Jul 2 Thu - How should I receive the sacred Host?

 

Jul 2 Thu

How should I receive the sacred Host?

In the optional rite of Communion in the hand, the communicant should place his cupped left palm upon the right. The minister places the sacred host on the left palm. Stepping aside yet still facing the minister, the communicant conveys the sacred host to his mouth with the right hand. The minister should ascertain that the host is consumed there. 

The Amen that the communicant pronounces upon receiving the sacred host is equivalent to saying, “Yes, Lord, I believe. I love you and hope in you. I know my time of waiting is over, for my hope has become a reality that fulfills the deepest needs of my faith and my charity. You are mine, and I am yours, wholly made one in this sacrament. My soul worships you in silence.” 

It is not the sacrament that changes, as bread and wine would, into our substance; it is we ourselves who are changed, so to speak, into its nature. So that we can very well apply here those words of St Augustine put into the mouth of our Lord: “I am the food of the strong, believe and you will eat me. But you will not change me into you, as you do with the food of your body; it is you who will be changed into me.” 

Nevertheless, there is always the danger of our getting used to it and not paying due respect to our Lord present in the sacrament.

Communion is a gift of God, given to the faithful through the minister appointed for this purpose. Thus, the faithful are not permitted to pick up the consecrated bread and the sacred chalice themselves; still less are they permitted to hand them from one to another.

The faithful, whether religious or lay, who are authorized as extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist can distribute Communion when there is no priest, deacon, or acolyte, when the priest is impeded by illness or advanced age, or when the number of the faithful going to Communion is so large as to make the celebration of Mass excessively long. 

This is so because the ordinary ministers for the distribution of Holy Communion are the bishop, the priests, and the deacons. 

The acolyte is an extraordinary minister of Communion who is instituted permanently.

In case of genuine necessity, a simple faithful may be appointed by the bishop (or Vicar) as an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion (the so-called lay minister). This appointment is always for a specific occasion or for a time. The “lay minister” should be duly instructed and distinguish himself by his Christian life, faith, and morals. 

These “lay ministers” should not approach the altar before the priest has received Communion, and they are always to receive from the hands of the priest celebrant the vessel containing either species of the Most Holy Eucharist for distribution to the faithful. A “lay minister” does not give Communion to himself; if it is the case, he or she takes Holy Communion from the hands of the priest, like any other lay person. 

Jul 1 Wed - How can I look around and judge with serenity?

 

Jul 1 Wed

How can I look around and judge with serenity?

As radiance of the Light eternal, Christ brings the splendor of Truth to the world, and the clarity of supernatural Light to our minds. As the Sun of justice, He burns with that fire which - as He told his disciples - He longs to spread through the entire world.

Each of us must strive to be light and fire. Our love must be a flame that sets fire to everything it touches, raising the spiritual temperature of our surroundings.

Christ's supernatural light, which instils peace and calm into our hearts, also brings us a superabundance of love: a warmth, a fire, that enkindles our hearts and enables us to love God and other people for his sake.

Moreover, this supernatural life which Christ brings is a participation in his own life: a sharing in his knowledge and love. Faith gives us a truer and more positive view of things. In the radiance of faith, everything takes on a different hue, a meaning totally unsuspected by those accustomed to seeing things from only a human standpoint.

Christ's light enables us to see things and events supernaturally. How different our life then appears! Unexpected occurrences and changes of plan no longer upset us. Whatever happens is seen in its true dimension and meaning. We discover the reality that all things work out well for us. Our outlook becomes more positive; we are no longer tempted to pessimism, since we now discover God's hand in everyone and everything.

“Strive to see God behind every event and circumstance. Then, from everything that happens, you will draw more love for God and greater desires to respond to his grace. He is always waiting for us, and He gives us the chance to renew our spirit of service continually."

The consequence is serenity. Those around us notice our peace, and they try to find the reason for it, to discover where it comes from. God wants us to be calm at all times, because in this way we can lead souls gently but effectively to Him.

Yet that serenity is a result of embracing Christ’s cross: “These are the unmistakable signs of the true Cross of Christ: serenity, a deep feeling of peace, a love which is ready for any sacrifice, a great effectiveness which wells from Christ’s own wounded Side. And always - and evidently - joy: a joy which comes from knowing that those who truly give themselves are beside the Cross, and therefore beside Our Lord."

“I assure you that we will make a great contribution to enlightening the life and work of mankind, through the divine radiance which God has deposited in our souls. But don't forget: To abide in Jesus one must walk in the same way in which He walked, a way that always leads to victory, but that just as surely passes through sacrifice." 

Jun 30 Tue - Why did God place us in an imperfect world?

 

Jun 30 Tue

Why did God place us in an imperfect world?

Some people wonder: Why stick around in this life if the next life is so great? In fact, why has God sent us into this world at all if His ultimate goal for us is union with Him? Why not just get us there?
 
Why send us here, risking the possibility that things might turn out badly? It’s as though God was saying: “I am putting you in this very fragile ethical situation where you’ll be pretty much over your heads, and although I want you to succeed, if you screw up, you’re doomed. Good luck!”

Everything about the Christian faith tells us that is not what God is doing. So why are we in this world when we’re meant for the next? Perhaps it will help to engage in a little thought experiment.

Let’s say there is a loving Creator who freely wants to share that love with some creatures, a God who “created the universe to enter into a history of love with mankind.”

How would He do this?

Love must be received and given freely.  So, God can’t keep these creatures with Him, “under His wing,” so to speak, because that wouldn’t allow them any real freedom, any more than children kept at home, even with very loving parents, have any real freedom to become who they are meant to become.

So, God’s creatures cannot remain always and only with and in Him; they must go out to develop in a place and in circumstances where they can learn to love freely.

It would have to be in a place vast enough to keep their minds always expanding, preparing, bit by bit, for union with their transcendent Source. It would need sufficient resources to support these creatures, but not be perfect in every way. If it were, people might choose God only as a source of pleasant things, as though He were simply the divine “caretaker.”

That’s not love; it’s dependency.  To learn to love like adults, they can’t be treated like children forever. 

So, this Creator would have to put us out and away from Him, in some sense. And He can’t make Himself visible at every moment lest we simply depend on Him constantly to mend our troubles and pains and to provide for us and others. If He did, we wouldn’t grow in love. We just existed, like spoiled children.

To learn to be selfless lovers (which is the only real kind), these creatures would need to learn to put the needs of others ahead of their own.  
But how would they do that if they were in a world with no needs?  So too, without struggle, there can be no real virtue.  To develop virtue, people must be tested, “like gold tested in fire.”

“To be faithful to God requires a constant battle. Hand-to-hand combat, man to man — the old man against the man of God — in one small thing after another, without giving in."
“Each day, be conscious of your duty to be a saint. — A saint! And that doesn’t mean doing strange things. It means a daily struggle in the interior life and in heroically fulfilling your duty right through to the end." St. Josemaría

Some excerpts from Randall Smith 

Jun 29 Mon - Is the dark night of frustration the end?

 

Jun 29 Mon

Is the dark night of frustration the end?

Pope Leo explains: Nicodemus went to talk to Jesus at night. Like him, we too are pilgrims in the night, on our journey of life. 

We are beggars for love; we are truly hungry and thirsty. We seek a deeper meaning that will sustain us, inspire us, and help us understand the mystery of our lives. 

As we slowly move forward, one small step at a time, we are called to engage with the shadows of our own human condition: we lack the full truth; we do not fully fathom the mystery of ourselves or the true identity of others; we do not always succeed in understanding the hidden truth of the reality that surrounds us and the events unfolding before our eyes. 
We seek a light to illumine the path. 

But Nicodemus also speaks to us about the path of faith. It is not a path that runs separately, parallel to that of our human existence. Rather, these two paths are always intertwined. 

Jesus is always with the Father and with us. Thus, every time the mystery of our life unfolds in the light of a new day, in all that we are and do, we are in God’s presence and held in his eternal embrace: our life “is hidden with Christ in God” (Col 3:3). 

Yet, at times we experience the night of faith, the weariness of believing, the fatigue of the spirit, a sense of inadequacy in the face of the Gospel’s call, the bitterness of our failures, and the fear of not measuring up. 

Nicodemus teaches us that these nights — which accompany our lives, our journey of faith, and the history in which we live — are a time of blessing, a place for rebirth.

These nights strip us bare and return us to what is essential. They remove the human and religious masks we wear by day to keep ourselves from being recognized or to present ourselves differently than we are. 

They expose us, revealing our lights and our shadows. These nights restore us to the humility of knowing how to look at ourselves in truth, beyond the presumption of thinking that our journey is already complete and that we can move forward as if we had a clear understanding of everything, everyone, and even God. 

Suffering or dissatisfaction, or disillusionment or unbelief, can be an opportunity to receive new life, to change and be renewed, to be “born again from above,” as Jesus tells Nicodemus. In fact, God did not come to judge the world in its sin and the night of its unfaithfulness, but sent his Son to save it, to give the world eternal life. 

For this reason, we too are called not to judge the “nights” — neither the nights of our own lives, those of the Church, nor those of the society around us. 

In the night, we must instead set out on a journey as Nicodemus did, opening ourselves to the wind of the Spirit. We must welcome the night no longer as a sign of failure, but as the beginning of a new life. 

Jun 28 Sun - Why should I love God above everything?

 

Jun 28 Sun

Why should I love God above everything?

Jesus teaches us that God must be the principal object of our love. We must love creatures in a secondary, subordinate way. “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me...”

All other earthly loves are enriched, purified, and encouraged to grow when we love God. Our heart expands, and our capacity for loving increases.

To love God the way He wants us to love him, we have to die to those disordered tendencies which incline and induce us to sin. We must die to that egocentricity which leads man to seek himself in everything he does. 

Yet God wants us to preserve all that is healthy and upright and truly human in our nature, all that is good and humanly characteristic in each unique individual. Nothing genuinely human, of the positive, of the perfectible, will be lost. The more a man dies to his selfish ego, the more truly human he becomes, and so much the better is he prepared for supernatural life.

The Christian who struggles to deny himself finds he is living a new life, the life of Jesus. Grace fills us with the same desires as Christ: our one objective becomes that of fulfilling the will of the Father. That, then, is the real expression of love and its clearest manifestation.

Love of God is nourished in prayer and in the reception of the sacraments, in the constant struggle against our defects, in the unceasing effort to maintain a living presence of God throughout the whole of our working day, in our relations with others, in our times of rest... The Eucharist above all must be the spring at which our love of God is perpetually refreshed and strengthened. In a way, to love thus is already to possess Heaven on earth.

Our love of God is merely a response to His love. He loved us first. That is why we ask him, Lord, give me the love with which you want me to love you.

We correspond with the love of God when we love others; when we see in them the dignity proper to the human person, made as it has been in the image and likeness of God, created with an immortal soul and called to give glory to God for all eternity. 

Love is to approach that wounded man we come across on our journey each day; it is to bind up his wounds, restore him to health, and take care of him in all things. We must exert ourselves on his behalf, making a serious effort to bring him to God. Separation from God is always the greatest of evils, and those thus separated from him need our help and our urgent attention. Apostolate is a wonderful sign of our love for God, and is the way to love him more.

Our whole life has to become this constant seeking after Jesus, in good times and in those that seem bad, in our work and in our leisure, in the street and in the bosom of the family. This quest is the only one that can give meaning to our lives. 

Jun 27 Sat - Must every family be formed by a man and a woman?

 

Jun 27 Sat
Must every family be formed by a man and a woman?

The Pope affirmed this in a message to a symposium on the family in Brazil. Pope Leo XIV described the family as a “unique community of persons formed by a man and a woman.”

It was the second such statement from Pope Leo in recent days. On May 25, Pope Leo told European lawmakers that the family is “founded on marriage between a man and a woman.”

Both remarks follow the Pontiff’s assurance to the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, on the “non-blessing” of same-sex couples.

“The Church teaches that the family is the ‘primary and essential cell of society’ and, for this reason, must be protected and promoted. Called to proclaim God’s love in today’s world, this unique community of persons formed by a man and a woman is so united in love that they become “one flesh.” 

“Let us therefore look to the example of the Holy Family of Nazareth. The small yet fundamental virtues of the home in which Jesus was born and grew up, learning from Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary, must serve as an inspiration and model for all our homes and be the source from which true peace is sought. Indeed, as Benedict XVI pointed out, the family plays a primary and indispensable role as a ‘teacher of peace’.”

God's strategic plan is straightforward: Restore all creation in Christ, the King of the Universe. Matrimony, and the fruitfulness of the marital embrace, are indispensable to the survival of the species and the continuance of His New Creation. In the mystery of heaven, the more, the merrier.

“A Christian marriage is not just a social institution, much less a mere remedy for human weakness. It is a real supernatural calling. A great sacrament, in Christ and in the Church, says St Paul. At the same time, it is a permanent contract between a man and a woman. Whether we like it or not, the sacrament of matrimony, instituted by Christ, cannot be dissolved. It is a permanent contract that sanctifies in cooperation with Jesus Christ. He fills the souls of husband and wife and invites them to follow him. He transforms their whole married life into an occasion for God's presence on earth."

“Husband and wife are called to sanctify their married life and to sanctify themselves in it. It would be a serious mistake if they were to exclude family life from their spiritual development. The marriage union, the care and education of children, the effort to provide for the needs of the family as well as for its security and development, the relationships with other persons who make up the community, all these are among the ordinary human situations that Christian couples are called upon to sanctify." St. Josemaría

The family and the priesthood are linchpins of authentic Catholic doctrine and life. The strategic objective of the Devil’s rebellion is to destroy these tangible lifelines to the New Creation. The diabolical game plan is all too familiar: Undermine marriage and the family—and destroy the priesthood.

Let’s make God’s strategic plan our plan. Love God, love neighbor, love marriage, love life, and love the apostolic priesthood. And expect eternal happiness. 

Jun 26 Fri - What are the most essential virtues of a Christian professional?

 

Jun 26 Fri
 

What are the most essential virtues of a Christian professional?

For anyone to live a fully Christian life, we need a keenness to take God seriously. Sanctity is not only possible but necessary in the midst of our social and professional tasks.

“Look how gently the Lord invites us. His words have human warmth; they are the words of a person in love: ‘I have called you by your name. You are mine.’”

St. Josemaría ceaselessly reminded all professionals that their mission in life, in the middle of the world, was “to contribute to there, being in the midst of the world, men and women of every race and social condition who try to love and serve God and their fellow man in and through their everyday work.”
“Sanctity is not reserved for a privileged few. All the ways of the earth, every state in life, every profession, every honest task can be divine.”

To accomplish the aim of Christian vocation, what could be the most important virtues for an entrepreneur or employee?

Honesty

Honesty is being true to yourself, without self-deception.  This is something others will perceive. An honest professional will thrive much more.

Coherence

Consistency means aligning your thoughts and words with your actions and feelings.  Being consistent means adhering to your company’s values and principles, even in difficult or controversial situations. Consistent people are reliable.

Patience

When we put a lot of effort into a project and have to wait for results, it’s difficult to stay idle. Even so, it’s necessary to be patient, and not only with the projects themselves, but also with your team, investors…

Commitment

You must be committed to your own project, and that commitment must be evident to others, especially during difficult times. Yet don’t go down with the ship. You must know when to stop.

Generosity

Be generous, help other projects when asked, and try to share your experience.

Modesty

While it’s important to believe in your project, it’s equally important to acknowledge your own mistakes and accept criticism. Perfection doesn’t exist, and you can learn a lot from others.

Courage

Sometimes you’ll have to defend your project against all odds and have the courage to innovate or to take very risky actions. Fortune favors the bold, so go for it!

Responsibility

You must take responsibility for your actions, ideas, and emotions. If you systematically blame the intern when something goes wrong, no one will take you seriously or trust you. 

Being responsible is tough because it means accepting failures, but remember that even then, you can learn from your mistakes.

Moreover, is it possible to acquire these values, or are we born with them? 

I firmly believe that anyone can improve if they set their mind to it and have the right tools and support. So, I encourage you to examine yourself and work on those values you feel you lack to become the best entrepreneur you can be.

“May each one of us joyfully honor the Lord by carrying out his own duties, those which are properly his; each one of us, in his job or profession, and fulfilling the obligations of his state in life.”

Some excerpts from Angel Maria Herrera, Exaudi. 

Jun 25 Thu - Who decides what the gospel truth is?

 

Jun 25 Thu

Who decides what the gospel truth is? 

The Church, the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, which is the Catholic Church, decides what the gospel truth is.

In Catholicism, neither “the Church” nor “the Bible” holds primacy over the other. The Church and Scripture have a mutual relationship: the Magisterium is the servant of the Word, not its rival, while Scripture is the written Word of God that the Church faithfully receives and guards. 

Still, Catholic teaching insists that Scripture is genuinely the Word of God and that it must be read in the Church’s faith. 
Catholic teaching also explicitly warns against interpretations that treat Scripture as if it were to be interpreted by merely human methods to the exclusion of the Church’s mind. 

The authors of the Bible were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the authors of the Gospels especially so. But it was the Church—the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ—that decided which books are legitimate and form part of the Bible, and which are apocryphal and should be set separately. The apocryphal books might contain truths, but they're not the absolute gospel truth.

Also, Vatican II presents Scripture, Tradition, and Magisterium as inseparably connected, working together toward salvation, so Scripture is not treated as secondary material. 

Thus, the Church (through her Magisterium) has the authority to interpret the Word of God authentically.

“Yet this Magisterium is not superior to the Word of God, but is its servant… it listens… guards… and expounds it faithfully.” 

Thus, the Magisterium does not judge God’s Word, but the correctness of its own interpretation—and it is “at its service.” 

In Catholicism, Church teaching authority (the Magisterium) and Sacred Scripture are not rivals. They are inseparably linked parts of one divine “deposit of the Word of God”, entrusted to the Church, and the Church’s authority exists to interpret the Word authentically for the sake of salvation. 

Scripture is truly God’s Word—but it is not self-interpreting.

The Church teaches that Sacred Scripture is God’s speech written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and that it is the “supreme rule of faith” in the sense that it is God’s Word and must nourish and regulate preaching. 

But Scripture is not treated as a text whose meaning is guaranteed by private reading alone. Scripture is meant to be read and interpreted “in the Church,” in the “sacred spirit” in which it was written, with serious attention to the whole Scripture and its living ecclesial context, and reading it with the eyes of Christ.

In sum:
- Primacy of Scripture: Scripture is the Word of God and the primary content the Church hands on and interprets. 
- Primacy of authority (in interpretation): the Church’s Magisterium has the authoritative role to ensure the meaning of Scripture is interpreted authentically within the living faith of the Church. 
- Not “either/or”: one cannot rightly set them up as “Bible vs Church.” Catholicism insists the three (Scripture, Tradition, Magisterium) belong together. 

Scripture has primacy as God’s Word; the Church has primacy of authoritative interpretation—but only as servant of that Word, not as something above it.

True Catholic and Christian identity is defined by adherence to the truth of Church doctrine rather than selective belief. 

Jun 24 Wed - My heart, should I let it go wild or guide it?

 

Jun 24 Wed

My heart, should I let it go wild or guide it?

God has the right to ask for our heart, our love and affection, because He created us, He keeps us in being, He has redeemed us from sin at the cost of His Son's blood, and He watches over us constantly. He has called us by our name, and "He loves each one of us more than all the mothers in the world can love their children." Because of all this, He wants us to give Him our body with all its senses; our soul, with all its faculties; He asks for our very intimacy, our heart.

Surrendering the heart is difficult, but it ends the miserable search for compensations.

We must turn our eyes to Jesus Christ, our Love, and tell Him that, despite our weakness, we do want to be His, and only His. “Don't you have a feeling that greater peace and closer union will come to you when you have responded to that extraordinary grace that is asking you for total detachment? - Struggle for His sake, to please Him; but strengthen your hope."

When the longing for compensations grows stronger, when the temptation to human consolation tries to enchain our heart and turn it away from God's love, we need to think about heaven, the endless happiness that God our Lord has in store for us. “Why stoop to drink in the puddles of worldly consolations when you can quench your thirst in waters that spring up into life everlasting?"

“How clear the way is!... How obvious the obstacles! What good weapons to overcome them! -And yet... how much going astray and how much stumbling! That is so, isn't it?"
“-It's that fine thread - a chain: a chain of wrought iron - which you and I know about, and which you aren't willing to break, and it is causing you to stray from the path, and making you stumble and even fall."
“-What are you waiting for to cut it... and go forward?"
“When you put into practice all this doctrine, says St. Josemaría, there will be times when you find that words are just not enough: you'll want to break into song, like the young men who go and sing love-songs to their sweethearts."

We must surrender our hearts to live in universal fraternal charity, without distinctions.

“If you belong to Christ - entirely to Christ! - you will have for everyone - from Christ himself - fire, light, and warmth." The total surrender of our hearts actually helps us in our fraternal charity, because it eliminates the danger of self-seeking and prevents our love for one another from being based simply on human reasons. 

If our heart is set on God alone, and on family and friends, and all souls for His sake, we will readily be able to follow St Augustine's advice: “Love, and do what you like. If you keep quiet, keep quiet out of love ...; if you correct, correct out of love; if you forgive, forgive out of love. Make sure this root of charity is there in your soul, for nothing but good can come of it." 

Jun 23 Tue - Is it good to be rebellious?

 

Jun 23 Tue

Is it good to be rebellious?

Being rebellious isn’t just mindless teenage rebellion. It’s a mature rebellion: refusing to let the world ensnare you with its invisible tentacles of consumerism.

It’s a radical commitment to making your life exactly what God has envisioned for you, not what society, social media, or trends push you to be.

At 15, the now-Bishop Munilla, during a retreat, didn't know what pledge to offer to Jesus to be written on a piece of paper and then burned in a brazier. He signed only his name: José Ignacio, adding, "Lord, I have signed it; you write whatever you want."

Bishop Munilla clearly outlines the cultural journey we are experiencing:

- First, the dictatorship of relativism: One is no longer allowed to think what one wants; there are "politically correct" censors.

- Then came the profound crisis: Man no longer knows who he is.

- From this proud modernism, we have moved to the postmodern Narcissus: constantly looking at oneself in the mirror of social media, comparing, envying, and thus becoming fragile.

The result is massive emotional wounds: dysfunctional families, narcissism, anxiety, addiction to immediate gratification (reels, Amazon, likes), inability to postpone pleasure, and a self-esteem built on the gaze of others instead of on the gaze of God. 

Our biggest problem on social media is that we are replacing the presence of God with the opinions of others. 

The big trap: not feeling good enough.

Some young people (and not so young) confess: "I don't feel valued, I'm not worth it, I've thought about taking my own life." The solution isn't cheap self-help, but recovering one's identity as a child of God: "I am what I am to God; a child of God."

Fraternity, personal commitment, and asking for help are the keys. The “mute” demon isolates; the Church unites and heals.

In the face of wounds (one’s own or those received):

- Pray for the one who hurt us (even if it’s difficult at first).
- Surrender our wounds to God and refuse to let them define us.
- Abandon victimhood (a toxic form of narcissism).
- Approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which is not merely a "stain remover," but a healing and uplifting grace that forgives you and offers you a deeper friendship with Christ. It is being "born again" from the Heart of Jesus.

Have devotion to the Sacred Heart: He loved us first. Trusting in that love precedes our merits.

When you understand that there are not two paths—human happiness or holiness—but only one, your worldview changes.

God wants you to be holy because He wants you to be happy. And He wants you to be happy because He wants you to be holy. The saints were the happiest people in the world.

Final message: Where there is no mother, there is chaos. Return to the Immaculate Conception; let yourself be cared for by Her.

To each one of you: Pay attention. God has a plan for you and will reveal it to you step by step. Sign the blank check. Renew your calling daily. Do not be afraid. Trust.

And above all: God loves you and wants you to be happy. 

Jun 22 Mon - Was the resurrection of our Lord real or illusory?

 

Jun 22 Mon

Was the resurrection of our Lord real or illusory? 

In the Upper Room, what the apostles saw was so extraordinary that they felt they could not trust their own eyes. It was the same Jesus as always, the man whom they had followed since Galilee, and who now had shown them his wounds from the crucifixion. “It is I myself,” He repeated with a smile on his face. “Handle me and see.” He was telling them He was not a ghost. It was as if He was saying, “It is me, the same as always, your Master.”

Given all these testimonies, Christ's resurrection cannot be interpreted as something outside the physical order, and must be acknowledged as a historical fact. 

The disciples' faith was drastically tested by the Master's Passion and Death on the Cross, which He had foretold. The shock provoked by the Passion was so great that at least some of the disciples did not at once believe in the news of the Resurrection.

Far from showing us a community seized by a mystical exaltation, the Gospels present us with demoralized disciples, looking sad and frightened, for they had not believed the holy women returning from the tomb, and had regarded their words as an idle tale. 

When Jesus revealed Himself to the eleven on Easter evening, He upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw Him after He had risen. 

It was Jesus, but with a body now glorified. The resurrection of the Lord was not a return to life, as happened with Lazarus or the son of the widow of Nain. Now Jesus had the fullness of human life, freed from the limitations of time and space. So, He could enter the house where the doors were shut. 

Jesus was no longer subject to physical laws, yet He had a human body that could be recognized by sight and touch. The Lord made a point of ensuring that everyone would recognize him as a real, visible person who spoke to them.

His body was the same as the body in the tomb and the body that hung on the cross. He asked, “Have you anything here to eat?” He did this because spirits do not eat. It was evident that the risen Jesus had no need to eat, but that He really could eat.

The disciples did not have bountiful provisions, but they gave him a piece of broiled fish, and He took it and ate before them. 

Peter would later claim this as another proof of the truth of the resurrection when speaking to the centurion Cornelius, telling him how they ate and drank with Jesus after He rose from the dead. They saw Jesus and Jesus saw them, and they perceived one another with all their human senses.

Jesus was not there before them in a static way as He is sometimes portrayed in paintings. On the contrary, He moved, talked, the sweep of his gaze took them all in, and He occupied space among them in a completely easy and natural way. Jesus opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and He showed them that it was necessary that in Him all that had been written in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms be fulfilled.
Excerpts from Francisco Fernandez-Carvajal 

Jun 21 Sun - Should I manifest my faith before my friends?

 Jun 21 Sun

Should I manifest my faith before my friends?

We must manifest our faith in Christ with deeds, aware that, even if our miseries are abundant, even greater is God's grace.

Yet the Lord warned the apostles that when they carry out Christ’s mission to spread the Gospel, they will find opposition.

Christ instructed them not to be afraid of anyone. The most persecutors can do is kill the body; they “cannot kill the soul.”

“The Lord is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph."
God the Father and the Son greatly love us, Christian apostles. This gives us reason to be courageous.

Thus, we should never be afraid of “acknowledging” Christ before others, that is, proclaiming the truth, especially the truth of the Gospel.

However, we should be very afraid of denying Christ before others, because that could mean the death of both the body and the soul in hell. We have an obligation in justice to bear witness to the truth, come what may.

Just as Christ came into the world to “bear witness to the truth,” we too must profess the truth directly and clearly, “without equivocation.”

This witness to the Gospel must be given “in words and deeds.” Witness is an act of justice that makes the truth known.

When we testify to the truth, either through our words or our actions, others respond not just because of our testimony but because the truth resounds within them. This double testimony arouses in them either their acceptance or rejection. The rejection of the truth may arouse their wrath.

“You want to follow in Christ’s footsteps, to wear his insignia, to identify yourself with Jesus. Well then, make your faith a living faith, full of sacrifice and deeds of service, and get rid of everything that stands in the way."

Look at our culture and environment and ask yourself, “Are people demanding that I deny or at least keep silent about some aspect of truth?”

Each of us must answer this question ourselves, because the answers may vary in different places.

It is also important that we discern when to be silent and when to speak.

We are entering a time in which enemies of God and of humanity are demanding complete agreement with their twisted notions. Their catchy phrase “silence is violence” is a way either to force people’s agreement through fear of the dire consequences they can inflict or to expose and punish those who disagree with them.

The fact that we are children of God, that God is our Father, must be the solid foundation of our spiritual life and our apostolic action.

“To transmit the faith, people need to meet a friend who expresses the joy of the Christian faith and the coherence of a Gospel manifested in his way of life.
Pope Leo said. “It is certainly not by watering down the content or softening the demands that Christianity can be made attractive, but by bearing witness with humility and courage to ‘the way, the truth and the life’ that has converted and sanctified so many people.”