To be a disciple of Jesus to live as Jesus, to love as Jesus, and to forgive as Jesus forgives us. The heart of Jesus is filled with love and because the heart of Jesus was filled with the love of His heavenly Father, Jesus loved everyone because he saw the Father’s love in each and every person.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Body and Blood of Christ. This feast causes us to reflect on the powerful gift of the Eucharist. This gift of Christ’s Body and Blood is given to us to nurture our faith and transform our hearts and lives. We are fed each week so that we can feed others. The Gospel today is often referred to as “the feeding of the 5,000” and is a very familiar one. The depth of Jesus’ love for all people is shown forth and made manifest in this Gospel. Jesus teaches, he heals, and loves deeply the multitude! Jesus embraces this huge assembly of people, He meets all their needs and literally feeds them. Through his life, death, and resurrection he gives us everything we need!
In my 51 years as a priest, excluding Christmas and Easter Masses, I have never experienced a liturgy in which at 6:00 am on each and every school day 1,000 high school girls in full Catholic school uniform sing the opening hymn with enthusiastic voices accompanied only by one high school girl in the choir loft striking a well-worn drum. I tell you looking out from the altar at these Tanzanian girls was a mystical moment of prayerfulness and joy.
Initially the disciples were locked in the upper room out of fear. On the Day of Pentecost those locked doors were thrown open; the fear in the disciples was replaced with a Spirit-filled courage and enthusiasm. They were now fearless proclaimers of the Word of God. What had changed for the disciples? They received the Holy Spirit.
I invite you to hold on to this truth: Life itself is the best school. God is our teacher. The problems we are facing right now are our best assignment from God. In your present challenge, whatever it is, you may have to let go; you may have to take a risk; but please God this challenge may invite you to place even more trust in the plan of God for your life. In the first Scripture reading today, Stephen was beautifully releasing divine love into the world by offering forgiveness to those who were stoning him to death. Forgiveness is an essential element for achieving the unity that Jesus prayed for.