Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection for Sunday, May 25, 2025

Rules or relationships?

From 2001 until 2010, I was a “Platinum Elite” flier on Northwest Airlines. During those nine years, my relationship with NWA often permitted gate agents and customer service representatives to waive or modify the often confusing, harsh, or strict rules to accommodate whatever my issue might be. The airline valued my relationship more than it valued adhering to rigidly enforced rules. As a result, I flew NWA as often as I could, even when it was inconvenient to do so. To date, I have flown more than 1 million miles on NWA/Delta.

This weekend, we hear about Paul and Barnabas who are trying to form relationships with the Gentiles. They are exciting these “non-believers” with the good news of Jesus Christ, are succeeding in converting them to “the Way,” and are inviting them into relationships with the other followers of Jesus. However, some of the existing members of the early Church were not at all interested in relationships with Gentiles unless the Gentiles first met the requirements of being Jewish. The most important of these requirements was that they be circumcised.

This caused a great deal of stress among the Gentiles and led Paul to seek clarification of the many applicable rules while, at the same time, stressing the importance of the relationships that he had formed with these people. For Paul, the decision was easy – Jesus told the apostles to go to all nations and to baptize them. That is exactly what he was trying to do. Jesus never put any limits or constraints or burdens on this evangelization mission. Paul could not see why his fellow Christians would refuse to allow new members to join when Jesus consistently broke all the rules by associating with anyone who came to Him with a sincere heart.

Last week, we heard that the foundational principle of a follower of Jesus is LOVE. In many ways, love is the opposite of rules. Rules require us to obey and comply. Love inspires us to have a personal response. Love goes beyond complicated, elaborate, rigidly enforced rules. Love is a relationship, not a duty or an obligation. Let’s be careful when we resort to rules to justify behavior that does not reflect our Lord’s very clear mandate of love. Our faith is not about rules, it’s about relationships!

Fr. Mike

Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection for Sunday, May 18, 2025

The image that John provides in the second reading this weekend is that the “New Jerusalem” will be like “a bride adorned for her husband.” It is a joyful picture which speaks of the great celebration of the perfect marriage between God and His people. This marriage is only made possible after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Like any good husband, God will “fix” things for his bride. John tells us that “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain.” This sounds amazing. Yet, we often read this passage at funeral masses when tears are still flowing and everyone in the church is impacted by death, in mourning, and in pain. At that time, in that place, it doesn’t feel like God has conquered death, but we know that scripture is true and trustworthy. How does this all make sense?

This is another instance of our faith helping us to see things from two different perspectives. On one hand, we mourn the loss of our loved one. That is our pain to bear here and now, in this rather challenging, but temporary, world. At the same time, we rejoice over the great promise of our loved one being with God forever as part of the New Jerusalem, and the further promise that one day we will all be present in that New Jerusalem, forming the one body of His adorned spouse, as the eternal object of His perfect love. A spouse who will never again experience death, mourning or pain. A spouse who will be with Him always.

The hardest thing for us to do in this world is to accept the imperfections, challenges, tragedies, sorrows, and pain of this world. When we face trials, we understandably ask, “Where is God?” We focus on how much it hurts today and have little patience for how much better things will be in the “New Jerusalem.” The Gospel reminds us that Jesus endured suffering and death for the glory of God and to fulfill the promise of the New Jerusalem. He physically stayed with the apostles “only a little while longer,” but He left his love to support and comfort them. He encouraged them, and encourages us, to rely on His love to overcome the harshness of this world.

Fr. Mike

Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection for Sunday, May 11, 2025

“My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”

This passage is from the “Good Shepherd discourse” in John’s Gospel. Throughout the discourse, Jesus explains to the Pharisees that He is different from them because He actually cares about His people in the same way that the ideal shepherd cares for his sheep. Earlier in the passage, Jesus says that He is the gate to the sheepfold, and that He would lay down His life for His sheep. Today, Jesus tells us that His sheep recognize His voice.

As I researched this, I learned that sheep will respond to the voice of the of their shepherd but will often flee at the voice of the stranger. The most diligent shepherds would use fixed ways of summoning them, not only calling them by name but also by a particular whistle. These forms of calling the sheep would have been recognizable to the flock and would have signaled the shepherd’s presence. Other sheep from different flocks would not respond.

When I was young, I lived on a street with lots of kids who played together. The three Dawson boys were part of our group. At some point each day, we would hear a distinct whistle coming from up the street. That was Mr. Dawson’s way of calling his sons home. When they heard the whistle, they stopped whatever they were doing and headed home, but the rest of us kept playing. It would be great if we could be as attentive to the voice of Jesus as the Dawson boys were to their dad’s whistle.

Jesus uses the analogy of a shepherd to describe his familiarity with and affection for His followers. A true shepherd protects and promotes life; in the same way, Jesus says that He came that we “may have life, and…may have it more abundantly.” Just as a shepherd has a personal connection with his sheep and calls them by name, so too Jesus calls us by name. He knows that the world is full of predators who want to destroy us and He is always there to protect us. We know His voice, we hear His voice, but we don’t always listen to His voice. However, if we want to be protected, we must not only listen to His voice, but also follow Him.

Fr. Mike