Rev. James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.

Jan 15 2025

Home Schooling

When you think of a king coming before his people, the image of someone riding on a donkey does not come to mind. If the Lone Ranger had Silver and Roy Rogers had Trigger, a similar white stallion would seem most fitting for a king. Not an ass, even a purebred one. But this image from the prophet Zechariah is one that must have planted itself in the imagination of Jesus, for that is how he made his great entrance into Jerusalem and was greeted as the Messiah. It was not the entrance of a powerful warrior, but of a gentle king whose rule would bring peace to the nations.

I have sometimes regretted the loss of St. Christopher from the calendar of saints. That legendary saint, whose name means “Christ-bearer,” signaled that the risen Lord had now chosen to be carried by his disciples. We bear him in our bodies, minds, and hearts. We bring him to the world when we work to bring peace and healing and knowledge of the Father.

This necessitates being willing to take on the yoke of Jesus. I remember once hearing that the yokes Jesus made in the carpenter shop under Joseph’s guidance rode easily on the shoulders of the animals, distributing evenly the weight they pulled. The yoke Jesus offers us is his teaching about the kingdom of heaven and how to live in it while in the world. This means putting on his attitude and spirit of attentive listening for the will of the Father—home schooling in the best sense.

Consider/Discuss

How do you believe Jesus will return at the end of time?
Have you accepted the yoke of the Lord? How does it guide you?

Responding to the Word

Lord, give us the rest only you can give when we feel burdened by life’s labors and sorrows. Open our hearts so that we learn from you to seek and accept the yoke that is easy. Give us the strength to help others with the burdens that weigh them down.

Jan 15 2025

Eternal Life-giving Food

God feeding a hungry people is a cherished memory in the Jewish tradition. In his farewell speech to the Israelites, Moses calls upon the people to remember how God gave them food and drink during their many years in the desert. The manna was “something unknown to your fathers,” and the water flowed forth from a “flinty rock.” The water and manna were wondrous signs of God’s presence and care as the Israelites journeyed to a new land.

Jesus proclaimed himself as the living bread come down from heaven, bringing eternal life to all who eat it. We approach the table of the Eucharist to receive the bread and drink the wine, the Body and Blood of Christ made present through the power of the Holy Spirit. Again, something wondrous is happening.

We remember that Jesus did this on the night before he died, and told his disciples to “do this in memory of me.” When we do this, the saving event of Christ’s death and resurrection is made present in the broken bread and wine poured out for us. We enter into communion with the risen Lord and one another.

Through our sharing in the memorial meal, Christ re-members us as his body and sends us out to witness to God’s fidelity in the past and God’s promise for the future: a world renewed, restored, reborn in the Spirit. God continues to feed us on the road from slavery to freedom, from death to life.

Consider/Discuss

Are you able to see beyond the morsel of bread and sip from the cup to recognize God feeding you and drawing you into communion with the Son and all who are fed?
Do you connect the Eucharist with the mission of the Church in the world, when you hear: “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”?

Responding to the Word

Today’s feast has a special hymn called a “Sequence” before the Gospel. Some of the images and ideas are: Jesus good shepherd and true bread, have mercy on us; feed us and guard us. Grant that we find happiness in the land of the living. Make us your guests in heaven, co-heirs with you and companions of heaven’s citizens.

Jan 15 2025

Who Are You? What Do You Do?

Once a young priest was giving a blessing in our seminary chapel and he left out the ands separating the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. An older priest loudly whispered: “Modalism!” This was a heresy in the early church that taught that there was one God but not three distinct persons, only three modes or ways of experiencing God. Thus, those ands were important, giving emphasis to three distinct persons. We believe in one God who is three: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Your head can hurt trying to wrap your mind around this mystery. Today’s readings don’t try to “figure it out.” They simply allow God to be introduced. First God gives Moses a name: “Lord.” God then spells out what that means for Moses and a people liberated from slavery. God is “merciful and gracious, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity.”

The Gospel of John reveals Jesus as beloved Son sent into the world. For “God so loved the world he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but have eternal life” (3:16). God really loves creation and all that continues to be created in love.

Finally, Paul’s farewell to the Corinthians refers to the Lord Jesus who graces, the Father who loves, and the Holy Spirit who draws everyone into community. In brief, at the heart of God is found love, grace, mercy, community, kindness, and fidelity. Not a bad introduction. More ways to know the Trinity will be discovered as we move through “ordinary” time.

Consider/Discuss

Do you have a favorite name for God? How do you think of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit?
How would you “introduce” the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to someone who does not know them?

Responding to the Word

We place ourselves before the most Holy Trinity, praying for a faith that can humbly bow before this mystery, accepting that we have been given to know God as three in one, that God is drawing us ever more deeply into sharing the life and love that flow between and among these three Persons. We pray our lives may witness to this love.

Jan 14 2025

Three Gifts of Pentecost

The disciples were cowering behind locked doors. Fear has a way of imprisoning, away from the outer world, but also from our inner world, taking away our freedom to hope, imagine, and dream. We can become comfortable working in cramped spaces, isolated and unattached, removed from life and contact with others.

But then along comes the risen Lord, arms outstretched, heart wide open, bearing gifts to transform our lives. The first gift of the risen Lord is peace (shalom), which translates as all good things, physically, mentally, and spiritually—all that is needed to be alive inside. This peace is a gift that the world cannot give.

The second gift is a mission: we are sent, as Jesus was sent, by the Father. Where? To the world. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16–17). Now the Son sends the disciples—us!—to bring life.

The third gift is the Holy Spirit, given for the forgiveness of sins. The Holy Spirit is the gift of the Father and the Son, given to us at baptism, again at confirmation, and whose gifts are given to the church and its members for the good of all, within and outside the church. Primary among these gifts is the gift of forgiveness.

Consider/Discuss

Have I received the gift of the Holy Spirit who brings the forgiveness of my own sins?
Have I made use of this gift of the Holy Spirit who calls me to bring forgiveness to others?

Responding to the Word

During this week, pray the Sequence used at Mass for Pentecost before the Gospel, “Come, Holy Spirit, come!” Notice especially these words: “Heal our wounds, our strength renew/On our dryness pour your dew/Wash the stains of guilt away/Bend the stubborn heart and will/Melt the frozen, warm the chill.”

Jan 14 2025

Giving God Glory

There are moments of life that we call “glorious,” special times beyond ordinary experience, that give us a hint of transcendence, a glimpse of glory, whether it is a “glorious day” in spring or a “glorious occasion” like a wedding. Such times lift our spirits and hearts, and we feel transported to a different level of awareness and know a joy beyond words. Such are moments of glory.

We hear the words “glory” and “glorify” five times in the opening verses of to day’s Gospel as Jesus prays to his Father. In John’s Gospel this is the last recorded prayer of Jesus, since John does not have Jesus praying in the garden. Jesus begins his prayer by telling the Father the “hour” has come, that is, the hour of revelation, the time when the Father will give glory to the Son and the Son will glorify the Father. It is the moment when the Son is “lifted up,” which refers to both the lifting up on the cross and the Resurrection. Jesus has said: “And when I am lifted up, I will draw all things to myself” (John 12:32).

This mutual glorifying that characterizes the relationship between the Father and the Son also embraces the disciples. Jesus says at the end of today’s reading that he prays “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” (John 17:10).

Consider/Discuss

Do you see your life as one that gives glory to God by what you say and do?
Do you follow the example of Jesus by encouraging others to glorify God?

Responding to the Word

We pray this final Sunday in the Easter season that the prayer of Jesus can also be ours: Father, give glory to your children, so that your children may glorify you. Help us to know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ. Alleluia. Amen.