Those Accessible Thin Places The Fifth Sunday of Easter 2021

                                         Those Accessible Thin Places

The Fifth Sunday of Easter 2021

www.johnpredmoresj.com | predmore.blogspot.com

predmoresj@yahoo.com | 617.510.9673

Acts 9:26-31; Psalm 22; 1 John 3:18-24; John 15:1-8

 

Today, with the conversion of Saul under the guidance of the much-respected Barnabas, the Church begins to its essential mission to move outwards. A Church is always healthy when it is concerned with the world outside its doors. The young church was enjoying growth as many people shared personal stories of Jesus of Nazareth, while the external threat of the Temple authorities ceased. It was a momentary pause of peace before the Romans ransacked the Temple and before traditional Jews mounted their program of separating Christians from Rabbinical Judaism.

 

In the Fourth Gospel, the vine and the branches are the analogy of our life with Christ, and the author’s point is to show how close God is to us. It reveals to us that the world we live in is a thin place between heaven and earth. God is not ‘out there’ beyond this world, although at the same time God is not so ‘here’ that creation and God are one. We live in a threshold of the door to transcendence and immanence, and for us believers, Jesus of Nazareth is now the place where the holy is present uniquely and forever, and one of the places we meet him is in our Liturgy of the Mass. To meet Jesus is to meet God, and wherever we come to this thin place, we stand on holy ground.

 

Our thin places can be a physical place like a Cape Cod cottage or a wooded Maine cabin where solitude or intimacy is called to mind. Places filled with loving memories have the ability to grab our attention and often allows us to settle within the stillness inside ourselves where another voice can be heard. As Christians, sacred Scripture is a place of encountering God, as it is imaginative literature meant to draw us into its world so that God can touch us, and what we are doing now, celebrating the Liturgy is the thinnest of places where peace, beauty, and communion are effected. We find ourselves immersed in the Mystery of God in a diverse community of people of goodwill. 

 

Real life is messy and we find these thin places in unexpected places, such as visiting a loved one in the hospital or witnessing the horror of violence or an injustice done to another person, or any event that breaks your heart and you wonder if God is there, and then you know in your soul that God is near to you. Not all thin places are places of beauty, light, and hope, but they are places where God chooses to be. Thin places are those moments of reconciliation, forgiveness, and acceptance, and our cherished thinnest of places in the Cross upon which Jesus hung and the world was reconciled to God. It was the place where God showed the world that God knows well about our human suffering. Heaven and earth meets often, whether it is beauty or devastation, or sorrow or joy. It is clear how often and easily we can see heaven and earth meeting, and we find that we are as close to God just as the branches wrap around the vine. All that is required of us to experience the radical nearness of God is our openness to God’s presence. Look right in front of you. That’s where God is. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

Monday: (Acts 14) As Gentiles and Jews in Iconium were about to attack Paul and Barnabas, they fled to Lystra where Paul healed a lame man.  

 

Tuesday: (Acts 14) The crowds began to put their faith in Paul and Barnabas as gods, but the men protested and told the story of the Christ event. Opposition to Paul increased shortly afterwards and he was stoned. They left for Derbe to strengthen the disciples in those cities and encouraged them during their times of hardship.

 

Wednesday: (Acts 15) Some of Paul’s Jewish opposition raised the question of circumcision and adherence to the Mosaic laws. Along the way to Jerusalem to seek the advice of the Apostles, they told everyone of the conversion of the Gentiles.

 

Thursday: (Acts 15) After much debate, Peter and James decided that no further restrictions were to be made on the Gentiles.

 

Friday (Acts 15) The Apostles and presbyters chose representatives and sent them to Paul and Barnabas with word that the Gentiles were indeed welcomed into the faith with no extra hardships placed upon them. The people were delighted with the good news.

 

Saturday (Acts 13) In Derbe and Lystra, Paul heard of a man named Timothy who was well regarded by the believers. Paul had him circumcised and they travelled to Macedonia to proclaim the good news.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (John 14) In the Farewell Discourse, Jesus reassures his disciples that he will remain with them if they keep his commandments to love one another. 

 

Tuesday: (John 14) To punctuate his message of consolation, he tells them he will send an advocate to teach and remind them of all he told them.

 

Wednesday (John 15) Jesus leaves them with his lasting peace that will help them endure many difficult times. This peace will allow us people to remain close to him – organically as he is the vine and we are the branches. 

 

Thursday (John 15) Remaining close to Jesus will allow us to share complete joy with one another. 

 

Friday (John 15) Jesus once again proves his love to his friends by saying that the true friend, the Good Shepherd, will lay down his life for his friends.  

 

Saturday (John 14) However, even with the love of Jesus, his followers will experience hatred in this world, but as his friends and as God’s elect, their harm can never really harm the souls of a believer.

 

Saints of the Week

 

May 2: Athanasius, bishop and doctor (295-373), was an Egyptian who attended the Nicene Council in 325. He wrote about Christ's divinity but this caused his exile by non-Christian emperors. He wrote a treatise on the Incarnation and brought monasticism to the West.

 

May 3: Philip and James, Apostles (first century), were present to Jesus throughout his entire ministry. Philip was named as being explicitly called. James is called the Lesser to distinguish him from James of Zebedee. Little is known of these founders of our faith.

 

May 4: Joseph Mary Rubio, S.J., priest (1864-1929), is a Jesuit known as the Apostle of Madrid. He worked with the poor bringing them the Spiritual Exercises and spiritual direction and he established local trade schools.  

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• May 2, 1706. The death of Jesuit brother G J Kamel. The camellia flower is named after him. 
• May 3, 1945. American troops take over Innsbruck, Austria. Theology studies at the Canisianum resume a few months later. 
• May 4, 1902. The death of Charles Sommervogel, historian of the Society and editor of the bibliography of all publications of the Jesuits from the beginnings of the Society onward. 
• May 5, 1782. At Coimbra, Sebastian Carvahlo, Marquis de Pombal, a cruel persecutor of the Society in Portugal, died in disgrace and exile. His body remained unburied fifty years, till Father Philip Delvaux performed the last rites in 1832. 
• May 6, 1816. Letter of John Adams to Thomas Jefferson mentioning the Jesuits. "If any congregation of men could merit eternal perdition on earth and in hell, it is the company of Loyola." 
• May 7, 1547. Letter of St. Ignatius to the scholastics at Coimbra on Religious Perfection. 
• May 8, 1853. The death of Jan Roothan, the 21st general of the Society, who promoted the central role of the Spiritual Exercises in the work of the Society after the restoration.