glorifying Him.

[annalex]

Jn 17:1-11
#	Douay-Rheims	Vulgate
1	These things Jesus spoke: and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said: the hour is come. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son may glorify thee.	haec locutus est Iesus et sublevatis oculis in caelum dixit Pater venit hora clarifica Filium tuum ut Filius tuus clarificet te
2	As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he may give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him.	sicut dedisti ei potestatem omnis carnis ut omne quod dedisti ei det eis vitam aeternam
3	Now this is eternal life: That they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.	haec est autem vita aeterna ut cognoscant te solum verum Deum et quem misisti Iesum Christum
4	I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.	ego te clarificavi super terram opus consummavi quod dedisti mihi ut faciam
5	And now glorify thou me, O Father, with thyself, with the glory which I had, before the world was, with thee.	et nunc clarifica me tu Pater apud temet ipsum claritatem quam habui priusquam mundus esset apud te
6	I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they were: and to me thou gavest them. And they have kept thy word.	manifestavi nomen tuum hominibus quos dedisti mihi de mundo tui erant et mihi eos dedisti et sermonem tuum servaverunt
7	Now they have known that all things which thou hast given me are from thee:	nunc cognoverunt quia omnia quae dedisti mihi abs te sunt
8	Because the words which thou gavest me, I have given to them. And they have received them and have known in very deed that I came out from thee: and they have believed that thou didst send me.	quia verba quae dedisti mihi dedi eis et ipsi acceperunt et cognoverunt vere quia a te exivi et crediderunt quia tu me misisti
9	I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me: because they are thine.	ego pro eis rogo non pro mundo rogo sed pro his quos dedisti mihi quia tui sunt
10	And all my things are thine, and thine are mine: and I am glorified in them.	et mea omnia tua sunt et tua mea sunt et clarificatus sum in eis
11	And now I am not in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name whom thou hast given me: that they may be one, as we also are.	et iam non sum in mundo et hii in mundo sunt et ego ad te venio Pater sancte serva eos in nomine tuo quos dedisti mihi ut sint unum sicut et nos

[Salvation]

thanks so much. I know some people really enjoy the comparison.

[Salvation]

The Blessed Season of Easter - Fifty Days of Reflections

Read the last two entries for today's reflections.