Reading 1
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven,
raised his voice, and proclaimed:
“Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified.”
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart,
and they asked Peter and the other apostles,
“What are we to do, my brothers?”
Peter said to them,
“Repent and be baptized, every one of you,
in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins;
and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off,
whomever the Lord our God will call.”
He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them,
“Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.”
Those who accepted his message were baptized,
and about three thousand persons were added that day.
1st reading
Peter starts his speech with a party-pooping, record-scratching statement in which he says, “Jesus whom you crucified”. He is talking not only to the Jews, but to you and me. After all, Jesus suffered and was crucified because of ALL sin. That means that when I disrespected my parents, Jesus felt the lash of the whip across his back. With this and other sins, I crucified Jesus. Because Jesus said about his life, “no one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own.”1 In other words, he volunteered and offered his hand to be crushed by the nail. He suffered for me because of my sins and the sins of everyone else. I am just as guilty as the guy who hammered the nails through Jesus’ hands. After all, Jesus looks at us both the same way. He said, “forgive them, they know now what they do.”2 He suffered it all because we sinned.
Just like I feel at this very moment, the Jews were “cut to the heart” and asked “what do we do?” We must repent and be baptized. Almost everyone reading this has been baptized already, so I won’t discuss that today. What does “repent” mean? To repent means “to change our hearts and minds towards God.”3 You can see repentance from a person’s actions. For example, I can see that you’ve repented because you act differently. Now, you hate sin, and are constantly fighting against your own sinfulness. Perfect repentance is when you have the real desire to quit ALL sin. Quitting all sin is not easy to achieve, but to repent perfectly like this is a choice we can ALL make. Turning away from sin is a door we can all walk through.
You can put away your hankies for now, because there is good news. First of all, we must be baptized. Then we need to truly want to quit sinning. Then, we can open ourselves to “the gift of the Holy Spirit” just as is promised in this reading. The main gift of the Holy Spirit is love.4 “God is love“5 and “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”6
Don’t be afraid if you are not perfectly repentant. You can still receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. However, the more perfect your repentance, the more open you will be to the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Another powerful gift of the Holy Spirit is he makes us able to “love as God has loved us.”7 I can love the way God loves?? Wow! I don’t know if you have ever been aware of God’s love through a holy person, but I have, and it’s amazing. I’ve been around a holy person who only needed to look at me and I felt like it was Jesus looking at me. To love like that is a BEAUTIFUL gift from God and he offers it through the power of the Holy Spirit! Wow! Personally, I’ve been wanting to love like God loves for a while now and through this reading, I am reminded that he is willing to help me love the way he loves.
If you want to see what “loving like Jesus” looks like, click here or copy this to your browser: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QATH6yA75CQ
Reading II
1 Pt 2:20b-25
Beloved:
If you are patient when you suffer for doing what is good,
this is a grace before God.
For to this you have been called,
because Christ also suffered for you,
leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps.
He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.
When he was insulted, he returned no insult;
when he suffered, he did not threaten;
instead, he handed himself over to the one who judges justly.
He himself bore our sins in his body upon the cross,
so that, free from sin, we might live for righteousness.
By his wounds you have been healed.
For you had gone astray like sheep,
but you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.
2nd Reading
"When you suffer for doing what is good, this is a grace before God." When we are punished for doing what is good, it is a gift from God because we get to imitate Jesus. After all, no one was as perfectly good as Jesus, yet he was murdered. We have a chance to be like Jesus. Participating in the life of Christ is a gift from God. Most of us are not going to literally suffer crucifixion. However, there are many ways which God offers us the cross in our lives. Here is what a good conversation regarding suffering looks like: (with "Pat")
Pat: My feet hurt.
Jesus: I know my child, mine hurt on Calvary. Thanks be to God that I had feet!
Pat: Thank you Jesus. I wanna be like you.
Pat: My friends are mean to me.
Jesus: I know my child. My friends abandoned me at Gethsemane. They were ashamed to admit that we are friends. Thanks be to God that I had friends!
Pat: Thank you Jesus. I wanna be like you.
Pat: I don't like the government!
Jesus: I know my child. The governor sentenced me to death. Thanks be to God I lived for 33 years!
Pat: Thank you Jesus, I wanna be like you.
Pat: My lover is mean to me.
Jesus: I know, members of my church are hurting me now. Thanks be to God that there is a church!
Pat: Thank you Jesus. I want to be like you.
Here is how the Devil wants to talk to you (often through people, media, and sin)
Pat: My feet hurt.
Satan: Avoid this suffering, and go buy expensive shoes. Also, get a foot massage. Curse this suffering!
Pat: My friends are mean to me.
Satan: Let’s join together in complaining about these awful people. Curse this suffering!
Pat: I don’t like the government.
Satan: Curse this government. The government is causing you suffering. Curse this suffering!
Pat: My lover is mean to me.
Satan: Let’s join together in complaining about this person. Curse the suffering your lover causes you!
Next time your best friend complains about something, just yell "get behind me Satan!". I am kidding. Seriously though, can you see the difference between Satan’s attitude about suffering and Jesus’ attitude? In ALL suffering, we should give thanks to God. We must not listen to Satan who tries to call Jesus away from the cross by saying, "God, forbid Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you!"9 Satan wants us to run from our "mean families". He wants us to run from physical pain. He wants us to run away from difficult relationships. He wants us to run far from the cross. We must not run AWAY from all of these crosses! Rather, we must run TO the crosses and embrace them in the same way that Jesus did. "For this you have been called". *
In 1979, Fr. Richard Thomas said, "everyone wants to hear about sweet Jesus- sweet, beautiful Jesus. But no one wants to hear about suffering Jesus". Well his suffering is what makes him who he is. Because he loved us TO DEATH- a death with NAILS in his hands, a death in loneliness, a death of humiliation, a death in suffering because of obedience to God and God's loving plan.
Gospel
Jn 10:1-10
Jesus said:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate
but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber.
But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.
The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice,
as the shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
When he has driven out all his own,
he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him,
because they recognize his voice.
But they will not follow a stranger;
they will run away from him,
because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.”
Although Jesus used this figure of speech,
the Pharisees did not realize what he was trying to tell them.
So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.
A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;
I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.”
Gospel
No commentary this week
The Point
- We must remember that each of our sins hurts Jesus terribly
- We must have the desire to quit ALL sinning and turn to God.
- We must ask God to give us the gifts of the Holy Spirit so that we can love like he loves us.
- We must accept the suffering that Jesus gives us and offer the suffering to God.
- We must give thanks in ALL circumstances.
Real Life
As I write this, I am in a church named Las Alas (the wings) which was founded by a beautiful priest named Fr. Richard Thomas. When he was younger, he prayed to the mother of God that she would help him live a life that would allow him to avoid purgatory. This prayer reminds me of Peter’s request in this Sunday’s liturgy. Fr Thomas had to turn away from sin so that he could receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He did receive those gifts. The girl in the video link above said that when she met Fr. Thomas, they hugged and she instantly felt a love like she had never felt before. (the type of love that ONLY comes from the gifts of the Holy Spirit). God keeps his promises.
More than one person was present at Fr. Thomas’ deathbed. They both have recounted the following: The 2 of them were at his bedside when his heart began to race. Then, Father Thomas had a focused stare at the corner of the room. A lady who was present asked him, “What’s happening? Is someone coming to get you? He did not answer. Then his heart stopped and she began to perform CPR on him. He woke up briefly and started laughing. Soon afterwards, he died.
Personally, I believe that Fr. Thomas’ prayer to Mary was answered and that angels, or Jesus himself came to get Father Thomas at his death. He was sick for at least 6 months prior to his death and his illness was unexplainable by doctors. Perhaps his suffering was supernatural and he was suffering on Earth rather than in purgatory. What really sticks out about this story now is this: After being “cut to the heart” Father wanted to turn away from sin. God gave him the gifts of the Holy Spirit in response to his prayer and repentance. God's going to do the same if you ask him. If you want to, you can pray a prayer like this now:
Lord, I am so sorry for my sins. I don't want to sin anymore. I need your help. I love you. Today, I give myself to you completely. If you want, you can give me the gifts of the Holy Spirit now. You made the universe, so I know you can do this. I love you.
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