Daily Reflection for Tuesday April 13, 2021
Peace and Blessings, Friends and Parishioners!
These readings are for Tuesday of the Second Week of Easter.
We encourage you to reflect on them at this link:
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041321.cfm
If you prefer to use your own Bible, the readings are:
First Reading: Acts 4:32-37
Responsorial: Psalm 93:1ab, 1cd-2, 5
Gospel: John 3:7b-15
Our reflection on Tuesday’s readings:
Jesus said, “If I tell you about earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?” (John 3:12)
Belief in God didn’t come easily to me. I focused on earthly things, my business career and my social life. Believing in God wasn’t a high priority. But as the years passed, I was neither richer nor happier. But when I met my wife, Margot, and began attending Mass with her, I became happier. It was easy to relate to the lady next to me, and attribute my happiness to her. It was hard to relate to a God I couldn’t see or touch, and to recognize how God was changing me.
When I heard a priest explain that God’s love is like the wind, I “saw” what was happening to me. We can’t see the wind, but we know it’s there from the effect it has. Leaves rustle, waves ripple, our sweaty body cools. God’s love is like that. We can’t see it, but we sense its effect. Being open to love changes us.
But my relationship with God lagged as I focused on God loving me and giving me what I want. Love doesn’t thrive on self-centeredness. Christians believe Christ dwells in all of us. When I fail to love you, I deny the Christ dwelling in me who loves you – and I deny the Christ dwelling in you whom I am called to love. Love is magnified when it’s shared. I “see” that our life is all about relationships, with each other and with God.
The importance of loving others is apparent in a Thomas Merton story: In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was as though I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, and the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only all of us could see ourselves as we really are.”
The idea of God working through me also reminds me of the movie, “Oh God.” God is asked, “If you’re really God, why don’t you do something about the pain and suffering in the world?” “God” answered, “I did do something. I gave you each other. Why don’t you do something?”
As we journey toward Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit, let’s celebrate our belief in the loving God dwelling in each of us, and let’s make that love apparent to those around us.
Bill Bradbury