The Catholic Calendar for Thursday, May 12, 2005
Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter
Sts. Nereus and Achilleus, martyrs
St. Pancras, martyr

Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Acts 20:30; 23:6-11
Psalm 16:1-2,5,7-11
John 17:20-26

A reflection on today's Scripture. . . .

"I will continue to reveal [God] so that your love for me
may live in them and I may live in them." (John 17:26)

As long as sin exists in the world, so will suffering; for it is the nature of sinners to continue victimizing both friends and foes. In our First Reading, Paul faces whipping because the Sanhedrin disputed his proclaiming Christ's resurrection. Paul reveals his being born a Roman citizen, so he invokes his right to be sent to Rome for judgment. What might have ended with Paul's repeated scourgings and perhaps death, turned into an opportunity for him to expand God's kingdom by bearing witness to Jesus in Rome.

Some may wonder why anyone would subject himself to torture and imprisonment for the sake of spreading the "good news." The answer is love. Those who sincerely seek God, who draw close to Him in prayer to Christ and who submit themselves to the Holy Spirit's direction will gain an increasingly deeper, secret knowledge of God's love. Within the depths of their hearts He reveals His goodness and beauty, inspiring in them a firm faith in His holy Word. Such was Paul's inner disposition, and it can also be ours.

In today's Gospel, Christ speaks of this very love instilled by God into receptive hearts. This is true of His contemporaries and future disciples called to convey to others what they have received from God through Christ and His Spirit. It is God's burning desire to unite all of humanity to Himself through His Son. Put simply, Jesus is telling the world that through faith and in obedience to God's Word, we will be drawn to exist in God's trinitarian stream of love, beginning now and brought to perfection in eternity.

Father God,
we praise and bless Your Holy Name
for having brought us into being
to share Your infinite and perfect love with us,
creatures You created in Your image.
Amen

- Marie Bocko, OCDS
(mlbocko at earthlink dot net)

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