A HEELING MASS?
“He who partook of bread with Me has raised his heel against Me.” —John 13:18
In the time of Jesus, showing the bottom of your foot to someone was a sign of contempt toward them. Judas, in betraying Jesus, no longer considered Jesus his Master. Judas had committed to the service of new masters, the Sanhedrin. “No man can serve two masters. He will … be attentive to one and despise the other” (Mt 6:24). Therefore, Judas despised Jesus. By eating the Last Supper with Jesus, Judas showed the greatest contempt for Him (Ps 41:10), even if he outwardly appeared sociable.
When you break bread with Jesus at Mass, are you coming to serve Jesus as your Master? Do you have His interests in mind? Are you listening for a message from Him? (Jn 13:16) Or do you come to Mass while serving someone else, such as yourself? If you are serving anyone else but Jesus, you’ll eventually love them and despise Him (Mt 6:24). Others may see your Mass attendance as respectful, but that’s not what Jesus sees. He may see the bottom of your foot raised against Him in contempt (Jn 13:18).
How do you spend your prime time? Your answer tells you what you serve. If the answer is not Jesus and His interests, repent now. Give up all that you have to gain Jesus as your Treasure and your Master (Mt 13:44). When you humble yourself and accept Jesus as your Master, Lord, and Savior, you paradoxically discover who you are (Mt 10:39). “Once you know all these things, blest will you be if you put them into practice” (Jn 13:17).
PRAYER: Father, I will live no longer for myself but for Jesus (2 Cor 5:15). Help me to love Jesus in the Mass ever more deeply.
PROMISE: “Through all generations my mouth shall proclaim Your faithfulness.” –Ps 89:2
PRAISE: Give thanks for your daily bread and say a prayer of thanks next time you are served or share a meal.
SEND-OFF
“Then, after they had fasted and prayed, they imposed hands on them and sent them off.” —Acts 13:3
When the early Church gathered for prayer, they did something before and something after. They fasted before praying. This freed them, “releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke” (Is 58:6). They were free to hear the voice of God, pray the prayer of faith, go up prayer-mountain, and move the mountains of the evil one (Mt 17:20-21). After they prayed, it was not that the people just went off; rather, they were sent off (Acts 13:3).
The assembly at prayer should be a launching pad, shooting Spirit-filled, empowered, commissioned believers into the world. Propelled by the community’s prayer and fasting, we rescue people from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light (Col 1:13) and attack the gates of hell that cannot prevail against us (Mt 16:18).
The Catholic Church has traditionally emphasized fasting, praying, and sending. Before receiving Holy Communion, we are to fast for at least an hour. I recommend we fast for a significantly longer period of time. After Holy Communion, we are sent out with the final blessing. This is what the word “Mass” means: “sent.” Fasting, praying, and sending launched the first missionary journey, and will certainly begin the final one.
PRAYER: Father, during this Easter time, launch me into full-time missionary work.
PROMISE: “The Father Who sent Me has commanded Me what to say and how to speak.” –Jn 12:49
PRAISE: Praise those who ‘Lay their hands’ on other to give love, care and hope.
MIDDLE MANAGEMENT
“My sheep hear My voice. I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life.” —John 10:27-28
When we talk to someone or walk into their life, we are talking or walking into the middle of something. God has been at work, and many things have already deeply influenced that person. We need to enter into that conversation and that life so as to fit into God’s plan. Thus, Barnabas walked into Antioch and immediately picked up on what the Lord was doing. “On his arrival [Barnabas] rejoiced to see the evidence of God’s favor. He encouraged them all to remain firm in their commitment to the Lord” (Acts 11:23). “Thereby large numbers were added to the Lord” (Acts 11:24).
Barnabas’ key to success was his relationship with the Lord. When we live by faith the life in the Holy Spirit, we:
hear God’s voice (Jn 10:27),
consistently are at the right place at the right time,
treat people gently, thus neither breaking a bruised reed nor quenching a smoldering wick (Is 42:3),
don’t “put our feet into our mouths” so often,
don’t get in God’s way,
don’t hurt people by trying to help them,
don’t fall into the trap of becoming co-dependent and enabling others to act irresponsibly, and
are catalysts effecting the reception to a chain reaction of God’s graces.
The Lord alone knows what He is getting us into. He will guide us to be, say, and do our part of His plan for us and others. Listen to Jesus. Live in Jesus. Then truly love others.
PRAYER: Father, may I never be used by Satan. May I not recognize Satan’s voice (Jn 10:5).
PROMISE: “No one shall snatch [My sheep] out of My hand.” –Jn 10:28
PRAISE: Thank the Lord for all he provides-trust in him.
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SOME AWE
“Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus which would empower him to arrest and bring to Jerusalem anyone he might find, man or woman, living according to the new way.” —Acts 9:1-2
As Saul was cruising on the road to Damascus, he was likely thinking of his return trip when he would be moving a chain gang of Christians on that same Damascus road. Saul reacted to being an accomplice to the murder of Stephen by violently trying to justify his murderous sinfulness. He had been such a zealous anti-Christian that he later rated himself as the foremost sinner in the world (1 Tm 1:15), “a blasphemer, a persecutor, a man filled with arrogance” (1 Tm 1:13). Saul’s conversion proved that the Lord can, does, and will convert anybody.
Therefore:
There is hope for you by God’s mercy, no matter what you have done.
Pray expectantly for the most evil people in the world to be converted, particularly your enemies.
There is hope for your marriage and family, no matter what has happened.
Be another Ananias, courageously bringing new life in the Spirit to extremely dangerous people (Acts 9:10ff).
Be awed by the Lord’s love, power, and mercy in converting Saul.
Saul’s conversion is awesome. Be awed into hope and joy.
PRAYER: Father, send the Holy Spirit to give me a new perspective on those whom I have considered the most lost.
PROMISE: “The man who feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.” –Jn 6:56
PRAISE: 
(see Mt 13:55) St. Joseph, you instructed the young Jesus in a dignified trade; pray for us who labor.
THE BIRTHPLACE OF WORLD EVANGELIZATION
“The Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away.” —Acts 8:39
Jesus’ last words before He ascended into heaven were: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes down on you; then you are to be My witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, yes, even to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). Philip, the deacon and evangelist (see Acts 21:8), may have been the first person to fulfill the promise and command of Jesus to be His witness to the ends of the earth.
Philip was instrumental in reaching Ethiopia with the Gospel. He did this by converting the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:35). Philip qualified for this international harvest of souls because he had first preached in Samaria (Acts 8:5). Prior to this he served the Lord and His Church as a deacon in Judea and Jerusalem. First of all, Philip was a family man. He shared the Gospel of Jesus with his four daughters, who became prophetesses in the early Church (see Acts 21:9). Philip was an evangelist because he first served as a deacon. He was a deacon and evangelist because he first evangelized as a husband and father.
International evangelization begins at home. The family is the birthplace of world mission. If we are faithful in first things, the Lord will entrust us with later missions. “Bloom where you’re planted.” Then plant the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
PRAYER: Father, make my family a “domestic church” (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1655ff, 1666).
PROMISE: “No one can come to Me unless the Father Who sent Me draws him; I will raise him up on the last day.” –Jn 6:44
PRAISE: Pope St. Pius V was elected shortly after the close of the Council of Trent. He took on the enormous challenge of implementing the decrees of the council, many responding to the Protestant Reformation. In his humble way, he continued to wear his Dominican habit while Pope.
THE VOCATION IN ALL LOCATIONS
“Philip, for example, went down to the town of Samaria and there proclaimed the Messiah.” —Acts 8:5
Philip, the deacon, was a witness for the risen Jesus no matter where he was. He witnessed in Jerusalem and even in Samaria. Philip witnessed to Simon the Magician (Acts 8:13), the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:35), and his four daughters who became prophetesses (Acts 21:8-9). He witnessed at home, in Jerusalem, in Samaria, and then in the Ethiopian’s chariot on “the road which goes from Jerusalem to Gaza, the desert route” (Acts 8:26). Then the Spirit “snatched Philip away” (Acts 8:39). “Philip found himself at Azotus next, and he went about announcing the good news in all the towns until he reached Caesarea” (Acts 8:40).
Because Philip began as a family man to witness to his family, he was led in stages to witness to the ends of the earth by the effects of the Ethiopian’s conversion. Philip exemplified the last words of Jesus before His Ascension: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes down on you; then you are to be My witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, yes, even to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Do you witness for the risen Jesus everywhere, especially beginning at home? Do you freely break the unwritten rules against witnessing for Jesus at work, at school, even in some homes, and in countless other places in our secular humanistic culture of death? Where are the places in your life where you are most strongly tempted to join in the exclusion of Jesus? By the power of the Holy Spirit, be like Philip. May you never let your location stop you from living your vocation to witness for the risen Jesus.
PRAYER: Father, fill me with love for Jesus. May I always speak from the abundance of that love (Lk 6:45).
PROMISE: “No one who comes will I ever reject.” –Jn 6:37
PRAISE: St. Catherine was the 23rd child in her family. The Lord had special plans for her. She greatly influenced public affairs and had a profound impact on the papacy in her time.
BREAD THAT IS BROKEN
“God’s bread comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” —John 6:33
Did you ever fall in love with someone and wonder if they really loved you? You might wonder: Does she really love me for who I am, or only for what I can do for her? Will he love me when I grow old? Will she still love me when the attraction fades away? If you aren’t at your best, and your beloved nevertheless loves you even more, then your heart is filled with joy.
Jesus, “Who dwells in unapproachable light” (1 Tm 6:16), came down from heaven (Jn 6:33). If He desired, He could captivate all humanity with His blinding glory. The Jews asked Him to do so when they requested a glorious sign to prove His worth (Jn 6:30). Yet Jesus “humbled Himself” (Phil 2:8) and took on the form of bread and wine in the Eucharist. Like the lover mentioned above, the Eucharistic Jesus no longer has to wonder who loves Him and who doesn’t. He, Who is King of glory (Ps 24:8), is offered at every Mass in a host which doesn’t look much different than a potato chip. From this vantage point, Jesus can easily see who truly loves Him when He is presented in Eucharistic humility. This love surely brings joy to His heart.
Jesus can also easily see who ignores Him, overlooks Him, and snubs Him. When we refer to the “breaking of the bread,” we could also be speaking of the broken-hearted Eucharistic Jesus, Who daily offers Himself to all, and is daily rejected or ignored by so many. The Eucharist is a real proving ground of our love for Jesus. Jesus asks each of us: “Do you love Me?” (Jn 21:15) Let us make a return of love to Jesus by receiving Him in the Eucharist as often as possible (Ps 116:12-13).
PRAYER: Eucharistic Jesus, make me love Thee more and more.
PROMISE: “No one who comes to Me shall ever be hungry, no one who believes in Me shall ever thirst.” –Jn 6:35
PRAISE: Join in some of the virtual praise and worship open to you, for example, CJM Music-Jo Boyce, The Kenelm Trust-the Soli and Alton team and One Life Music.
THE FACE OF PEACE
“The members of the Sanhedrin who sat there stared at him intently. Throughout, Stephen’s face seemed like that of an angel.” —Acts 6:15
If a large number of people were debating with you, what would be the expression on your face and the reactions in your heart? What if, after your opponents lost the debate, “they persuaded some of the men to make the charge that they had heard” you “speaking blasphemies” (Acts 6:11)? When others lie about you and falsely accuse you, how do you look; how do you act? If these liars were believed and you were accosted, seized, and brought to court, how would you react, especially when more liars accused you of blasphemy? Stephen, the victim of all these crimes, took it quite well. His “face seemed like that of an angel” (Acts 6:15).
Stephen was profoundly peaceful because he had his eyes fixed on Jesus (see Acts 7:55-56), “Who inspires and perfects our faith” (Heb 12:2). Like Jesus at the time of His death, Stephen entrusted His life to the Lord (Acts 7:59; cf Lk 23:46). Like Jesus at the time of His death, Stephen also forgave his murderers (Acts 7:60; cf Lk 23:34). Stephen had such amazing peace under such evil conditions because he was immersed into, preoccupied with, and baptized into Jesus. His attention was entirely on Jesus. Stephen was like Jesus and lived through Jesus, with Jesus, in Jesus, and for Jesus. Stephen had peace in Jesus (Jn 16:33).
When we began the Easter season, we renewed our baptismal promises. Baptized into the risen Jesus, we have peace beyond understanding (Phil 4:7).
PRAYER: Father, transform me completely through the risen Christ.
PROMISE: “You should not be working for perishable food but for food that remains unto life eternal, food which the Son of Man will give you.” –Jn 6:27
PRAISE: What can you do this help the NHS or your community?
