These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ [the Son of God]. (Mk 1:1)
Sometimes we forget that when the first gospel writer put pen to paper, there had never been a gospel written before. How important that first gospel writer! Later church tradition put names to the originally anonymous four gospels. Today’s feast is not so much about a person . . . but rather the celebration of the first written gospel.
One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish; but what good are these for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people recline.” Now there was a great deal of grass in that place. So the men reclined, about five thousand in number. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to those who were reclining, and also as much of the fish as they wanted. (Jn 6:8-11)
This is one of my favorite Bible stories—the Boy with the Bag Lunch. I’m sure that kid was embarrased when his mother gave him the bag lunch to take with him. “Aw Ma, I’ll be the only one!” And he was. But then Jesus wanted his bag lunch. That kid must have thought twice before handing over his little sack of goodies, but he did hand it over. Jesus took it and blessed it, and there was more than enough for everyone.
For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration his gift of the Spirit. (Jn 3:34)
The Spirit freely given . . . not only to the One that God sent . . . rather through that One to all of us in abundance. God isn’t stingy.
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. (Jn 3:16-17)
Growing up in the Baptist tradition meant that isolated Bible verses were drilled into our heads. We even had Bible Sword Drills (trust me, it’s a Baptist thing!) so that we could practice looking up chapter and verse of specific scripture passages. Well, one thing I learned as a Catholic is that when studying the scriptures, context is everything. As Baptist kids, we all knew John 3:16 by heart . . . but very few of us ever heard of John 3:17.
The community of believers was of one heart and mind . . . . (Acts 4:32)
I remember a wonderful retreat when I was in Second Theology. A classmate recommended a priest friend to us as our retreat director, Father Ed Hays. Our classmate said, “He has a prayer farm called Shantivanam.” We were a little sceptical but we made the call. Father Ed needed the money and so accepted. That was 1975. To get ready for our retreat, Ed Hayes spent a week on retreat at the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani. But I will never forget his enthusiasm for the Word of God. He held up the New Testament and told us that it was the how-to manual for being a priest. I can still hear him singing our call to prayer for the retreat: ♫“Come my friends, let us be of one heart and one mind!”♫ After that retreat, Ed Hays would go on to write over 30 books on spirituality. He died in 2016.
