Friday, 3rd Week in Easter Friday, 3rd Week in Easter

Father Rick’s Two-Minute Homily for Friday, 3rd Week in Easter
April 28, 2023, Acts of the Apostles 9:1-1-20; John 6:52-59
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/042823.cfm

The Father’s Draw.

Jesus can be my little possession whom I call on whenever I am in trouble or need something. Jesus is more! He is not some little Jesus who makes us feel better. He is the Savior of the World.

“Go.” We hear that word of Jesus twice in today’s First Reading. First, “Go,” Jesus tells Saul, “Go into the city, and you will be told what to do.” Second, “Go,” Jesus tells Ananias, “Go to Straight Street and ask for a man named Saul.”

As Jesus tells us at the end of every Eucharist, “Go, the Mass is ended.” He couldn’t be more precise. We can’t keep Jesus to ourselves. So it was a significant risk for Ananias to go and meet an arch-enemy who was there, he thought, to arrest anyone who followed the Way of Jesus.

And think of Judas, who lived on Straight Street, to take Saul into his home. Isn’t it amazing that Judas lived on Straight Street? We have to go straight to the place and people Jesus tells us to go. You can see his longing and desire to bring into communion at his table the most notorious and unlikely people we can find.

If he longs for them to eat his Body, drink his Blood, and share his life, any excuse or reason we can come up with not to invite everyone we meet can’t hold water. And please remember, we invite them through our kindness and love so they will know we have their best interest at heart whatever we say and do.

In the parable of the King having a banquet, the most likely people he visited refused. But that didn’t stop him. Instead, he told the servants to go into the streets and invite everyone they met; the poor, the blind, the lame. “I want my banquet room full.”

Gospel Challenge:

None of us have the right to keep Jesus to ourselves. He is not some little Jesus who makes us feel better. He is the Savior of the World. For him to save the world, we must go! Invite everyone.

Who will you invite this week to meet Jesus? Start with your interest in them and your kindness to them, and let them know they are your whole world when you are with them. Jesus will come.

Fr. Rick Pilger, IC
www.bscchurch.com

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