Breaking the Word: Between Meetings & Connection

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Between Meetings & Connection

7th Sunday of Easter (C)

Readings: Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 96 (97): 1-2b, 6-7, 9; Apocalypse 22: 12-14, 16-17, 20; John 17: 20-26

My dear friends, if you were asked to name just one thing that the pandemic has taught us, what would it be? For me, it’ll be the difference between meetings and connections. Over the past two years, despite movement restrictions, we’ve still been able to continue holding meetings of different kinds on digital platforms like Zoom. And yet, helpful as this has been, hasn’t the multiplication of online meetings also served to heighten our sense of disconnection… with ourselves, with others, and even with God? Don’t we see signs of this disconnection in the rise in mental health issues among us, along with more frequent reports of arguments and fights breaking out in public spaces, including here in church?

But if technology hasn’t quite addressed our deep human need for connection, then what can? This is a question that the scriptures help us to ponder today. In the gospel, not only does Jesus connect prayerfully with his heavenly Father, he also includes in that connection, all of his disciples, both present and future. He prays that we may all be one, that we may always enjoy a deep connection with one another. And, interestingly, the Lord describes this connection in terms of being at a particular place. Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am… But where exactly is this place where the Lord is?

We know that, while still on earth, Jesus was often moving from place to place. And yet, whether it was in the manger at Bethlehem or the wedding at Cana, in the Garden of Gethsemane or the Cross on Calvary, didn’t the Lord always obediently remain in the loving will of his Father, no matter the cost? And didn’t he express this love as much in the tender compassion he showed to the sick and to sinners, as in the firm correction he offered to the self-righteous?

This spiritual place, where Jesus always remained, is also where we find the main characters in the other two readings today. In the first reading, Stephen receives a vision, in which he sees heaven thrown open… and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. And this profound connection with God is experienced precisely while Stephen is walking in the footsteps of Jesus, by faithfully and lovingly proclaiming the Good News, even in the face of persecution and death.

Similarly, in the second reading, while exiled on the island of Patmos for preaching the gospel, John also receives a revelation from heaven. He too experiences a connection with God, not by sight, but through hearing. I, John, heard a voice speaking to me… And one key message that John hears, and is moved to repeat, is the call to come! The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come.’ … Then let all who are thirsty come… To come to that same spiritual location where true connection is experienced, the place that is for us also at once a process and a person: Jesus, who is our Way and Truth and Life.

Sisters and brothers, while meetings can be held both on-site and online, true and lasting connections are enjoyed only in Christ. What will we do to remain in him today and every day?

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Breaking News: Ordinary Time

Apart from those seasons having their own distinctive character, thirty-three or thirty-four weeks remain in the yearly cycle that do not celebrate a specific aspect of the mystery of Christ. Rather, especially on the Sundays, they are devoted to the mystery of Christ in all its aspects. This period is known as Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time begins on Monday after the Sunday following 6 January and continues until Tuesday before Ash Wednesday inclusive. It begins again on Monday after Pentecost and ends before Evening Prayer I of the First Sunday of Advent. This is also the reason for the series of liturgical texts found in both the Roman Missal and The Liturgy of the Hours (Vol. III - IV), for Sundays and weekdays in this season. ~ General Norms for the Liturgical Year & Calendar, 43-44

From 36th Jesuit General Congregation

It is our union with one another in Christ that testifies to the Good News more powerfully than our competences and abilities.... In our individualistic and competitive age, we should remember that the community plays a very special role since it is a privileged place of apostolic discernment.... The Jesuit community is a concrete space in which we live as friends in the Lord. This life together is always at the service of mission, but because these fraternal bonds proclaim the Gospel, it is itself a mission. –Companions in a Mission of Reconciliation and Justice (CMRJ), nn. 7-9.

With the poor, we can learn what hope and courage mean.... In our communities and apostolates, we hear the call to rediscover hospitality to strangers, to the young, to the poor, and to those who are persecuted. Christ himself teaches us this hospitality. –CMRJ, nn. 15-16.

At the heart of Ignatian spirituality is the transforming encounter with the mercy of God in Christ that moves us to a generous personal response. The experience of the merciful gaze of God on our weakness and sinfulness humbles us and fills us with gratitude, helping us to become compassionate ministers to all.... For us Jesuits, compassion is action, an action discerned together. Yet we know that there is no authentic familiarity with God if we do not allow ourselves to be moved to compassion and action by an encounter with the Christ who is revealed in the suffering, vulnerable faces of people, indeed in the suffering of creation. –CMRJ, nn. 19-20.

(T)he Society must respond more decisively to the Church’s call for a new evangelization, giving special emphasis to ministry to and with the young and with families.... A special gift Jesuits and the Ignatian family have to offer to the Church and her mission of evangelization is Ignatian spirituality, which facilitates the experience of God and can therefore greatly help the process of personal and communal conversion. –CMRJ, nn. 22-23.

In many societies, there is an increased level of conflict and polarization, which often gives rise to violence that is all the more appalling because it is motivated and justified by distorted religious convictions. In such situations, Jesuits, along with all who seek the common good, are called to contribute from their religious-spiritual traditions towards the building of peace, on local and global levels. –CMRJ, n. 28.

Pope Francis has emphasized the fundamental connection between the environmental crisis and the social crisis in which we live today. Poverty, social exclusion, and marginalization are linked with environmental degradation. These are not separate crises but one crisis that is a symptom of something much deeper: the flawed way societies and economies are organised. The current economic system with its predatory orientation discards natural resources as well as people. For this reason, Pope Francis insists that the only adequate solution must be a radical one. The direction of development must be altered if it is to be sustainable. We Jesuits are called to help heal a broken world, promoting a new way of producing and consuming, which puts God’s creation at the center.... The multifaceted challenge of caring for our common home calls for a multifaceted response from the Society. We begin by changing our personal and community lifestyles, adopting behaviour coherent with our desire for reconciliation with creation. – CMRJ, nn. 29-30

From 35th Jesuit General Congregation

From General Congregation 35

By sending us to 'those physical and spiritual places which others do not or have difficulty reaching,' the Pope entrusts to us the task to 'build bridges of understanding and dialogue,' according to the best tradition of the Society, in the diversity of its ministries.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 6

To be missioned to this work 'at the New Frontiers of our times' always requires that one also be rooted at the very heart of the Church. This tension, specific to the Ignatian charism, opens the way to true creative fidelity.
- Decree With Renewed Fervor and Dynamism, n. 13

In every mission that we carry out, we seek only to be where (Christ) sends us. The grace we receive as Jesuits is to be and to go with him, looking on the world with his eyes, loving it with his heart and entering into its depths with his unending compassion.
- Decree on Identity, n. 15

For ultimately, there is no reality that is only profane for those who know how to look. We must communicate this look and provide a pedagogy inspired by the Spiritual Exercises, that carries people - especially the young - into it.
- Decree on Identity, n. 10

Our ministries of proclamation of the Word and the celebration of the Life of Christ in the sacraments continue to be fundamental for our mission and our lives together as Jesuits.
- Decree on Mission, n. 19

The complexity of the problems we face and the richness of the opportunities offered demand that we engage in building bridges between rich and poor and establishing advocacy links of mutual support between those who hold political power and those who find it difficult to voice their interests. Our intellectual apostolate provides an inestimable help in setting up these bridges, offering us new ways of understanding in depth the mechanism and links among our present problems.
- Decree on Mission, n. 28

Jesuit community is not just for mission, it is itself mission.
- Decree on Mission, n. 41

In this global context it is important to highlight the extraordinary potential represented by our character as an international and multicultural body. Acting consistently with this character can not only enhance the apostolic effectiveness of our work but in a fragmented and divided world it can witness to the reconciliation in solidarity of all the children of God.
- Decree on Mission, n. 43

Faith in Jesus Christ teaches us that self-realization comes from self-giving and that freedom is not so much the power to choose as the power to order our choices toward love. At the same time, love for Jesus Christ and the desire to follow him call us to trusting commitment. Commitment to the Word Incarnate cannot be separated from commitment to the concrete manifestations of the Word that are at the center of our lives, the Church and the Society which exists to serve the Church.
- Decree on Obedience, n. 19

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Between Meetings & Connection

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