May 11 Monday:
Jn 14:21-26: 21
He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who
loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to
him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will
manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If a
man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will
come to him and make our home with him. 24 He who does not love me does not
keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father’s who
sent me. 25 “These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. 26
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he
will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have
said to you.(http://www.usccb.org/bible/reflections/)
The context: Today’s
Gospel passage is taken from Jesus’ Last Super discourse. It was commonly held
by the Jews that when the Messiah came, he would be revealed to the whole world
as King and Savior. Hence, Judas Thaddeus asks why Jesus is revealing himself
only to his disciples. Jesus does not answer that question directly. Instead,
He continues his work of preparing his disciples for his imminent departure
from them by assuring them that he is not leaving them alone. Instead, Jesus is
going to live in them along with God his Father and God the Holy Spirit.
Jesus promises the abiding presence of the Holy Trinity in
his disciples who express their responsive love for him by keeping his
commandments, especially his commandment of love, because only this type of
loving will open them and make them receptive to the Divine Indwelling of the
Trinitarian God. Jesus is referring to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in the
soul renewed by grace. God repeatedly revealed Himself in the Old Testament and
promised to dwell in the midst of His people (cf. Ex 29:45; Ez 37:26-27; etc.).
But here Jesus speaks of the presence of God in each person. We are each a part
of the Divine chain of love. God loves man. He sent His Son to prove it. After
Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension, God the Father continues to live in us with
His Son and the Holy Spirit. This abiding God gives us the Father’s protection
and providence, the Son’s redemption and forgiveness of sins, and the Holy
Spirit’s sanctification and guidance.
Life messages: 1)
Let us live in constant awareness of the abiding presence of the Trinitarian
God within us and behave well in His presence. 2) During moments of doubts and
temptations, let us seek the active guidance and strengthening of our
indwelling God.Fr. Tony(http://frtonyshomilies.com/)20
May 12 Tuesday:
Jn 14:27-31a: 27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I
give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 28
You heard me say to you, `I go away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me,
you would have rejoiced, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater
than I. 29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does
take place, you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the
ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me; 31 but I do as the
Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father.
Rise, let us go hence.
The context: In
his Last Supper discourse, Jesus gives two gifts to his disciples, namely, the
gift of peace and the gift of the cross leading to glory. Today’s passage
refers to the gift of peace. Wishing a person peace (Shalom), was, and
still is, the usual form of greeting among the Jews and the Arabs. Shalom is
a right relationship with God and with others. Moses instructed the
Israelites to bless others with God’s peace: “The Lord bless you and keep
you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord
lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace” (Numbers
6:22-26). “Peace be with you!” is the greeting which Jesus
used, and which the Apostles continued to use. Hence, the Church uses it
several times in the liturgy. Peace is one of the great Messianic gifts. St.
Paul tells us that it is it is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Jesus
repeats his promise saying, “My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with
you.” Pope St. Paul VI (canonized October 14, 2018), said: “True peace
must be founded upon justice, upon a sense of the untouchable dignity of man,
upon the recognition of an indelible and happy equality between men, upon the
basic principle of human brotherhood.”
Life message: We
are invited to live in the peace wished by Jesus. This requires that we be
reconciled every day with ourselves, with our neighbors and with our God.
Reconciliation with God demands that we obey His commandments, repent every day
of our sins, and ask God’s forgiveness. Reconciliation
with others demands that we forgive others for their offenses against us and
that we ask for their forgiveness for our offenses against them in words and
deeds. Reconciliation with ourselves comes from our grace-given humble
recognition of our weaknesses and failures and our grateful acceptance and use
of the Holy Spirit’s loving gifts to us of deepened love and trust that God
loves us in spite of these weaknesses, forgives us our sins when we repent,
helps us to do better, and uses our weaknesses to bring us closer to Him, and
to demonstrate His own Love and Power working through us for His glory.
Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)20
May 13 Wednesday (Our
Lady of Fatima)
John 15: 1-8: Today is the 103rd anniversary
of the first apparition of Our Lady to three shepherd children, Lúcia Santos
(10) who later became a Carmelite nun, and her cousins Francisco Marto (9) who
died at 11 in 1919 and Jacinta (7) who died at 10 in 1920. Lúcia Santos became
Sister Lúcia died in 2005 at the age of 97. The apparitions took place on a
small spreading oak tree, six times in five months, on the thirteenth of
each month from May through October, 1917, at Fatima, a village 110 miles North
of Lisbon in Portugal. Mary instructed the children to pray the Rosary for
world peace, for the end of World War I, for sinners and for the conversion of
Russia. On October 13th, 1917, seventy thousand people
witnessed the dancing sun miracle without hurting their eyes. They saw the sun
rotating, enlarging, shrinking, approaching and retreating. (http://www.usccb.org/bible/reflections/)
The three secrets of
Fatima: On July 13, around noon, the Lady is said to have
entrusted three secrets to the children. Two of the secrets were revealed
in 1941 in a document
written by Lúcia, at the request of José
da Silva, Bishop
of Leiria, to assist with the publication of a new edition of a book on
Jacinta. The first secret was a vision of hell and its torments. The second
secret was a statement that World War I would end
and supposedly a prediction of the coming of World War II, should God
continue to be offended and if Russia were not converted. The second half
requests that Russia be consecrated to the Immaculate Heart. When asked
by the Bishop of Leiria in 1943 to reveal the third secret, Lúcia struggled for
a short period, being “not yet convinced that God had clearly authorized her to
act.” However, in October of 1943 the bishop of Leiria ordered her to put it in
writing. Lucia then wrote the secret down and sealed it an envelope not to be
opened until 1960, when “it will appear clearer.” Pope John Paul II directed
the Holy See’s Secretary of State to reveal the third secret in 2000. It spoke
of a “bishop in white who was shot by a group of soldiers who fired bullets and
arrows into him.” Many people, including Pope St. John Paul II himself, linked
this secret to the May 13, 1981 assassination attempt against him in St.
Peter’s Square by Turkish gunman Mehmet Ali Agca. Some claim that this was not
the real secret revealed to Lúcia, despite assertions from the Vatican and
Sister Lucia herself to the contrary. According to Cardinal Angelo Sodano, “it
appeared evident to his Holiness that it was a motherly hand which guided the
bullets past, enabling the dying Pope to halt at the threshold of death.”
(BBC). The local bishop approved the feast of Our Lady of Fatima in 1930; and
it was added to the Church’s worldwide calendar in 2002.
Life messages: 1)
We need to become holy children of a holy Mother by leading pure lives. 2) We
need to imitate Mary’s trusting faith in God’s power, her unconditional
surrender and obedience to God’s will, and her spirit of selfless and humble
service. 3) We need to obey the Fatima message of repentance, renewal of life
and praying the Rosary. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)20
May 14 Thursday: St.
Mathias, Apostle
(https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-matthias/ ) Jn
15:9-17: 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide
in my love. 10 If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as
I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11 These things I
have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 12
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13
Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I
call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but
I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have
made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you
that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that
whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 This I
command you, to love one another. (http://www.usccb.org/bible/reflections/)
The context: During
the Last Supper discourse, Jesus instructs his disciples about love as the
hallmark of Christians and the criterion of discipleship, and he teaches them
how love should be practiced.
The criterion of Christian love: Jesus explains to his
Apostles that the basis and criterion of his love for them is the Love existing
among the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, and that his love for them is a
reflection of that Love. In other words, God’s love for us, as shown by Jesus
through his unconditional, self-giving, sacrificial love expressed in his
obedience to his Father, must be the criterion of Christian love. We express
our love for Christ by obeying his new commandment of love.
The new commandment: “This is my commandment, that you love
one another as I have loved you.” The old commandment was to “love
your neighbor as you love yourself.” But Jesus insisted that the
criterion of Christian love must be the same as the one for his love. So, our
love must also be sacrificial, forgiving, unconditional, selfless and
self-giving. The highest expression of this love is our willingness to lay down
our lives as Jesus did, for people who don’t deserve it.
Life message: 1)
We need to be Jesus’ friends: Jesus invites each Christian to live in the inner
circle of his friends by obeying his commandments, including the new
commandment of love. Such friends abide in Jesus, and Jesus abides in them, and
their prayers in Jesus’ Name will be answered promptly by God the Father.
Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/) 20
May 15 Friday (St.
Isidore
(U.S.A.) https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-isidore-of-seville/
Jn 15: 12-17: 12 “This is my commandment, that you love one
another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no man than this, that a
man lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I
command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know
what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I
have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose
me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear
fruit and that your fruit should abide; so that whatever you ask the
Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 This I command you, to love one
another. (http://www.usccb.org/bible/reflections/)
The context:
Today’s Gospel passage is a part of Jesus’ Last Supper discourse. Jesus reminds
his disciples that he has chosen them as his friends with a triple
mission. First, they are to love others as he has loved them. Second,
they are to bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Third,
they are to ask God the Father in Jesus’ Name, for whatever they need.
First, Jesus modifies the Old Testament command from “love
your neighbor as you love yourselves” (Lv 19:18) to “love others as I
have loved you.” This means that our love for others must be
unconditional, forgiving and sacrificial. We, too, must be ready to express our
love for others by our readiness to die for them as Jesus died for us. Second,
Jesus explains that the calling to produce fruits, which the Apostles received,
and which every Christian also receives, does not originate in the individual’s
good desires but in Christ’s free choice. Third, Jesus concludes his advice by
referring to the effectiveness of prayer offered in his Name. That is why
the Church usually ends the prayers of the liturgy with the invocation “Through
Jesus Christ our Lord….”
Life message 1)
Let us remember that true Christian love is costly and painful because it
involves sacrifice on our part when we start loving unlovable, ungrateful and
hostile people with Christ’s unconditional, forgiving and sacrificial love. But
our Christian call is to love others as Jesus has loved us, and as Jesus loves
them, and he always gives us the grace to do so. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)20
May 16 Saturday:
Jn 15:18-21: 18
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19 If
you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of
the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates
you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, `A servant is not greater than
his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you; if they kept my
word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all this they will do to you on my
account, because they do not know him who sent me. (http://www.usccb.org/bible/reflections/)
The context: In
today’s Gospel passage, taken from the Last Supper discourse, Jesus warns his
apostles of what they are to expect from a world which ignores God and His
teaching. They will be hated and persecuted as Jesus was. But there can be no
compromise between Christ’s disciples and the followers of the powers of darkness.
The term “world” in today’s Gospel passage means people who are hostile towards
God and opposed to His will. They represent an evil society which “calls evil
good and good evil” (Is 5:20). Such a society will hate Christ
and his teachings because Christian teaching exposes the evil of society and
its false and dangerous doctrines. Since the Church Jesus established stands
for truth, morality and justice, it does not support the modern “dictatorship
of relativism.” The modern world hates and ridicules everything Christian
through its liberal, agnostic and atheistic media.
Life message: Let
us ask the Holy Spirit for the courage of our Christian convictions to believe
and practice what Jesus taught and what Jesus continues to teach through the
Church. Tony (http://frtonyshomilies.com/)20