All throughout the Old Testament, and very clearly in Revelation, God speaks of the Holy City. From the locked gates of Eden, humanity has longed to return to the place of God’s friendship, an endeavor He encourages and even promises to His faithful people.
“Vernacular” is a word I first heard a long time ago at St. Gabriel School in East Elmhurst, when one of the wonderful Sisters of Charity who taught there told us at the beginning of the prayers with which each school day began that we would no longer be referring to the Third Person of the Trinity as the “Holy Ghost.”
What about the “wow” factor? That’s not an expression biblical scholars often use when we talk about the words and deeds of Jesus in the Gospels, but it’s useful just the same.
My students are just as surprised to learn that the scientist responsible for the Big Bang theory was a diocesan priest from Belgium named Georges Lemaître. I challenge them to rethink their preconceptions of the relationship between religion and science by reflecting on this statement:
The Good News of Christ comes to us in each of our countless vernaculars, in Spanish and Igbo and Kreyòl Ayisyen, in Polish and Tagalog, Korean and Mandarin and in English—just some of the languages in which we praise God in our diocese—and in so many others besides.
I returned to NY Presbyterian (Booth Memorial) as soon as I received a text that my dad had taken a serious turn with his condition. By the time I arrived, he had already been resuscitated twice. An hour later, his heartrate began to slow down again.
I am stating the obvious when I say we are living in stressful times, especially living here in New York City during the pandemic.
Our love for each other therefore is not only when it is convenient. There are times when we have to go that extra mile to meet people where they are because they could not get there on their own.
This weekend, we are asked to focus on the mission that Jesus is entrusting to his disciples.
We are now entering the third week of the Easter season. The readings at daily Mass reflect how the disciples of Jesus are processing the meaning as well as the implications of our Lord’s resurrection.
