Fire in their Hearts:
The Third Sunday of Easter
April 23, 2023
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Acts 2:14, 22-33; Psalm 16; 1 Peter 1:17-21; Luke 24:13-35
The church gives us two sets of readings that are proofs of the Resurrection. In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter and the other Apostles return to Jerusalem with fire in their hearts to challenge the leaders of Israel who had unjustly put Jesus to death and that God validated the whole life of Jesus and had raised him up. The Apostles had renewed vigor to continue the preaching of Jesus and to call the leaders to task by rejecting God’s messenger. The Gospel portrays the story of the two disciples leaving Jerusalem discouraged by the failure of the Jesus movement as they walk together until they are joined by a stranger. This walking together, journeying together, from which we model our current Synod, and sharing stories are at the heart of our faith.
Last Monday as I participated in the Marathon, at mile ten, I decided to conserve my running and to walk briskly for the next mile. A fellow runner, a 64-year-old man pulled up beside me and asked, “May I walk with you? I’m light-headed and there’s a lot going on inside my head and I need to focus. I’m not sure I can finish.” “Of course,” I replied, “Tell me what you are going through?” He began to tell me that he often runs marathons and hadn’t completed the last ones, and he had certain goals for this particular race. It was rainy, chilly, and unpleasant, and he started telling me his story. Just then, another man, around 28 years old, pulled up and asked, “May I walk with you. I’m cramping badly. Can I walk with you?” “Of course,” We supplied him with bananas and water and did our best to carry him along before he hit the medical tent. It could have been the start of a joke: a priest, an Orthodox Jew, and a Black American man went out for a walk.
The story of Emmaus kept coming to mind, and the goals of the Synod. Walking together and encountering the story of another person is at the center of who we are as a People of God. Our mission is to meet each other on the road and to discover each other regardless of categories. We are to walk each other home to the Lord and to help each other along the way. In the Marathon, I gave up my larger goal of trying to reach the end faster. My focus became caring for the man who was my traveling companion and making sure that he was doing well. He kept telling me that he would have never finished if it hadn’t been for me, and later on in the journey, along those last three miles when I was cramping, when I was cramping with doubt, his presence pulled me towards the finish line. We needed one another, and we recognized we were the blessing to each other that we needed.
Our Synod is not about Catholics speaking to Catholics. It is about lifting distinctions and seeing the person alongside of us and befriending them. It means being moved by another person’s story so much that the fire in our hearts burn with desire because we know Christ is with us, even if we do not speak it. It is about looking into the person’s eye and seeing one’s humanity and what brings us together, rather than what defines us distinctly. We need to open our hearts to the invitations of the Holy Spirit that creates a culture of encounter. It is through walking together, understanding one’s struggles, and helping them to the finish line that really matters. The Risen Christ walked with the disciples on the road to Emmaus and walks with us today to keep us open, to open up the faith in new ways, and to help us realize that we need others on our journey home.
Scripture for Daily Mass
Monday: (Acts 6) Stephen worked great signs and wonders in the name of Jesus.
Tuesday: (Acts 7) False testimony is lodged against him but he stands angelic before them. Angry opponents stone him, including Saul, who consents to execute him.
Wednesday: (Acts 8) A severe persecution breaks out in Jerusalem and the believers are displaced to Judea and Samaria. Saul, trying to destroy the Church, enters house after house to arrest them.
Thursday: (Acts 8) Philip’s testimony and miracles in Samaria emboldens the believers. Philip heads out to Gaza and meets an Ethiopian eunuch who is reading Isaiah’s texts. Philip interprets the scripture and the eunuch begs to be baptized.
Friday (Acts 9) Meanwhile, Saul is carrying out hateful acts against the believers and is struck blind as he beholds a manifestation of Jesus. The beginning of his call and conversion takes place.
Saturday (1 Peter 6 – Mark the Evangelist) Clothe yourself in humility; be sober and vigilant and resist the devil. The God of grace will restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you after you have suffered a little.
Gospel:
Monday: (John 6) Jesus feeds the 5000 as a flashback to the Eucharistic memory of the believers with the Bread of Life discourse.
Tuesday: (John 6) Jesus instructs them, “It was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven; my heavenly father gives the true bread.” Jesus proclaims, “I am the bread of life.”
Wednesday (John 6) God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but that the world might be saved through him.
Thursday (John 6) Jesus states that all that is required is belief in him. Belief is not given to all. The way to the way is through the Son.
Friday (John 6) The Jews quarreled and opposition to the cannibalistic references of Jesus rises because his sayings are hard to accept. He tells the people, “my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” If you eat of Jesus, you will live forever.
Saturday (Mark 16) Jesus appeared to the Eleven giving them instructions to proclaim the Gospel to every creature.
Saints of the Week
April 23: George, martyr (d. 303), was killed in Lydda, Palestine. He may have been a Roman soldier who organized a Christian community in what is now Iran (Urmiah). He became part of the Middle Ages imagination for his ideal of Christian chivalry and is thought to have slain a dragon. He was sent to Britain on an imperial expedition. He became the patron of England (and of Crusaders) and the nation adopted George’s Arms, a red cross on a white background, which is still part of the British flag.
April 23: Adalbert, bishop and martyr (956-997), was Bohemian-born who was consecrated bishop of Prague amidst fierce political opposition. He was exiled and became a Benedictine monk in Rome that he used as a base to preach missions in Poland, Prussia, Hungary, and Russia. He is named the "Apostle to the Slavs." He was killed in Gdansk, Poland.
April 24: Fidelis of Sigmaringen, priest and martyr (1578-1622), was a canon lawyer from Swabia, Germany who became a Capuchin Franciscan in Switzerland in 1612. Prior to priesthood, he tutored nobles in France, Italy and Spain and helped interpret legislation that served the poor. He was known as the "lawyer for the poor." He was later appointed to the challenging task of preaching to the Protestants in Switzerland, where he was killed for being an agent for the king. He was the head of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in anti-Catholic hostilities. He was accused of being the king's political agent and was assaulted and killed.
April 25: Mark, the Evangelist is the author of the earliest Gospel and is associated with Peter whom he heard preach. Mark was a member of the first Christian community in Jerusalem and his mother owned a house in the city that was used as a place of prayer during Peter's imprisonment under Herod Agrippa I. He was originally a companion of Paul and Barnabas having traveled with them back to Antioch in Syria. Later, they brought him along as their assistant on a missionary journey. He is associated with Peter’s ministry later in life. He was sent to Alexandria and formed a church that is now known as the Coptic Orthodox Church.
April 28: Peter Chanel, priest, missionary, martyr (1803-1841), is the first martyr of the Pacific South Seas. Originally a parish priest in rural eastern France, he joined the Society of Mary (Marists) to become a missionary in 1831 after a five-year stint teaching in the seminary. At first the missionaries were well-received in the New Hebrides and other Pacific island nations as they recently outlawed cannibalism. The growth of white influence placed Chanel under suspicion, which led to an attack on the missionaries. When the king’s son wanted to be baptized, his anger erupted and Peter was clubbed to death in protest.
April 28: Louis of Montfort, priest (1673-1716), dedicated his life to the care of the poor and the sick as a hospital chaplain in Poitiers, France. He angered the public and the administration when he tried to organize the hospital women's workers into a religious organization. He was let go. He went to Rome where the pope gave him the title "missionary apostolic" so he could preach missions that promoted a Marian and Rosary-based spirituality. He formed the "Priests of the Company of Mary" and the "Daughters of Wisdom."
April 29: Catherine of Siena, mystic and doctor of the Church (1347-1380), was the 24th of 25thchildren. At an early age, she had visions of guardian angels and the saints. She became a Third-Order Dominican and persuaded the Pope to return to Rome from Avignon in 1377. She died at age 33 after receiving the stigmata.
This Week in Jesuit History
- April 23, 1644. A General Chapter of the Benedictines condemned the calumny that St Ignatius was not the real author of the Spiritual Exercises. A monk had earlier claimed that the content was borrowed from a work by Garzia Cisneros.
- April 24, 1589. At Bordeaux, the Society was ordered to leave the city. It had been falsely accused of favoring the faction that was opposed to King Henry III.
- April 25, 1915. Pierre Rousselot, Professor at the Institute Catholique in Paris, is wounded and taken prisoner during World War I.
- April 26, 1935. Lumen Vitae, center for catechetics and religious formation was founded in Brussels.
- April 27, 1880. On the occasion of the visit of Jules Ferry, French minister of education, to Amiens, France, shouts were raised under the Jesuit College windows: "Les Jesuites a la guillotine."
- April 28, 1542. St Ignatius sent Pedro Ribadeneira, aged fifteen, from Rome to Paris for his studies. Pedro had been admitted into the Society in l539 or l540.
- April 29, 1933. Thomas Ewing Sherman died in New Orleans. An orator on the mission band, he was the son of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman. He suffered a breakdown, and wanted to leave the Society, but was refused because of his ill health. Before his death he renewed his vows in the Society.
