Responding to the Call

04-25-2021Weekly Reflection© J. S. Paluch Company

Do we truly know the voice of Christ? Do we truly respond to the voice of our shepherd with our own distinctive voice? How often we attempt to imitate those around us, appropriating the response of another member of the flock to Christ. Perhaps we need to balance the image of being sheep of one flock with the image from the second reading, which tells us that we are all children of God. What child has precisely the same interaction with parents as his or her siblings? Instead, they frequently do and say things to distinguish themselves in the eyes of their parents.

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Fulfillment

04-18-2021Weekly Reflection© J. S. Paluch Company

It is interesting that during the Easter season, when we do not hear a reading from the Old Testament, it becomes so important. This is particularly true today. Peter’s speech begins with a prayer formula familiar to Jews: “The God of Abraham . . .” (Acts 3:13). It likewise contains the potent phrases “Holy and Righteous One” and “mouth of all the prophets” (3:14, 18). Peter was stating in no uncertain terms that the law, psalms, and prophets had been fulfilled in Christ.

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Doubt

04-11-2021Weekly Reflection© J. S. Paluch Company

The desire to be able to prove the existence of a divinity has troubled humanity since human consciousness first became aware of the divine. To this very day we are fond of saying that any number of things—from sunsets to hot fudge sundaes—are “proof that there is a God.” We get so caught up in the story of “doubting Thomas” that we fail to notice that today’s Gospel gives us John’s account of Pentecost, the bestowing of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples following the Resurrection.

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Rejoice and Be Glad

04-04-2021Weekly Reflection© J. S. Paluch Company

During the first three or four centuries of Christianity, if you asked a Christian to name the feast days of the church, your answer would have been a puzzled stare, for there was only one feast: the Resurrection of the Lord. Every Sunday was a feast celebrating the one great feast. Even though our calendar now has many beautiful and holy feasts, we must continually be called back to the fact that all these other feasts exist because of the feast of Christ’s Passover from death to life. The psalm today proclaims this message well: “This is the day.” It is not one of many days, but it is the day of all days, the one that gives all the others their origin, purpose, meaning, and destiny. Listen carefully to Peter’s speech in Acts with its recollection of the Passion, to the words of the apostle Paul, and to the account of Mary Magdalene, John, and Peter finding the empty tomb, and you will hear the many wonderful works that God has done for us through Christ. Rejoice and be glad!