This past Sunday, Fr. Fred Jenga and I had the opportunity to speak at a Rosary Rally at a Catholic High School in the Archdiocese of Chicago. Carmel Catholic H.S. was our host but it was open to the wider community. There were people of all ages including an infant, Mary Rose, attending her first Rosary Rally only months after her birth.
There was even a former basketball player from the Chicago Bulls who was there because of one of the keynote speakers Kevin Matthews. Kevin is the subject of an upcoming movie from Family Theater Productions called “Broken Mary.” When Kevin Matthews shared his conversion story, he spoke of how he heard a voice say to him: “will you deny me and my mother?” When Kevin heard those words, “will you deny me and mother?” he knew it was God trying to get him to come back to the faith and that it was Our Blessed Mother that was included in that question.
Rejecting the Truth
I thought about that as I read and prayed over the today’s readings in O'Hare airport and I noticed the two responses to God’s message found in the Acts of the Apostles and the Gospel.
Saint Stephen doesn’t beat around the bush but instead goes right to the heart of the matter and with passion when he speaks to the people, elders, and scribes. He calls them “stiff necked” meaning they won’t consider any other way but what they want. And by saying they are uncircumcised in heart and mind he also conveys their barriers to receiving and acting on Jesus’ teaching.
Their reaction proves that his assessment is right on. They drive him from the city and stone him to death, all for teaching the truth about the faith.
Believing the Truth
Now when you contrast that with the exchange between Jesus and the crowd in the Gospel of John, it’s not hard to see which group we need to be in. Those people, like we at times, are looking for evidence that Jesus is who he claims to be…and ask Him for a sign so that they can see and believe in Him.
They, even recount what has been passed down to them as precedent for what they’re asking for…and this is when Jesus teaches a corrective in helping them to understand that the bread, the nourishment their ancestors received came from God the Father, not Moses.
When He says, “For the bread of God is what comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”
And how did they respond? Well, it wasn’t to drive Jesus away and stone Him. It was to believe in Him and say what we are called to embody in our seeking to receive the Eucharist, when they said, “…give us this bread always.”
In that statement, they were saying we want the Bread of God to nourish us, not only when there is no other food and we are desperate but always in the everyday and ordinary parts of life.
Living Out Our Faith
My brothers and sisters, how blessed are we…many of us to be the beneficiaries of the faith our ancestors passed down to us, to have been baptized into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and to be able to receive the Bread of Life, the Body and Blood of Jesus at each Mass.
May we hear in the Word of God and in our private prayer the Lord calling to us today. May we share this good news with our families and friends, in our conversations and in coming together in our homes and anywhere we can….to pray to grow in faith and closer to Jesus and Our Blessed Mother. So that we will never deny them but instead, share their lifegiving friendship with all that we meet.
May God bless you and your families this holy day!
- Father David's inspirational homily was recorded live during Mass at the Father Peyton Center this morning. You can view the Mass (and the Rosary at the 30-minute mark) on the Family Rosary YouTube page.
- To join the Rosary and Mass Livestream, visit the Family Rosary YouTube or Facebook page at 11:30 a.m. Eastern, Monday – Friday. Consider inviting others to join too! (*If you are not a member of Facebook and a signup window appears, simply select the X at the top of the pop-up message and continue to the livestream.)
