As we gather for the Inaugural Eucharist this morning and invoke the presence and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, I cannot help but feel how the two readings from Scripture today reflect so much of our experience over the past few years.<\/p>\n
Like the disciples in the Gospel of John, many of our communities gathered inside our houses, in our own \u2018upper rooms\u2019, with the doors locked. Even the doors of our Churches were locked. The doors were locked out of fear \u2013 fear of contagion from the pandemic, fear of passing on the virus to the most vulnerable among us, fear in the face of government-mandated restrictions. Little by little, as the restrictions eased in many countries, we ventured out again, very carefully \u2013 much like the disciples after the resurrection. We opened our Churches again but to limited numbers. But we still didn\u2019t feel ready to assemble in large gatherings or to travel very far and wide.<\/p>\n
We know that the pandemic is not yet over. And, to make matters worse, we now find ourselves in the midst of war. Social and political divisions afflict many of our countries. The growing realization of the effects of the climate crisis challenges us to care for our common home. In many of our countries, we face a crisis about energy, and also about food. And it is at this precise moment, in this wounded world of ours, that God calls us to come together in Chapter \u2013 to travel across the globe, to re-imagine our Redemptorist identity and mission, to trust that Jesus, our Redeemer, is in our midst \u2013 and that he has always been closer to us than we ever imagined.<\/p>\n
And so, like the disciples at the first Pentecost in the first reading for this Eucharist, we gather together with Mary, the Mother of Jesus, our Perpetual Help. We gather in fear and anticipation, in hope and hesitation. We know that we\u2019re being called to bring the Good News to this wounded world today, but perhaps we\u2019re not sure how best to do this, to whom we are sent, with whom we will create community \u2026<\/p>\n
To accept our call today requires courage and resolve, like the courage of Alphonsus when the others abandoned him and Brother Vito alone in Scala. It\u2019s like the courage of Clement when he was exiled from St. Benno\u2019s in Warsaw and didn\u2019t know if he would ever see his brother Redemptorists again. It\u2019s the courage of our blessed Martyrs in Ukraine, in Slovakia, in Spain\u2026 We find hope today in the courage of so many of our ancestors in the Congregation who set out to bring the Good News to others, following Jesus to the jungles of Surinam and the deserts of West Africa, to the wilderness of North America and the ancient civilizations of India, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam. We find hope in the courage of our confreres who remained underground in Ukraine, Slovakia, China, and so many other difficult circumstances.<\/p>\n
Just as Jesus breathed on that small frightened group of disciples in today\u2019s gospel, so he breathes on us today, in this Eucharist, in this Chapter. Listen to his words once again: \u201cPeace be with you. Receive the Holy Spirit. As the Father sent me, so I send you. Receive the Holy Spirit \u2013 forgive and heal and welcome and preach.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like the disciples on that first Pentecost, we need to learn a new language that people today can understand. We pray to let the Spirit rekindle in us a renewed passion which will witness more powerfully than any words we say.<\/p>\n
As we prayed in the collect for this Mass, let us pray once again: \u201cFather, pour forth the gifts of the Holy Spirit even to the ends of the earth, and continue today the wondrous works you brought about in the beginning of the preaching of the Gospel\u201d.<\/p>\n
Mary, Mother of hope, teach us to soar on the wings of this Spirit and to bring forth the Word made flesh once again in this generation!<\/p>\n
Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As we gather for the Inaugural Eucharist this morning and invoke the presence and wisdom of the Holy Spirit, I cannot help but feel how the two readings from Scripture today reflect so much of our experience over the past few years. Like the disciples in the Gospel of John,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cssr.news\/26CG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cssr.news\/26CG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cssr.news\/26CG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cssr.news\/26CG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cssr.news\/26CG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cssr.news\/26CG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":452,"href":"https:\/\/www.cssr.news\/26CG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450\/revisions\/452"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cssr.news\/26CG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cssr.news\/26CG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cssr.news\/26CG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cssr.news\/26CG\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}