1. Feast of St Bartholomew, Apostle
    Readings: Revelations 21.9b-14 / Ps 145 (R/v 12) / John 1.45-51


    We have traversed and traveled through this city this morning,
    meandering through her streets and her parkways on our trolley car,
    stopping at sights and places to see and to hear and to experience
    her history and her people, her rhythm of life, 
    her je ne sais quoi…that special something…that spirit that is Boston.

    But we have also been on a pilgrimage of sorts, have we not?
    Beginning and ending at, and visiting along the way, parishes
    holy spaces where stories were shared with us
    of how good Christian men and women, young and old,
    have for generations come, and still continue today to also come,
    to worship, to share God’s goodness, to grow in God’s ways,
    to be a community of God’s people. 

    And among all these stories
    about Chelsea and Dorchester, about the Back Bay and the South End,
    about the city of Boston and the local church, 
    weren’t there also stories about how Bostonians, particularly, Catholic Bostonians,
    who having arrived poor from many faraway lands and made it good,
    many decades ago and even today,
    have reached out 
    to lift up their neighbors from poverty and hardship, 
    to protect the young from crime and drugs,
    to provide others with shelter and opportunities,
    indeed to welcome one and all into their amidst 
    as one like them, like you and me,
    as God’s own?

    If you and I glimpsed in these stories 
    the quiet presence of God laboring 
    to build this city over time,
    to comfort her people and to raise them up,
    to be in their midst and for their wellbeing,
    then what you and I have been gifted with this morning
    is the reality of what we ourselves voiced 
    as our response during the responsorial psalm:
    “Your friends make known, O Lord, 
    the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.”

    Indeed, we have had an experience of God’s Kingdom,
    -- as we will keep on experiencing it in the coming months --
    in this time and in this place you and I are called to:
    to live and study, to pray and play,
    to minister to others and to let them minister to us 
    in this city, in our community, in our school 
    and in our different mission fields.

    And I’d like to think that we are being called into this experience 
    because this is what our years of formation in Faber Jesuit 
    can also be about:
    about being formed as friends of the Lord and as friends in the Lord
    to make known to one another first
    and then to the many we will be sent to care for
    the splendor of God’s kingdom 
    in our midst, in our lives, in our times.

    And isn’t this, after all, what we are also celebrating today? 
    The feast of an apostle is not just a celebration of the apostle’s life and faith.
    It also invites to us to joyfully remember the apostolic mission.

    To joyfully remember that this mission is
    -- as it is described in our gospel reading today --
    what Philip does for Nathaniel:
    to announce the good news of encountering Jesus 
    and to invite him to Jesus.

    It is also to joyfully remember that this invitation only comes alive
    when we help others do what Nathaniel does:
    to meet and know Jesus, to believe in Jesus,
    to grow in friendship with Jesus.

    More significantly, today’s feast invites us 
    to trustingly believe 
    that this apostolic mission is what our life and studies 
    -- here in Boston, at the STM, with one another at Faber Jesuit --
    will better prepare us for,
    we who have long been in formation for this.

    And perhaps, the grace of this kind of preparation
    is rooted both 
    in our openness to keep on sensing God’s kingdom 
    breaking into our ordinary everydayness of our lives 
    at this time and in this place 
    and
    in our generosity to share these experiences, 
    these stories of God’s kingdom in our midst,
    to draw others to Jesus
    and not hoard them like we sometimes do with material gains.

    And so, my brothers,
    as we look ahead to the next few months and years 
    of being together, of praying, studying and ministering together,
    what stories will you and I tell 
    to the many at home about our time here
    about the Boston we live in,
    about our Faber Jesuit community we pray and play in,
    about our studies that we will try to enflesh in our ministries,
    about the daily lives you and I will live?

    What stories about us that will give our families, friends and brother Jesuits
    enough spiritual light and perhaps much delight to say,
    “Yes, Lord, my friend, this Jesuit, 
    has made known 
    the glorious splendor of your kingdom”?



    preached during orientation at Faber Jesuit Community 
    photo: boston in autumn from mount auburn by adsj



    0

    Add a comment

"Bukas Palad"
"Bukas Palad"
is Filipino for open palms
Greetings!
Greetings!
Peace and welcome, dear friend.
I hope you will find in these posts something that speaks to you of the God who loves us all and who always holds us in the palm of his hand. Blessings!
The Liturgical Calendar / Year C
Faith & Spirituality
Tagged as...
Blog Archive
Blog Archive
Fall in Love, Stay in Love
Fall in Love, Stay in Love

"Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute way final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything."

Pedro Arrupe, sj, Superior General, 1965 - 1983

About Me
About Me
My Photo
is a 50something Catholic who resides in Singapore and works for the Church. He is a priest of the Roman Catholic Church.
Disclaimer
Disclaimer
©adrian.danker.sj, 2006-2018

The views I express in these pages are personal. They do not speak for the Society of Jesus or the Catholic Church.
Loading