Cycle A - Cycle B - Cycle C
his throne
to shouts of joy; a blare of trumpets
for the Lord!"
�������������������������� -based on Psalm 47
������� even to the end of time!"
������������������� -Jesus
As we make our descent (literally due south), we are going to undergo feelings of anxiety and uncertianty. How will God be in this experience? What will happen to me? Will I be changed? As we are among the people, God's glory will be revealed. We will see that among the people we would like to think of as dead, there is much life! There is hope among the poor and there is joy because they know that God is with them. God is their only possession and they know what we struggle to know: that God is all we really need.
When we return from Recife, we will have undergone conversion and we will emerge from the tomb. We are going to a place where many people would say that only death is present. But we will rise up, liberated from our former view of the world, and return from what is not a tomb at all but a powerful sign of the presence of God in our midst. We will become witnesses from the Risen Jesus who is present in the people of Recife. Our enthusiasm and our desire to share our experiences will be overwhelming. In one day being able to share the experience of Resurrection in Recife, we will give to you the gift of the Holy Spirit. But first we must go away to where we can find within ourselves the same hope that lives among the people of the slums of Recife. Only by going within ourselves, by going away from the world, can we find the gift of the Spirit that we are called to give to the world. When we find that gift, the desire to share it will be insatiable.
Jesus has gone from our midst. He has returned to the Father every experiences of joy, passion, pain and glory that the Father gave to him. It is in Jesus' offering to the Father that we receive the Holy Spirit. Let us not stand around looking at the skies. Jesus has returned for we have the Spirit; and he will return again onday just as he left, but not until we are ready.
Let us prepare they way of the Lord! It is our vocation to go forth among all people and to share the Good News: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again; and through our baptism, we share in that mystery.
Peace,
Shaun Lowery
Cycle A - Cycle B - Cycle C