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

Jan 14 2025

The Work Goes On

We can get caught up in the details and miss the heart of the message today. Where did Jesus go? Is heaven “up there”? Why doesn’t Matthew’s Gospel have Jesus being taken up? Doesn’t this feast remove Jesus from us, to some place where he “sits at the right hand of the Father”? Sound a little disengaged?

In his introduction to the writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Jean Leclercq writes that the mystery of the Ascension fulfilled the mystery of love in which Jesus returns to the glory of the Father. The Son then sends this Spirit to unite us with the Father in love. Thus, in Bernard’s thought, the Ascension is a symbol for the passage of Christ from his life in mortal flesh to glorious life in the Spirit. This same transition from flesh to Spirit can also be accomplished in us, since it has already taken place in Christ.

But we are not simply passive recipients. There is work to be done. Luke’s angels bluntly tell the apostles to get moving. Matthew’s final scene spells out the work: “Go forth and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching others to observe all that I have commanded you.” Witness to Jesus, in word and deed.

The task of spreading the good news that is Jesus Christ, teaching others about him, can seem daunting. But we are not alone. We have the promise that the Holy Spirit will work with us; in Matthew, Jesus’ final words are reassuring: “I am with you always.” That is reason enough to work with confidence.

Consider/Discuss

Does the image of Jesus ascending to sit at the right hand of the Father comfort you? Challenge you?
When is the last time you witnessed to Christ, sharing what he means to you?

Responding to the Word

We pray: Loving Father, give us your Spirit of wisdom and revelation to enlighten the eyes of our hearts, so we may have the hope that accompanies your call and come to the glory that is our inheritance. May your great power be at work in us, raising us to new life as it did your Son Jesus. Amen.

Jan 14 2025

Living into the Mystery

The Easter season keeps offering us pictures of what happens when the power of resurrected life, given by Jesus to his disciples, enters the world. Sometimes it led to a recognition that one group should not be favored over another, whether they were widows or Samaritans. All were to be served; all were to receive the gospel.

When the deacon Philip began to preach Jesus as the Messiah, the people of Samaria listened. They not only heard Philip’s message but also saw the power of God’s salvation at work as he cast out demons and cured people who were crippled and paralyzed. With the new birth of faith came baptism and a reception of the Holy Spirit, when Peter and John laid hands on them.

The Holy Spirit continues to bring the truth of who God is and the strength to help us live in that truth, fully revealed in Jesus. Because of the Spirit, we dwell with the Father and the Son. Jesus’ promises come to fulfillment in us; we are not orphans but beloved sons and daughters, the divine life of the Trinity flowing in us. In the Eucharist Jesus comes to be with us, and brings the Father, for he is in the Father and we are in him and he in us.

Resurrection life commits us to living out the command “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope” (1 Peter 3:15). The Spirit brings hope and, as Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his encyclical “Saved in Hope” (Spe Salvi), “The one who has hope lives differently.”

Consider/Discuss

What does it mean to have the Holy Spirit with you as an “Advocate,” that is, a “counselor” or “protector”?
Jesus says the world cannot accept the Spirit of truth “because it neither sees nor knows him.” Does this mean the world is beyond hope?

Responding to the Word

We ask the Holy Spirit to be with us always, so we may live more fully in an awareness of the truth that is Jesus Christ, beloved Son, who came to teach us what it means to be children of God. Pray to be more aware of your intimate com munion with the Father and the Son.

Jan 14 2025

A House of Living Stones

Over the years several television shows have focused on rebuilding and reshaping houses. For over thirty years PBS’s This Old House has offered tips on repairing homes. More recently, Extreme Makeover takes a team into someone’s home and transforms it to meet the serious needs of its occupants, often dealing with health or disability issues or trying to serve the larger community in some way.

From the beginning the church has been imagined as a house of living stones, built on Jesus Christ, a dwelling place where people come for shelter and sustenance, where they can set down their burdens and find comfort and consolation before being sent back out in the world to make it a better place to live.

The risen Christ is truly one who offers an “extreme makeover.” He can be trusted to shape us into a dwelling place where the Spirit of the Lord takes up permanent residence, bringing gifts to benefit the world. From the beginning there have been challenges for those who form the church, and an ongoing need for renovation to meet the needs of the time.

Our efforts to make the church a home where love, mercy, justice, and peace will be found should lead us to build more firmly on Jesus our cornerstone. When the time comes, the home he promised to prepare for us and take us to should be easily recognizable. It should not be that much different from the church we have been living in all our lives.

Consider/Discuss

What does it mean to be a community of “living stones”?
What are the “works” that Jesus empowers us to do, perhaps even greater than what he did?

Responding to the Word

We pray the Lord to give us confidence to trust in his word that he has gone to prepare a permanent dwelling place for us, where we will be with him and all those who have gone ahead of us. We pray that this assurance may strengthen us to live as if we were already there.

Jan 14 2025

Following the Shepherd

At the end of the day, shepherds would bring their sheep to a common sheep fold, leading them through a gate that was guarded during the night. Shepherds would give names to their sheep and call to them when daylight came, leading them back out to pasture. Because the sheep recognized the shepherd’s voice there was no mix-up with sheep that belonged to others.

The idea that shepherds had a name for each of their sheep brings home the difference between a good shepherd and a stranger. The good shepherd was concerned not only for the flock but for each sheep in it. He knew them and they knew him. “They will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers” (John 10:5).

There are two words in Greek for “good”—agathos and kalos. Agathos refers to moral goodness, as in being a “good person.” Kalos refers to being “good at” something. Certainly Jesus is the Good Shepherd in both senses, but the word used here is kalos, emphasizing his being “good at” shepherding.

Jesus knows his sheep by name, leads them to safety when darkness falls, and returns them to pasture. He was willing to lay down his life for them. Most comforting of all, he came then and comes now so we might have life and have it more abundantly. This image challenges all who have been called to be shepherds in today’s church, to be good shepherds and to be good at shepherding.

Consider/Discuss

What does the image of Jesus as the good shepherd say to you in your life?
What does the promise of “abundant life” mean for you?
Have you come to know the difference between the voice of the good shepherd and the voice of “a stranger”?

Responding to the Word

Jesus, our shepherd, not only cares and searches us out, but he “bore our sins in his body upon the cross so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). We praise the Father for giving us Jesus as “the shepherd and guardian of our souls” and we pray for all who have taken up ministering to God’s people.

Jan 14 2025

Resurrection Words

The power of words spoken by a person with great conviction can be transformative. I have heard various presidents of our country speak, and many preachers of the gospel. Most memorable were those who offered not only a well-written speech but one communicated with what has been called “fire in the belly.” This does not translate necessarily into a lot of shouting or banging of the podium, but more an experience of word becoming flesh.

Jesus certainly had this ability, as we hear today in the disciples’ reaction: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he spoke to us on the way and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32). The same sense of heat being generated is in today’s first reading when Peter raises his voice and proclaims: “You who are Israelites, hear these words” (Acts 2:22). Peter then goes on to preach Jesus Christ whom “God raised . . . up, releasing him from the throes of death, because it was impossible for him to be held by it” (2:24). This is a far cry from Peter in the courtyard the night Jesus was arrested.

We spend seven weeks celebrating the Easter event so that the awareness of this mystery might occupy a bigger place in our heart. Like the disciples on the road, we may find ourselves losing hope that our belief in Jesus really matters in today’s world, but seven weeks of Easter can help us recover a stronger sense of what we heard in 1 Peter today, that truly our “faith and hope are in God” (1 Peter 1:21).

Consider/Discuss

Can you think of a time when the words of another have transformed how you were thinking or feeling?
What impact do the words “He has been raised!” have on you?

Responding to the Word

We can pray that we will be welcoming to anyone through whom Jesus continues to meet us on the road and bring us to deeper understanding of what his death and resurrection mean for our lives and the life of the world. We pray for liberation from whatever prevents us from recognizing him.