05/05/2023

Today St Paul is preaching in Antioch not the Antioch where the followers of the "Way" were first given the name "Christian" but another one in what is central Turkey today. Paul is very much at home in this culture. He too was a Jew born in the diaspora of his day. He too was a Roman Citizen. He too knew what it was to be faced, on a daily basis with the abomination that was statues worshipped as gods, the ubiquitous paganism. 

He first makes clear his credentials both religious and political. He is a son of Abraham  and the events that he is proclaiming took place in Jerusalem / Palestine during the Governorship of Pilate. They were contemporary events of the Roman Empire. He sketches out the position of Jesus in the long history of God's revelations with which the whole congregation was familiar from the scrolls. There was no dissent to begin with but it did not take long for arguments to break out and Paul, who was focussed on spreading the Good News, moved on to what is now Konya, the city of the  Dancing Dervishes.

In the Gospel John is recording what he remembers of the The Risen Lord. Jesus whom Thomas had already worshipped as the Resurrection of the Crucified One, my Lord and my God, is asked for more clarity, this time by Philip,  and we are given this "IAM", the Way, the Truth and the Life to wonder at and  put into practice during our lives.

We can be sure that Jesus is seriously preparing an institution in which we can find living sacraments to channel the love of Father, Son and Holy Spirit into this world and so protect us from the snares of the devil. We can also be sure that this "Kingdom" is not of this world although he taught us to pray " Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in this world as it is in Heaven" for it is not the outward sign of mystical grace that washes us from original sin, forgives us our sins, feeds our souls, infuses us with Holy Spirit, sanctifies our procreation, accepts and activates our commitment to Heaven or prepares us for death, but it is the same Jesus who in ultimate humility on the cross poured out his own life's blood for he is the only Way to the Father. That Jesus is not an outward sign of inward grace he is the Grace and in The Sacrament he is also, indeed, the outward sign, the Body and Blood. What a great God we have!! 

Lord, please guide my thoughts that I may stay true to your teaching in my soul and there accept the gift of forgiveness won by so much pain and the strength to make true amends. May your mother Mary for whom you could refuse nothing lead all the Saints and Angels in Heaven, the Holy Souls in Purgatory and we sinners on Earth in pleas for Your Mercy without which there could be no life at all.