Life is the best school. God is our teacher, The problems we are facing right now are our best assignment from God.

 

All of us know the sadness of good-byes.  We have said them to our parents, our children, our relatives and our friends.   Every farewell seems a little death.  At each parting there is a wrenching and a loneliness – especially if it means separation for a considerable period of time or even a permanent separation.   I have had to say good-bye to my mom and dad, my older brother and sister as they have gone home to God.  With 51 years of priestly ministry, I have had to say good-bye when the Bishop has moved me from one priestly assignment to another.  Saying good-bye to good friends takes something out of you.  Indeed, for all of us, good-byes are not easy. 

For me in my personal prayer, if a good-bye seems too difficult, perhaps I am not using the help God provides.  In fact, that always has been the case.

Today between the Feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost, we are marking Jesus’ leave taking from the disciples but before celebrating the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.  There is sadness for the disciples of Jesus on the Feast of the Ascension.  What the first disciples had to learn is a lesson for all of us -- many, many times we have to let go and say good-bye and trust that with each letting go, God promises that he will not leave us orphans.  We have to change many times in our discipleship journey.  We choose some of the good-byes of life; other times our good-byes are not of our own choosing.  With each transition, we are called to trust in God’s continuous presence in our life.

The Gospel is taken from the end of Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper.  We are privileged to eavesdrop on Jesus’ intimate prayer with his heavenly Father.  In the Upper Room on the Eve of his Passion, the Lord prayed for his disciples gathered around him.  At the same time, Jesus looked ahead to community of disciples of all centuries.  In his prayer for all disciples of all time, he saw us too, and prayed for us.  He prayed that we be consecrated in truth.

In today’s Gospel, we are listening to the prayer of Jesus to his heavenly Father.  This takes place at the Last Supper with Jesus being conscious of His impending death on the cross.  Jesus does not see his death as ending, but rather his going home to his heavenly Father and a new way of being with us who are in the world.

Overhearing Jesus at prayer is our way of understanding the identity of Jesus and our participation in the divine plan.  The mission of Jesus to be become our mission.  What is this mission – to release divine love into the world. This is such an awesome mission for us as a parish community.

This weekend I am celebrating my 51^st anniversary of ordination to the priesthood.  What is my mission as a priest -- succinctly stated – my mission is to empower all of us in the awesome mission of releasing divine love into the world.

 May the prayer of Jesus be our prayer as well.  The prayer of Jesus is that we all may be one.  Jesus prayed for us to experience a unity based on our love for one another.  We needn’t be reminded for its need.  We often witness breakdowns of communication in families, enmity among members of the same faith community, dissension in civil society.  Jesus’ unity – one of personal relationship -- is to overcome all such divisions, especially those within the fold.  Jesus wants a unity like that between himself and the Father – a unity that preserves individuality, but which is close and intimate.  That union of the Father and the Son is our model.  It is a unity in which people will love and serve each other because they love and serve him; it is heart speaking to heart.  Its key is love.

Unless the Church has the unity willed by God, it can’t perform its essential mission:  that the world may believe, that we may be one, as Jesus and the heavenly Father are one.

Like Jesus, we find our glory in doing not what we will but what God wills.  What would it take for all of us to be committed to the petition we make in the Our Father: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” 

I invite you to hold on to this truth:  Life itself is the best school.  God is our teacher.  The problems we are facing right now are our best assignment from God.  In your present challenge, whatever it is, you may have to let go; you may have to take a risk; but please God this challenge may invite you to place even more trust in the plan of God for your life.  In the first Scripture reading today, Stephen was beautifully releasing divine love into the world by offering forgiveness to those who were stoning him to death.  Forgiveness is an essential element for achieving the unity that Jesus prayed for.

This weekend we are celebrating six baptisms in the life of the parish.  What a wonderful blessing for us.  What an awesome responsibility for us as a parish community to witness to God’s love to our newly baptized and their precious families.  As a parish community that is blessed with so many Baptisms, so many First Communions, so many Confirmations, we are called to be the witnesses of divine love in the lives of these families.

At the end of the day, may we claim the prayer of Jesus to be our own prayer.  Jesus prayed: “I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them.”  We are missioned to make the Lord’s name known to the students in St. Joseph’s School, to all those who have received the sacraments in our parish, and, more than that, we are to make the Lord’s name known to our entire community and well beyond our parish boundaries.  We make the Lord’s name known best when we release divine love into our world.

Have a Blessed Day.