Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. Monsignor Fisher is a Catholic priest, a member of the Diocese of Dallas, and founder of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a nonprofit in Dallas, Texas, dedicated to to enriching your spiritual journey. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. This program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com 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 have pleased to make new in Holy Baptism may under your protective care, bear much fruit and come to the joy of life eternal through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, Holy One God forever and ever. Amen. A reading from the Acts of the Apostles 14:21 27 after Paul and Barnabas had proclaimed the Good News to the city and made a considerable number of disciples, they returned to Lystra and Iconium and to Antioch. They strengthened the spirit of the disciples and exhorted them to persevere in 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 prayer and fasting commended them to the Lord in whom they had put their faith, and they traveled through Pisidia and reached Pamphylia. After proclaiming the Word at Perga, they went down to Attalia, and there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work they had accomplished.

And when they arrived, they called the church together and reported that God had done wonderful things and how it opened the doors of the faith to the Gentiles. The Word of the Lord, I will praise your name forever, my King and my God. A reading 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 for her husband.

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. 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 Alleluia Verse I give you a new commandment, says the Lord.

Love one another as I have loved you. The gospel for this fifth Sunday of Easter is taken from St. John 13, 31st to the 33rd verse and 34th to the 35th verse. When Judas had 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, that 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 Sa you may have noticed that in these Sundays of Easter we no longer are reading the first reading from the Old Testament, but rather the Acts of the Apostles, which is an interesting work because it is a description of the way in which the church evolved, how it began to take form. And it’s so interesting to me because it focuses on gatherings, gatherings of the disciples with followers and the celebrations that they felt, how enthusiastic they were, how they saw people change.

And you see in that first reading of today’s liturgy, you see the church being formed. There’s these incredible Spirit filled disciples. And they’re going around and they’re finding communities of people so excited about this new way of life. And then they’re leaving people there to guide them like elders. And in a way, it’s the beginning of the institutional church. What’s so interesting to me about all institutions, they have a kind of shadow that they have to struggle with.

And it seems like they all begin with the intention of being in service to some cause, some need some work, and then corruption can slowly slip in. And they end up being not so much focused on a ministry, but somehow protecting themselves. And it’s so interesting that the early church was founded on a collapse of an institution, the temple. And one of the things about the temple that always strikes me is that it was the place where God dwelt. And therefore those who ran the temple in a way had the advantage of being able to connect with God. And then they would share that connection with people and they became a kind of intermediary and then they would, in a sense, dole out the grace, the forgiveness of God.

Well, it had gotten so bad that they were anything but real teachers. They were not putting people in touch with God. And Jesus was so clear in his condemnation of the Pharisees, blind guides, blind people leading other blind people into a pit. They did not see who they were or what they were there for. And so we see in the second reading a kind of battle cry, in a way, of those who came to overthrow the temple and its authority. The description is so clear in the vision of John in the Book of Revelations.

He’s seeing the proclamation that this God no longer dwells simply in a place that is run by a certain group of people who can then make people available or make God available to them. No, God’s dwelling is in us. God’s dwelling is in his people. And it’s so interesting that that indwelling presence of God was given so generously, so freely, that it was never considered to be something that you had to earn or be cleansed for in order to receive it. The receiving of it was a cleansing. So there was a radical shift not only in where God is, but what it takes to receive him.

And it’s interesting to me that, you know, I grew up in the church of the 40s and 50s and then experienced the Vatican Council. And I remember one of the major changes in the council was the way it saw the work of laity, and in particular, the holiness of the laity. And it was saying very clearly in those documents of Vatican II that this incredible, incredible acknowledgment of the presence of God in our life was to be done by a person who received it as a gift, not as somebody who worked and struggled and sort of renounced all the things that weren’t really of God. And then in a way, earn this indwelling presence. No, it was given to human beings as they were. And nothing is more clear in the Scriptures than who it was given to.

It was given to the Gentiles, the outcasts, the sinners, the no goods, the broken people, the poor people. I mean, that just ran in the face of everything that the Old Testament was grounded on in terms of the temple and the requirements of the law. I mean, you see why they were so excited. You know, in fact, it’s interesting. The Synoptics are like a. Like a three part play, each of them with the same theme.

The God, man comes into the world and saves us and fills us with divinity. And in Matthew, the focus in that first act, you’d say, is the fact that God is telling each and every person what is true. So in Matthew Gospel, we’re all learners, students, receiving wisdom. And in Mark, it’s different. We’re followers. He talks about what it’s like to, once you believe and understand the truth, how your life changes.

And in Luke, the one we have now in this cycle of the church here, we have this wonderful image of people being so celebratory about this incredible, wonderful thing that’s happened, how glorious it is, what God has done. So in John’s reading today, we see this beautiful image of God announcing through him, through this vision, tell the world God has come and his dwelling is within. You don’t go looking for him somewhere, but go within. And this indwelling presence is what transforms us. And it’s not up to us and our human will and our discipline to prepare ourselves to receive it. No, his presence is what transforms us.

Very important. So we see that truth being celebrated in this vision of John. And then you see the response in Luke’s Gospel. God, you are so glorious. What a glorious thing. You have given us glory also.

I mean, you have promised us something. You’ve come to give us this new life, and we are just overwhelmed by it. Your glory is you choosing to live within us. And our glory is our willingness to accept it. What a perfect description of those early celebrations when people got together to break bread and drink wine. It must have been always so celebratory.

This is all happening to us. Can you believe it? Can you believe it? And sharing stories which would have been like the scriptures we use today, sharing stories about the transformation in people, how compassion and empathy started to well up in communities. And people were shocked as they watched these Christians do things that didn’t make any sense to the old law, where you weren’t supposed to help people who were being punished by God, by their suffering. And so they saw something so radically new.

So it must have been so wonderful, those early celebrations. And yet we call the very celebration we have now the Eucharist. We call it Thanksgiving. We’re supposed to come together week after week and celebrate with a community these wonderful things that are going on in our lives. And it’s so interesting that instead of that, we often come together and try to figure out what the scriptures mean and then go through a ritual that is very routine. Sometimes it has this really intention of relaxing us and putting us in a kind of a zone.

And sometimes that zone we go off into what we have to do later that day. And what we have to take care of this week, and our minds drift, go through a ritual of eating and drinking, this gift of God’s presence. And it tends to be routine. Did I leave my purse back there? Should I get back? You know, we’re human.

It’s okay. It’s okay. But that’s why the scriptures come back over and over again and try to engage us in the beginning of this incredible thing we call spirituality. Spirituality, it’s not being holy, it’s not being good. It’s about a way of life. And I want to stress something.

You know, I mentioned Vatican II and its insistence on the dignity of a human person to receive holiness as a gift, not to earn it. But that council went on to say a lot of things about us, the laity. And I find it interesting now where we’re surrounded by news of our hierarchy. Their failure perhaps to be transparent is at least a big issue in the press, to say the least. And so many people, when they see the laity, rather, excuse me, when they see the hierarchy failing in some way, it threatens their whole sort of sense of the integrity of the church. Like, oh, my gosh, what if they’re not telling the truth?

Then where do we go? I mean, they’re the professionals. They’re the ones that are modeling for us a way of life. But that’s really not the church. That’s not what we’ve been taught. It’s not what.

In a way, I would say Vatican II gave us a way to imagine what we’re in now. And if it weren’t for Vatican ii, I don’t know if we could have done it the way we are invited to do it now, with forgiveness and understanding and not letting it threaten our existence as a valid representation of Christ the church. You know, church doesn’t seem to have the integrity that it does, that it should have if it represents God. But does the church really find its full representation in the hierarchy and in the clergy? Not really. I mean, if you look at our tradition, the real promise in the New Testament and in the Gospels is each individual, each person that opens themselves to this mysterious indwelling of God as they are.

They find themselves evolving very quickly, being transformed into people that are like the Christ. And that’s what nurtures, creates, sustains this thing we call church. It’s the laity. And it’s not to say the hierarchy is not important. They have a very important role. But the church is really formed by the witness of the transformation that is happening in people who claim to Believe in this thing that seems almost impossible to believe in, that God is living inside of me.

And I’ve been changed in my ability to do things which I didn’t have before, I now have because he’s in me. And I don’t know how to describe this mysterious union, but it’s like becoming one with something, someone. So it’s not that we go around preaching and teaching all the time. Francis’s great line about preach and teach the gospel always, only now and then, or when necessary, use words. So when you look at it, I guarantee you that most people are drawn to Christianity because of Christians, and most people leave Christianity because of Christians, not because of the institution. But the institution has a role and responsibility to witness something that they seem to be failing at today.

But nevertheless, it’s still important for you and for me to recognize what is the plan of God. The heart of God. He enters into human beings. He transforms us. We become more like Him. And as we witness that to each other, the power and the strength of this mysterious thing we call grace gets stronger and stronger and stronger.

It’s all done, in a way, by each of us engaging in a spirituality, a spiritual life. I spent so many years of my life trying to get rid of all my weaknesses and all my failings so I could somehow represent God to the world. And I don’t think people are that impressed with people that are so pure and so holy that they don’t really fall into the trap of what everybody else falls into. That other world holiness thing has never been very effective. But what is effective is seeing someone just like me with all the same faults and frailties and mistakes and foul language or whatever, doing things beyond what a normal human being does. We see it so often in tragedies.

We see it in school shootings and in those kinds of things where people become heroes and are selfless and care for others and go way beyond what normal human nature might do in terms of self preservation and self interest. And you see that and you say, oh, wow, this is so encouraging. That’s the church doesn’t matter what religion it is. It doesn’t matter what denomination. Rather, it’s people loving and living selflessly and somehow in that act, transforming other people to live selflessly and transform others. That’s where it is.

And maybe this day and age we’re in is a call to look at that more seriously and to take hope that we are truly the church. Foreign Father, your presence is our ticket. The ride is the life that you’re calling us to. Live. That’s like the life you lived. Loving, forgiving, healing.

It’s our destiny, our surrender, our acceptance, our belief that this presence in us is so effective, so powerful and the task is to just allow you to flow through us. We enjoy accomplishing things and in this case we have to enjoy you accomplishing things through us. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher, a listener supported program is archived and available on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com and available anytime, anywhere and for free on our podcast, Finding God in Our Hearts. You can search and subscribe to Finding God in Our Hearts anywhere you download your podcasts.

Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a NonProfit in Dallas, Texas dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute Studios. Copyright 2020.