My name is Don and I’ve been a Catholic priest now for over 50 years, and during that time I keep going back to the same readings over and over again, only to discover that they contain something I never understood was there before. It gives me new enthusiasm and excitement for the message that keeps revealing itself, and I pray that the message that I’m sending you will be valuable, and if you find it so, please share these podcasts with your friends. Thank you. Good morning. Today we celebrate the fifth Sunday of Easter. The opening prayer Almighty ever living God, constantly accomplish the Paschal mystery within us.

That those you are pleased to make new and holy baptism may under your protective care, bear much fruit and come to the joy of eternal life. And we ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen. A reading from the Acts of the apostles, 14th chapter 21st of the 27th verse. After Paul and Barnabas had proclaimed the good news to that city and made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch. They strengthened the spirits of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in the faith, saying, it is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.

They appointed elders for them in each church and with prayers and fasting commended them to the Lord in whom they had put their faith. Then they traveled through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia, and proclaiming the Word, at Perga they went down to Attilia, and from there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had now accomplished. And when they arrived, they called the church together and reported what God had done with them and how he had opened the door of the faith to the Gentiles. The Word of the Lord his sponsorial psalm I will praise your name forever, my king and my God. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, of great kindness. The Lord is good to all and compassionate toward all his works.

I will praise your name forever, my king and my God. Let all your works give you thanks, O Lord. Let your faithful ones bless you. Let them discourse of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might. I will praise your name forever, my king and my God. Let them make known your might to the children of Adam and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

Your kingdom is a kingdom for all ages, and your dominion endures through all generations. I will praise your name forever, my king. And my God. A reading from the New Testament. From the book of Revelations, 21st chapter, first through the fifth verse. Then I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth.

The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will always be with them as their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes.

And there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain. For the old order has passed away. The one who sat on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. The word of the Lord. Hallelujah. Verse I give you a new commandment, says the Lord.

Love one another as I have loved you. The gospel for this Sunday is taken from St. John, 13th chapter, 33rd through the 33rd verse. In the 34th and 35th verse, when Judas left them, Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself. And God will glorify him at once.

My children, I will be with you only a little while longer. I give you a new commandment. Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. The Gospel of the Lord Ram it’s obvious that the way the Scripture is put together for the lectionary that I use, it’s telling the story over and over and over again.

And we’re at that point in the story of salvation history where we see a major, major change, a shift so rad they can only be described as something so new that everything changes. A new world, a new earth. Nothing is the same. And what is that radical change? Well, I want to go to John in the Book of Revelations and what it is. He sees something coming down from the heavens, which means it’s something that’s coming from God’s heart to our heart and our mind, and a new idea.

And what it is, it’s a new Jerusalem, a new city. And what was so important about the city of Jerusalem? It was the place where the Temple was. And the Temple was the most important thing to the Jewish community. Because why? Because that’s where God dwelt.

God was in the temple not anywhere else, but only in the temple, in the ark. And in that ark, as you know, there were the Ten Commandments, the manna from the desert, and the rod of Aaron. That was God’s presence. And only a very few were ever able to go into the presence of the divine. And all of a sudden, there is a voice from the heavens and it says something so radical, so unbelievable, it was depicted in the scriptures at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus, when the veil that separated the holy of holies from the rest of the temple was ripped apart. And now the word is, behold, God’s dwelling is with, in and for the human race, God now dwells in you and in me.

Can you imagine the radical shift that would be for the people whose imagination was wrapped up in the Old Testament? And the Old Testament is a very important time to go back and realize, why do we have to go back and listen to the Old Testament in order to understand the New Testaments? Because it’s by way of contrast, in a way, it’s like the Old Testament is so clearly a system of justice, and that makes so much sense to our minds. Justice. You do something bad, you should pay for it, you should be punished, you should be corrected. There were rules and regulations upon rules and regulations that guided the way people were invited to live, as God called them, to live, through the ministry of the temple.

And when you didn’t do what you were told, you were judged and condemned and in some cases, separated. And you have to remember, in the Old Testament, there was a time when people did not yet believe in an afterlife. It wasn’t that you stopped existing at death, but you went to some holding place. But so if there wasn’t a place after death, then in the world of justice of the Old Testament, you had to have punishment. That’s what justice is about. And so you see the God of the Old Testament always being the source both of life, giving wisdom, the Ten Commandments, at the same time, he would inflict disease, pain, suffering on people, and they would be seen because of their suffering as outcast sinners, people that God did not like and did not want to have any part of.

Now, think about that kind of system, a system based in law, justice, reward, punishment. And then there was this image of God being the possession of the temple. Now, does that sound like anything that you might have encountered in your life as a way of imagining religion? Because I’m afraid that we have, I know we have that story of what was and is replaced by something so radically different that the reason we have that contrast is because it’s something we have to go back to over and over and over again. Because the Old Testament is, in a way, the shadow of religion. The religion that Christ came to found a religion of love and acceptance and forgiveness.

So let’s look at some of the issues that I’d like to talk about right now. First of all, let’s do some definitions or something. I know when I say the word religion, I’m not sure what you think of, but what I’d like you to think of, religion is a. The word means to be bound to something. Religion is a way in which a community of faith gathers around a set of beliefs and practices, and they say yes to those beliefs and practices. That makes for a good religion, a healthy religion.

And so it has to do with surrendering your own thoughts and your own ideas about who God is. You listen to the wisdom of the church, the doctrine of the church, which is the teaching of the founder, and you take on certain practices that help you do that. I mean, it’s interesting. Catholics have certain practices. You have to hit Mass every day. You go to confession, communion.

Other religions don’t have that responsibility. They may say, you can’t do certain things. Those are not part of the way we live our life. Those practices are part of religion. So that’s an image of what religion is. And what is church.

How would you describe church? Church is this interesting community of people who are living out a certain way of life. And you know what’s so interesting about the word church? Because, I mean, you know, I’m a Catholic priest. All right, so we have a Catholic church, an Episcopal church, a Presbyterian church. So church.

The best way I can describe it, it’s community. And, you know, I was surprised in the 80s when there was a major kind of response to, well, it’s just been a time of transition, change. All that time since Vatican ii, we’ve gone through a lot of changes and hopefully going back to something more authentic. But a lot of times people were leaving church. And so there was a study, why do people even go to church? And I remember this big study, and I thought, well, it’s going to be, if you’re a Catholic, it’s because the sacraments you love, the Eucharist and confession and those things.

And it wasn’t that it said most people choose to belong to a church not so much because of the God they believe in, but because they want community. Community. I look back in the 50s and 40s and I can remember living in Philadelphia, Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Catholic cities. The parish was everything. It was the country club, it was the health club.

It was the place your whole neighborhood community was around, which parish you belonged to. It was beautiful. And so, you know, religion is important because it means we have a core belief that we surrender to. Church means that we have this longing for community and oneness. But then there’s this thing called spirituality. That’s what I’d like to talk about.

Because spirit is life force. It is that thing that is in the human being. It’s in all things that are alive. It’s this mysterious force that animates and creates something that is reflective and thoughtful and loving. And spirituality means that we’re longing to know and to understand this mysterious thing we call life. What’s it for?

What are we here for? What are we doing? And in church and religion, that creates community and gives us guidance as to what to believe, also is the source of spirituality for us. And spirituality to me, is the thing I always want to focus on when I’m talking to you. I want to talk about spirituality, which means I want to talk about how you see the life force in you being enhanced by what religion teaches. How do you sense God in you?

Because if you read the scriptures today, it’s so clear. The fullness of revelation that God has always wanted to share with human beings came to a point 2,000 years ago when it became clear that all of religion, all of the things that are about that system, boil down to one simple truth. God is in you, with you, for you. And what he pours into you is the very thing he’s asking you to be. To each other, for each other, with each other. He’s loving you intensely as you are.

And he says, now if you can believe that I, the God who created you, overlook all of your sins, all of your mistakes, all of that. If you can see and feel in me that those things that you do that are wrong are not a turn off for me, but they’re a turn on. I love the image of Jesus as the good doctor. You know, there’s a wonderful image when he says, I’m a physician. You know, people that are sick need a physician. I am called to the sick, to those who need me, to those who are hurting, look at his miracles.

Eyes that don’t see, can see. Ears that don’t hear can hear. Tongues that can’t speak, speak. Hands that don’t do the work can do the work. Legs work. I mean, it’s all about images of being A full, active human being.

Reflective thinking, feeling, listening, speaking. And then there’s this other thing about demons. He drives out demons. So we have this loving God engaged with us. And his response to our mistakes and sins is not in the world of justice any longer, but in the world that we call mercy. Mercy God is amazing.

I can remember in my early years as a priest, I remember meeting people and it always threw me off when they’d say, I just love the Old Testament, but I hate the New Testament or vice versa. And I go, what? It would be somebody who really likes things neat and clear, right and wrong. Binary world people, they love the Old Testament. The New Testament is irritating to them because it’s not. I mean, it’s sort of.

It’s not clear enough. It’s not black and white enough. And yet there’s this wonderful thing in the New Testament, the spirit of God that enters into you, that the idea of a black and white world no longer necessary because black and white worlds give you a sense of clarity and control and you kind of know where things are. But the mysterious thing about God’s presence living inside of you is not so much about clarity, but about a mysterious world you’re a part of. And all you need to know in that world as you go through all the processes he’s taken you through that change you and awaken you and help you to see and to speak the truth. And all that is mysteriously complicated.

And the only way to go through it in a way that brings life is that you trust in it. You trust that there’s something going on in your life that is calling you into an awareness of who you are and who God wants you to be. And it has everything to do with being loved. What is being loved? Does it mean you’re not held accountable anymore? No, no.

Mercy and justice are still both engaged in this life that we lead with God. Justice is there because we need to see what’s right and what’s wrong. We need to discern what is good and life giving and what is destructive. Yes, that’s true. But here’s the subtle difference that I want you to try to grasp with me. And that is when you’re in a world of justice, it seems like the negativity that is part of our life, the mistakes we make somehow get identified with us.

And so if you do something bad, you are that bad thing that you do. That’s the world of justice to me. It’s like it not only judges in the sense of discerning what you do, but if you’re found wanting, you’re considered to be less than, even to the point of being excluded, cut out, rejected. Mercy does not reject anyone. And mercy has this incredible capacity to make this kind of distinction. See if this makes sense.

When you do something bad in mercy, you’re not a bad person. When you do something good, that doesn’t make you a good person. There’s a you that exists and it’s good. You are good. You are made in the likeness and the image of God. Think of you as a child, innocent and beautiful.

That’s who God sees you as. Always, when you choose to do something negative, something wrong, his first and foremost response is forgiveness. I do not hold that against you. I will not let that evil you’ve done limit my ability to be there for you. In fact, I’ll move closer. I’ll be more attentive to you.

I’ll be more aware of what you might need. I want to heal that brokenness that caused you to do that sin. In other words, there’s only one you. I don’t know. I don’t know if you’re like me. But sometimes I can do something wrong and I can look at myself and I say, you know, you’re supposed to be this priest, you’re supposed to be perfect and all that stuff.

And now I see myself as selfish and self centered and abusive in some way in the world. And I identify with that. And when I identify myself with my sin, I go into this really strange funk, darkness. It frightens me because it seems to attract to that feeling that I’m not worthy of God’s love. A kind of shame that is a pain in the pit of your stomach. There’s something wrong with me.

I’m not lovable. How can we say that to a God who reveals himself as he really is? The doctor that comes because you sin. That’s why he wants you to feel your. He wants you to feel him loving you in your sin, in your sinfulness, in your brokenness. And if he can love that in you, then here’s what he’s praying for.

That you will forgive yourself. That you will not see yourself as evil, negative, bad. There’s nothing more debilitating in this work that we’re called to do in loving one another. If we are filled with any kind of excessive shame and self hatred. Because self hatred is going to project onto other people. When you see people who are doing something wrong, you’re so critical because you’ve got this self criticism raging and side of you.

You’ve got to believe that God loves you at your worst and when he loves you at your worst. And you can believe that and you can sense that you can forgive yourself. I know you can. And if you forgive yourself, you’ll forgive everyone and you’ll be church. Amen. The Closing Prayer Father in the World Today you gather people in groups of loving companions and they have different names, different denominational names, but they’re all the same.

They’re your people. They’re the people that you love. And you long for them to grow in the understanding of what it means to be church, what it means to have a religion that you turn to and you are fed by it and you find your soul, your spiritual self there. Bless all churches. Bless them with wisdom and understanding, but most especially with an understanding of what it is that we’re called to be to one another. Friends, lovers, forgivers, patiently putting up with one another’s shortcomings and faults and never ever feeling separated for us because of weaknesses.

And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen. The music in this program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner. I’m excited for the opportunity to awaken your spiritual journey. If you enjoy this program, please subscribe and share it with a friend. Share this ministry also needs your support, so make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website.

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