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Reflection for Passion Sunday 2023

How to Overcome.

“Did I not tell you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”

Thank you for joining as we continue our journey together, now in Passiontide. We are drawing closer and closer to the days of Jesus’ arrest, trial, cruel murder, and burial. Our hearts (that is our whole selves) consider most somberly our Lenten accomplishment and what is to come. 

Have these eight weeks helped us get rid of those hot stoves of sin in our lives?

In the second part of Bitter Lamentations which we sang together yesterday while on retreat, in the Lamentation Hymn, we hear the words: They whipped His shoulders; for my sins they beat Him. Come, all you sinners, Jesus’ blood is readied. As soothing ointment for wretched hearts of sin; Well-spring of true life.

In today’s readings and gospel we see exactly that wellspring of life, true life, cutting through doubt, confusion, worry, sadness, and finally death.

In Ezekiel’s prophesy God reveals that He will not only open people’s graves and have them rise – a physical fact, but simultaneously He will place His spirit in [them] that [they] may live. His work is true life in its factuality as well as in our very being. We are not dead on any level. God brings us to a life that is throughout. The old stoves of sin are cast off and we really live.

St. Paul reminds the Romans that they are: in the spirit. So, we are. We already possess new life as dwellers in the kingdom, we have new life in Christ by our baptism and our witness. 

Because of what remains in us of the flesh we have work to do. We need Paul’s reminder that we are in the spirit so we might set to work in getting rid of those stoves of sin, breaking away from the old fleshiness that we cling to.

Let us consider the gospel of Jesus raising Lazarus in part as a whole and in part as a series of vignettes – small stories, glimpses into human fleshy reality where we hold unto doubt, confusion, worry, sadness, and death.

If you will notice, Jesus does not say very much throughout. His statements are short and pointed solely to the revelation of God’s glory that is in Him, and the fact that all this is being done to show Who He really is.

Think of these scenes as the overarching story unfolds: Martha, Mary, and certainly Lazarus too, were worried. They call for Jesus’ help. He does not arrive. Lazarus dies. The apostles are confused by all of this because Jesus is not helping and then He says they are going back to Judea where He is under threat of death. Martha and Mary are sad. Jesus arrives six days too late from our fleshy perspective. The crowds criticize. There is a dialog about these long off last days and the resurrection.

We see in these vignettes people’s doubt, confusion, worry, sadness, and death. All this is not just centered on hot stoves of sin and a failure to see clearly Who Jesus is. It is an exhibit of an entire hot kitchen of sin that is the old flesh.

Then something amazing: “Take away the stone.” Jesus shows Himself God, bringing life from death and the first glimpse of the life He will bring us from the cross. As we wend through this Passiontide let us focus on the new true life we have in Jesus. Jesus’ blood is readied for us. 

Christian Witness, Homilies, PNCC, , , ,

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Institution 2023

How to Overcome.

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected when received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the invocation of God in prayer.

Thank you for joining as we celebrate this special day in the life of our Church while simultaneously continuing our journey through Lent.

Over the past six weeks (can you believe it has been that long?) we have identified the hot stoves of sin in our lives, those dangers we love to run toward. We have set to work at getting rid of them. Those old, hot, rusty, greasy, ugly things in our lives must go. 

With that in mind, we discussed the tools available to us that help us get rid of those sin problems. They are the same tools Jesus used and exemplified for us: prayer, studying scripture, speaking about the kingdom, fasting, and communing in relationship centered on the Father. 

Seems easy enough until we set to doing them. Once we move toward that way of life, a deeper relationship with God, the Tempter enters., He comes with distractions, easy outs, and an appeal to our baser selves.

If we do stay on track, guess what? We will have the same success Jesus had. But the work toward success will be marked by further challenges, namely the Accuser comes forward with blame, he doesn’t want us to succeed or to understand the goodness and mercy our God provides. It is almost a last-ditch effort to have us abandon hope.

Jesus overcame all things for us, from the dessert to the cross. We were chosen by Him. Because of that, we are on the road to heaven. We can indeed overcome all hardship and opposition from both the Tempter and the Accuser, but we must change our attitudes and perspectives. We must solely focus on Jesus’ grant of hope. It is our guarantee!

One-hundred and twenty-six years ago a group of people facing poverty, prejudice, and every form of human accusation and earthly temptation took a stand and instituted this Holy Church, consistent with the pristine Catholic Church of the first centuries. Their work and effort was not for the purpose of being different in a simply outward manner, but intended to represent a complete change in attitude, and change of view toward the same path the earliest of Christians saw in Jesus’ redemption. They knew to trust, and so we must trust.

St. Paul tells the young bishop Timothy to differentiate rightly. We must, as St. Paul warned, avoid those who would teach falsely, who would urge us to reject God’s good gifts, so that we might clearly perceive and live in them.

Things that are evil, the hot stoves of sin that harm, destroy, hurt, and lessen human dignity cause one to fail in loving God and neighbor (the greatest commandment). Sometimes it can seem obvious, sometimes we just live with sins we have become blind to. 

Let us then focus on what God has created, foremost the salvation given to us in Christ Jesus. Let us focus on being part of Him, grafted onto Him. Let us then focus our efforts, our strengths and even our weaknesses into overcoming sin, our blind spots, and bearing fruit abundantly for God, bringing Him all glory.

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Reflection for the Solemnity of the Humble Shepherds 2023

My heart changed.

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. 

Thank you for joining as we continue in the celebration of the Christmas Season and in our expectation of the Lord’s return in glory.

This unique Solemnity in our Holy Church dedicates a Sunday in the early Christmas season to the remembrance of those shepherds who first heard of the Lord’s birth from the angels. This Solemnity is so important that it displaces all other Solemnities of the Christmas season excepting the Circumcision, Holy Name of Jesus, and Epiphany should they occur on a Sunday. In most years, this Solemnity occurs on the Sunday after the Nativity. In years like this one with Christmas on a Sunday, this Solemnity is celebrated on the 8th of January.

This Solemnity is wonderful on so many levels for it shows how God interacts with humanity. God sent His angels to the poor workers of the region to announce His salvation, the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament. In fact, He chose the lowest of the low to receive this news.

We can assess their humility from the fact they were not people of pretense. They could not fool anyone about who they were — they even smelled like their work — the sheep, the pastures and woodland.

A lack of pretense is one sign of humility. Oxford notes that humility is: ‘Having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s own importance. Of low social, administrative, or political rank.’

Another sign of humility / humbleness is what the Shepherd’s did with the news. They trusted and went, then having seen told people about it directly and honestly. The Shepherds experienced God and didn’t have to think about it, philosophize, theologize, or seek the local descendent of Aaron, a Levite, or religious leader to interpret for them.

In the Letter of St. James (James 4:10) we hear: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up. Good advice! The more like these Shepherds we are the better off we will be because God will be holding us up.

If we are hanging on to any pretense, let’s wash ourselves of it in confession. If we are grasping after the straws the world offers, know they will snap and break, and we will be alone. So, if we are grasping, let us stop and grasp onto Jesus. If we are holding off in talking about Jesus or waiting for the advice of philosophers, theologians, priests, or best sellers, let us stop waiting and get to work. Speak of Him.

Last week we spoke of being changed, having changed hearts and lives. Here we see the practical model of people who are transparent, honest, and humble about what God has done. God sent His Son Jesus to save us. Let us live as saved and humble as those Shepherds who declared the Lord.

Pray too for all present and these future humble shepherds of our Church: Alfonsito, Nick, Sean, David, Jason, Todd, Adam, Zach, Kevin, Zach, James, Nick, Rodryg, and all Deacon candidates.

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Reflection for the Solemnity of the Circumcision of our Lord 2023

My heart changed.

When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus 

Thank you for joining as we continue in the celebration of the Christmas Season and in our expectation of the Lord’s return in glory.

The question on everyone’s mind “why celebrate this?” I mean, think about it. This ceremony performed probably in Joseph and Mary’s home and all it entails — well it seems both minor and kind of gross.

The Roman Church got rid of this celebration and converted it to a Marian Feast. That cleaned it all up, right? They do not have to think about all this, and they thought they made it all pretty. Unfortunately, they lost the point.

So why do we celebrate our Lord’s circumcision? There are several very important reasons to celebrate.

One reason is that it is factual. January 1st is eight days from December 25th, and in accord with God’s instruction to Abraham which Joe so elegantly read, every male among you, when he is eight days old, shall be circumcised.

Another reason, and this is particularly important for us, is that the fact of the circumcision, the pain and loss of blood, was testament to Jesus’ humanity. Indeed, God had become man. Jesus laid down His Deity and took on our flesh so He could deliver on all the Father’s promises to us.

Jesus as man was the only One Who could save us from our sins by paying their penalty, Who could redeem us, and Who could make us new and co-heirs with Him to eternity in the Kingdom now and to come.

How privileged we all are that God became man, that His humanity was one-hundred percent real and full. Many ancient heresies tried to downplay or outright rejected Jesus’ humanity, but without that humanity we could not have been saved, our debt would not be paid, we would remain our old fallen selves.

In the circumcision we are reminded that this baby boy, Jesus, faced all we face. He was not some magical figure, sitting up in the manger and doing calculus, or speaking, or anything other than what 8-day old babies do — eating, crying, and needing a diaper change.

Finally, the circumcision is a sign in the old covenant, the covenant that Jesus, as God, enjoined on the Jewish people and all in their nation.

Jesus took on this sign of the old covenant in His flesh to declare that He was of Israel, its true son, and just as the sign of the old covenant was in His flesh so would the sign of the new covenant be in His flesh — in nail marks, scars, and a pierced side.

For us, the new covenant in Christ’s flesh and blood frees us, as St Paul says, from the Law and its prescriptions. We live a new changed existence in grace.

St. Paul is being very careful in exhorting the Galatians and us so we might perceive our new reality –who we really are as a changed people. The Galatians, and some today, believe that they can do stuff — be circumcised, cook a certain way, carry out lists of activities and be saved. How wrong they are!

Our salvation is in the God/man Jesus. He completed that work. Now we must accept Him, live changed lives, and walk His way in faith working through love.

Christian Witness, Homilies, PNCC, ,

Reflection for the Solemnity of the Christian Family 2022

Living as God’s own.

Did you not know I had to be in My Father’s house.

Welcome and thank you for joining us this Sunday as we testify to our faith in our Lord and Savior, join in fellowship in His Holy Name, and celebrate the entire family of faith which is all of us who dwell in the Kingdom.

As I have occasionally commented, our Church takes this time, about mid-October, to transport us into the Christmas season as we consider the childhood of Jesus and His life within the Holy Family; as we consider our lives within the family of faith, the Kingdom of God.

It seems sort of funny, our Church was ahead of the current day Christmas rush as far back as 1914 when this Solemnity was established at Holy Synod.   

On this occasion, with its focus on family and a kind-of Christmassy theme we may feel transported back to our own childhoods, the lives of our children and grandchildren, especially in their earliest years, our families, the love, events, and even trials we have shared. Family — and the idea of Christmas — we connect with all that, and that is good. For most people it is the place good is first felt.

Considering all that we experience and share in our own families, how do we feel, what do we think, when we consider, hear about, and ponder the family of God, the Holy Church, the Christian Family?

We could consider a gamut of thoughts and feelings. Just as in any family, there will be those who say all things must change, those who say we need improvements, those who say nothing must ever change. There is a whole range of opinions from one end to the other. However, lets step away from all that and consider something completely different — our Lord’s words: Did you not know I had to be in My Father’s house.

Jesus’ incarnation, birth, and young life in the family ushered in the very thing He preached. It was the message He was meant to bring: The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, believe.

In ushering in the Kingdom, in drawing us into one family, Jesus seeks an essential change in us, His Kingdom dwellers and workers. We are called to now focus our priorities and lives on the new reality, the Kingdom reality. We are now to live as God’s own family with the Father at the head and Jesus as our brother, united in the Spirit.

In our new reality, the strictures and structures of family have vastly expanded. Relationship has evolved. We have become a new people, reborn, regenerated, and connected one to another. Being there, we have cause to proclaim: Did you not know I had to be in My Father’s house. Saying so, and truly living as a family, we join in carrying out our responsibilities in our Kingdom work of evangelism, fellowship, and worship. We rejoice as family, as God’s very own.

Christian Witness, Homilies, PNCC,

Reflection for the Solemnity of Brotherly Love 2022

In Christ.

“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?“

Welcome and thank you for joining us this day in our worship of, and dedication to, the Lord.

Today we celebrate a very special Solemnity. If we look up the definition of liturgical solemnity, we will see the following: A solemnity is a feast day of the highest rank celebrating a mystery of faith.

From the practical side of things, we know that this Solemnity was instituted in the Church at a time when we faced persecution for our beliefs. No, this wasn’t in the first centuries, the time of the martyrs, but rather in the early 1900’s. We decided as Church, the Body of Christ, His new creation, to emphasize Christ’s teaching on love, whether it be toward one another or toward those who hated us.

It remains sad, even to this day, that those who wish to come into our Church face castigation and persecution. So, we must remain steadfast in our love of these enemies. As St. Paul tells us, our love of them will heap burning coals on their heads. In Biblical language that means that our goodness will embarrass those who hate, and who knows, may convert them to ways of love.

The scholar of the Law knew the answer when he approached Jesus. To him, there was no mystery of faith. The scholar knew he was to love his fellow Israelites. Those were his neighbors, no one else.

Now the scholar wished to justify himself. That meant that he wanted to proclaim a legal verdict (as in a courtroom) of his righteousness and faithfulness, his innocence in the way he treated his fellow countrymen. The scholar wanted to be judge and jury over himself.

Jesus was having none of that and goes on, through the parable of the Good Samaritan, to open the mystery of faith to this scholar and those around him, and in turn to us. Our love is to be unlimited in relation to God and others, and that “others” includes both friend and enemy.

Our love is to be such that it makes those closest to us and enemies uncomfortable. We are to bear an overwhelming love — a love I know we practice here so beautifully — which points to the fact that we are Christ’s new creation. We are fully in Christ.

We are indeed Christ’s new creation. Our lives have been taken out of this world and have been placed in the Kingdom. We have been severed from the ways of sin and death to eternal life in the love of Christ, the Kingdom of love.

While there are many ways to shine forth in the Kingdom — through prayer, worship, and fellowship — the premier way is to shine forth love. All those others – prayer, worship, and fellowship exist in support of the building up of the love of Christ in, and out of, us. So, as people in Christ, His new creation, let us be the Kingdom’s brightness of love always and everywhere.

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Reflection for ‘Holy Mass of the Word of God’ at Convo 2022

in receiving the Word of God from hearing us, you received not a human word but, as it truly is, the Word of God, which is now at work in you who believe.

You know how it is. Someone tells you something. Then you get that sort of instantaneous feeling and thought — What am I supposed to do with that? You can create some great giphy memes with ‘Now what am I supposed to do?’

Hand Johnny Bravo a surfboard and you’ll get: “What am I supposed to do with this?’

Typically, someone shows up — a friend, relative, or even someone you just casually know, and they are dropping all their drama on you. The queen or king of drama has arrived. We are left saying — what do I do with this?

So, the age-old question, What do I do with this?

Here we are, the best and the brightest of our Holy Church, the committed, gathered for a week of training, a week of study, a week of fellowship and fun, for a purpose. What this is all about is giving you the answer to: ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’

One man who figured out the answer was St. Paul.

The people of Thessalonica came to believe in Jesus and bound themselves together in His Church because of St. Paul’s preaching and teaching; because of Paul’s work. Yet, as it is, people bearing strong witness sometimes attract enemies. Paul got enemies. Those enemies tried to discredit Paul while he was away, especially because of his hurried departure from Thessalonica. Paul’s enemies said he left town quickly because he was a self-serving coward. Paul certainly must have had a moment of ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’ Here’s how he solved it.

The scripture we read today, from Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians, was Paul proving himself by pointing back to his own behavior — how he lived and worked, how he bore witness to Jesus. The people knew him, saw him, worked at his side, learned from him. He is reminding them of the fact they are witnesses of his integrity of his character, they are witnesses to the image of Jesus in Paul. The enemies are lying, and you know it.

What Paul did was so impressive. Paul freely appealed to his own life as an example. Paul didn’t have to say, ‘Please don’t look at my life. Look to Jesus.’ Paul did not hide or fade away when enemies rose up. Paul always wanted people to look to Jesus, but he could also tell them to look at his life, because the power of Jesus was real in his life. It was obvious. He lived it. He was the image of Jesus. He carried the likeness of Jesus wherever he went — he wore the face of Jesus.

Now here’s the harder part. When we face the ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’ moment we are given a choice of who we are to be. Do I just stay me, stay wondering, hide, fade away, be a poser, or maybe just laugh or do I grow in my likeness to Jesus? Can we say: Look at my life with the confidence of Paul? Look at my life and see Jesus and His help clearly. See how I overcame who I was and what I worried about because I am confident that Jesus has me. He has me now and forever.

Factually, that is what God constantly charges us with doing. It is our homework, our assignment, career, and lifelong goal — become more like Jesus, bear His likeness, His face before the world, and be confident in Him. We are to solve the problems we and others face, not with philosophies or politics or reaction, but with the very face of Jesus alive in us. The more and more like Jesus we are the less perplexed we will be with the ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’ moment. The parts of us that wanted to avoid: ‘What am I supposed to do with this?’ no longer desire avoidance, but rather to bear the image of Jesus into the problem. When we face anything, do a self-check. Am I the image of Jesus right now?

Confronted by the drama king or queen, we are to be the face of Jesus to them. Help them to see in us, in our lives, the solution to the drama. Confronted by anything in life, let us be as impressive as Paul as we appeal to our own lives as an example. We should never have to say, ‘Please don’t look at my life. Look to Jesus.’ Of course, we want people to look to Jesus, but we must also be able to confidently tell them to look at our lives because we have made the power of Jesus real in us.

Paul leaves us with a clear statement on how we are to become that image of Jesus. We are to be like the Thessalonians who received the word of God, who welcomed God’s word not as just some advice from some guy, but as the very word of God in all its glory and truth. They not only received and welcomed the word they let it effectively work in them. It changed them.

Paul’s confidence in the word of God wasn’t a matter of wishful thinking or blind faith. He could see that it effectively works in those who believe. God’s Word works, it doesn’t only bring information or produce feelings. There is power in the word of God to change lives; to change us into the very image and likeness of Jesus. So let it change us into the image of the One Who gave us the Word.

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Reflection for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time / Word of God Sunday 2022

In the beginning was the Word.

Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, ‘Please, let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, and I will follow you.’ Elijah answered, ”Go back! Have I done anything to you?‘

I am so thankful you have chosen to worship with us this Sunday as we celebrate the Word of God, Holy Scripture.

A little bit of catechism is helpful here: In our Holy Church the Word of God is a sacrament. The basic children’s Catechism explains that the Word of God is important because it brings us closer to God, teaches us His Divine Will, makes our faith stronger, and tells us how we can enter the Kingdom of God.

The Catechism then goes on to quote several scriptures on the importance of God’s Word. Indeed, the Word of God is the seed (Luke 8:11); and Blessed are they to hear the word and obey it (Luke 11:28).

The adult Catechism repeats much of this and adds that the Word makes us better qualified to labor for the Kingdom of God.

Today we hear God direct Elijah to anoint Elisha.

This was a bit unusual. Usually, prophets had a direct encounter with God, but not so for Elisha. Elisha received no vision; there was no cherubim and seraphim appearing to him as in Isaiah’s experience; he did not get to stand before a burning bush and hear God’s voice like Moses. In fact, the call to prophetic ministry was brought to him by Elijah alone in Elijah’s casting his cloak on him.

Then something very interesting happens. Elisha runs after Elijah who was already walking away. He asks if he can say goodbye. Elijah’s answer seems odd: ‘Go back! Have I done anything to you?‘ We might think, well yeah, you did, by casting your cloak on me. But here is the key to it all. Elijah in fact did nothing. Implied here is that God chose Elisha, and he could either follow God’s will or go back. Elijah’s words were humble — I did nothing, God called you. Now is the time of choice. Elisha choses God by destroying every tie to his old life, the oxen and plow. Hear too Jesus about following Him.

After he was anointed, Elisha was marked out for service to the Lord. Elisha did not immediately replace Elijah. Once the ceremony had taken place Elisha “went after Elijah and ministered to him” 

Elisha served Elijah before succeeding him as prophet. In that time Elisha learned the loneliness of the prophetic office. He watched Elijah’s message get rejected over and over. Yet in Elisha’s ministry great miracles happened.

What will the world miss out on if we do not burn the plow and commit to God’s way and give up our own? What do we learn from the call of Elisha and our adherence to God’s word? It is that we cannot sit on the fence. When God calls in the Spirit and the proclamation of the word, we must decide. Go back to the ordinary or follow. All of us have God’s call to answer, we all hear His word, we all have a choice to make, and there is a cost to pay. Elisha never regretted his choice for God’s word and way, and neither will we.

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Reflection for Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi 2022

Eat, Drink, Be Mine.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes.

I am so thankful you have chosen to worship with us this Sunday as we reflect, in this Octave of Corpus Christi, on Jesus’ command to eat His body and drink His blood. We rejoice in the very reality of His self-giving that makes us His.

The Rabbi of Jerusalem once visited the pope in Rome:

My dear brothers and sisters, the funny tale about the Rabbi and the Bishop of Rome is related to place and nearness. 

God had once set His singular dwelling in the midst of Israel. In fact, He was so close to His people that we dwelt in a tent alongside them. It was not until the time of King David that it was determined Israel would build a Temple for God, a more permanent dwelling. It took around 400 years to get to that point. That work was completed by King Solomon.

What did not happen though was the thing God really wanted, which was not a physical building in which to dwell. He did not need that. David’s predecessor Saul learned that lesson by his own disobedience and that of his soldiers. In 1 Samuel 15:22 we hear: Obedience is better than sacrifice, to listen, better than the fat of rams. The prophet is telling Saul that the attitude of the heart (the whole self) in relation to God is more important than external things like sacrifices and buildings.

King David himself writes in Psalm 40 and 51 respectively: Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, and You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings.

Israel knew that God desired to live completely within them, but they kept it external.

Jesus came among them, the God-man, to reveal the presence of God completely, to make His Father known, and to call people into the Kingdom. He repeats His Father’s earlier call to Israel in full reality of presence — I want to be among you, within you, and I want you to be part of me.

As St. Paul tells us, I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was handed over He repeats the key words of Jesus repeated by the Church all through history — This is My body, This is My blood. 

Jesus not only left us His words, His gospel way of living, but in His example, instruction, and command His very presence — the totality of His being body, blood, soul, and divinity — so that His singular dwelling would be in the Church — that is — in us.

We fulfill what Israel did not, having Jesus — God Himself — dwelling within us. He is no longer in a tent in the camp, or in one special building. We are His place, we are His. Let us celebrate that now and always rejoicing in Jesus’ precious gift of self, bearing and sharing Him with joy before all.

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Reflection for Low Sunday 2022

Spread the Word.

So the other disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

Good morning, Church! I am so thankful you have chosen to worship with us this Low Sunday. 

Christ. is risen! Church declare: He is risen indeed!

We once again focus in this Easter season on our call to evangelize — to spread the Gospel message and to invite people to know, love, and serve the Lord.

This is a great time to do that — for we are filled with Easter joy, the excitement of the season, the promise of everlasting life made apparent in Jesus, who taking on our human form continuers in that form — yet glorified as we will be when we are resurrected.

But, you know, even the most ardent evangelist, those most deeply committed, and those most filled with Easter joy sometimes run across a problem.

The scene is set for us in the gospel we just heard. Jesus appears to the disciples. HE IS ALIVE — HE IS RIGHT HERE. Can you imagine the energy, the joy and wonder? The Gospel tells us that they rejoiced. In Greek the word is Echarēsan – they were delighted and filled with joy.

Can you imagine being that filled with that joy? This was a joy unlike any other for it filled them with immediate thanksgiving, gratefulness.

Those disciples were on top of the world, literally amid the Kingdom — and then Jesus fills them with the Holy Spirit. His power is now in them. They were supercharged.

Now it is time to spread the word — the Lord is risen; He is risen indeed! 

The first to receive that proclamation, to be evangelized, was one of their own – Thomas. 

Yep — their own brother would be the first to push back on their joy and to rail against their evangelism. “I will not believe.” he says.

Jesus answered the dilemma for the disciples and showed them the way forward as He does for us. He visits them again and says to Thomas — come and see. Know what it is to meet Me.

And… there is the answer when in our joy we meet that person who doubts, who says they’ll think about it, who says maybe next week or in a month or in a year. We must invite them over again to come and see, to meet the Lord. We need to spread the word of joy, the Echarēsan so that they can know what it is to meet Jesus by meeting His people. Just try it. Come and see. See so that: you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name. 

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