Just as a reminder this weekend we have two recent Popes were canonized, Saint John Paul II and Saint John XXIII. Both of these men of the church remind us that there is more we can do. I saw this quote from John XXIII the other day and found it inspiring.

“Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”

This brought me back to Fr. Rolo reminding us if we have a relationship with Christ we should be joyful and enjoy life from last week. It also reminds me that there is always mercy to be shown for those things that may not go as planned.

In addition to the two popes being canonized this weekend we are also celebrating Divine Mercy Sunday which John Paul II instituted in 2000. He wanted us all to remember that no matter what we might be going through in Christ there is endless mercy, which the image we use from Saint Faustina shows. It shows that Christ died for our sins and washes us clean in baptism.

This mercy and forgiveness were two things that both of our newly minted Saints were trying to remind us of on a consistent basis. We always need to remember to be able to forgive not only others but also ourselves for our failures. We also need to be able to ask for forgiveness from others who we have wronged. John XXIII showed this by asking forgiveness for the church from the Jewish people who over the centuries some Christians had come to despise. At the same time he was asking for an ecumenism that was unheard of in wanting a dialog with not only the Jewish people but all Christians.

We hear this in Acts today when we are reminded that the apostles were to preach the Gospel to all people, not just the Jews or those who agreed with them. We are also reminded that even though we can all be judgmental at times, the final judge of everyone will be Jesus.               These statements were there to remind the apostles to show mercy and forgiveness to those who would end up persecuting them.

The one thing I remember most about Pope John Paul was his continual preaching and exhorting us all to be more merciful and compassionate. We can relate this to the reading from Peter today that;

 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who in his great mercy gave us a new birth to a living hope
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading,
kept in heaven for you

With his merciful heart God has given us the keys to eternal life and salvation. He did this because he knew we all need to be shown mercy and forgiveness. Saint Faustina who had the vision of Christ used for Divine Mercy saw this in her vision of Christ. She believed in the mercy of Christ and continued to discuss it, reminding us all the mercy from the Divine is unlimited. This type of mercy is only available to us because of Gods unending ability to forgive us for our sins. All we need to do is ask and that mercy, compassion and forgiveness is freely distributed. We do need to ask with a sincerity of heart that Jesus will know we have.

Now since God has an unlimited capacity to forgive and show compassion, we are also expected to show the same capacity to forgive and show compassion. While we are all pretty good at doing this within our friends and family, I know I can suffer from a lack of compassion for those that I dislike. It seems to be a prevalent attitude in today’s society as well since we hear all the time that two sides cannot come together. Whether it is the political debate in Washington, where everyone tries to talk over one another not listen to what they are saying. We all need to remember that as John XXIII has said that “We were all made in God’s image, and thus, we are all Godly alike”. This statement reminds us regardless of whether we agree with our opponents’ position we need to remember to treat them all with compassion and mercy when we talk with them.

For some of us this comes easy as it seemed to for both of these Popes. We do need to remember though that there is one person we need to remember to forgive for our transgressions before we can truly be repentant and that is ourselves. We tend to be harder on ourselves than we are on others when it comes to criticism and unrepentance. This is a good thing in that it reminds us that we need to seek forgiveness from others, but we also need to remember to seek forgiveness from ourselves. It is not ok to sin, but it is human and we need to remind ourselves to ask for forgiveness. We hear about this today when Jesus tells his disciples whose sins you forgive are forgiven and whose sins you retain are retained.

This call to forgive was given to the disciples to pass on through the sacrament of confession, which I hope all of you participate in as it is a wonderful sacrament of healing and compassion. Jesus also bequeathed to them the Holy Spirit and passes that on to all of us through the sacraments in which we participate within the church. We cannot remain the doubting like Thomas did in the Gospel today until we get to see Jesus, by then it may be too late.

A quote from John Paul II takes on new meaning should we be able to forgive and seek forgiveness.

“Christ, make me become and remain the servant of your unique power, the servant of your sweet power, the servant of your power that knows no eventide. Make me be a servant. Indeed, the servant of your servants.”

If we can remember this quote and seek the mercy and forgiveness of Christ we will be able to be wonderful servants of Christ to his people. If we can continue to show our mercy and forgiveness not only to our friends and family, but also to those we dislike we can move the discussion on. These discussions will then become more open, honest and fruitful. We can all do this through the help of the Holy Spirit and prayer, and if we begin from a stance of mercy and forgiveness we can accomplish a great many things. Are we ready to show that mercy and forgiveness to all those around us? If we are not, which I know I struggle with, are we willing to ask the Holy Spirit to guide us through the mercy of God to that point?

As one last reminder Pope Francis tweeted on Friday “We must not let ourselves fall into the vortex of pessimism. Faith can move mountains!”

During my first class for the Diaconate I still vividly remember the comment by the instructor that as a Deacon we were to be like Jesus, a servant to the world.

This obviously struck a chord with all of us when we heard it. We were being called to serve and not be served. We all, wives included looked at each other and wondered how this would be possible for us. We were a disparate group of men with their wives about to embark on a journey that would be in one moment adventurous and at other times intimidating. In the end I am sure there are at least 18 very willing servants ordained last October. I am still holding out hope for the 19^th.

I was scared by the comment that were to serve like Jesus served, because as we just heard that did not end all that gently for him. We do however know how the story finishes so there is some glory yet to come from the Passion we just heard about. We hear the remaining pieces as we move through the Easter season which will soon be upon us.

In the Passion from the Gospel of John we see how Jesus serves right up until the end by carrying his own cross to his crucifixion. Of course there are a number of places within the Passion where we are reminded of his divinity. The first being where he simply states “I AM” to the guards who have come to take him away. Since this is what God had said to Moses, this was an opportunity for them to show him homage by lying prostrate before him. They did continue though and bring him to the high priests.

We are all called to be servants to those who do not know the Lord. This is accomplished in a number of ways. There are those we see who go out and place bible readings on signs in front of their homes, there are also those who always carry the sign that state John 3:16 at most televised sporting events.

Some of these ways if we choose to follow them will lead to us be ridiculed and told that what we say is a bunch of rubbish. Of course if we look at it, this is what happened to Jesus and that seems to be a good example to follow. I know that this is something I have struggled with at times. I was not shown how to do this early on as I was always told to keep quiet about faith. That is not the way we are taught by Jesus to be though.

We see another nice example of what it means to be a servant from Isaiah today. He is trying to get the nation of Israel to act as servants to show the Gentiles around them that Gods way is the way to the Promised Land. He does remind us that the servant shall prosper.

Of course the Isaiah story is also a prophetic vision of the coming of Jesus Christ who becomes the ultimate servant. He acts in the way that the Father has asked him to act. He has done nothing behind the back of the Pharisees. They have been aware of him from the beginning of his ministry. He was tracked and continued to be ridiculed in those circles where they believed they knew more. They were the ones who had been educated and had access to the scriptures. They were the ones who believed they knew better. I know this description has fit my life at times. During formation and still today I struggle with the thoughts, am I worthy enough to serve God as a Deacon.

Unlike today the scriptures were not widely available to those outside the temple. Today we have access to the Bible anywhere we would like to have it. We have a Bible in our home, we can have one on our phone or tablet and we can access it from the computer anytime or anywhere we would like. This should make the role of being a servant of God all that much easier as we have access to his user guide everywhere we go.

We have lived in a society for many years where our faith has not been challenged and I know due to that I left mine alone and let it wither for a long period of time. We seem to be coming into a period where we see more persecution of people for their faith in Jesus. We hear of the stories of Christians being put to death and churches burned in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world. We see the destruction going on in the Ukraine now which has included some persecution of priests who were fulfilling their ministries. There is also the new rumor coming out of the Ukraine that all Jews must register.

We hear this more and more at home as we are told that the name of Christ is no longer welcome in the public square. We have a number of options in how to handle this aspect of life here at home. We can choose to go ahead and make a lot of noise and try and shout down the people who believe that Jesus does not belong in the square. This will certainly get us noticed, but not necessarily for the correct reasons.

We can also follow the prophet Isaiah who reminds us that

If he gives his life as an offering for sin,
he shall see his descendants in a long life,
and the will of the LORD shall be accomplished through him.

This does not mean we try to make more noise than others, I believe it means we are called to be more and more like Jesus. We need, as much as it seems scary, to continue the revolution that Christ began 2000 years ago. The prospect of being like Jesus still scares me, yet we are all reminded in the letter to the Hebrews, because Christ became human he understands our shortcomings and failures.

While Christ allowed himself to be led quietly to his crucifixion, he showed us the way to behave like him. We are to be meek, humble and follow Jesus’ lead, regardless of whether we feel scared or not.

So today are we ready to be like Jesus, as we were told in our first diaconate class or are we willing to allow someone else to lead the way?