Matthew Williams – Page 9 – Meditation on Daily Mass Readings

April 9, 2021March 24, 2021

Caught in Christ’s Net

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Consider the emotional state of the disciples as today’s gospel begins. On the one hand, they are filled with wonder at the reality of the risen Lord. It is such an amazing reality that their minds really can’t even process it. On the other hand, however, the risen Jesus is not accessible to them at that moment. This combination of realities leaves them antsy; they can’t sit still. What can they do? How are they to fill their time as they wait for Jesus to (hopefully) come among them sometime again? The answer: Go fishing. It seems ridiculously mundane under the circumstances, probably even to them, but it is something to do for healthy distraction.

But their minds are on only one thing: Jesus. Even so, when Jesus shows up on the shore, they do not recognize him immediately. Something significant about Jesus’ appearance has changed since He rose from the dead, and the Gospels are very mysterious about this. He is the same, yet different. He is fully physical and human, and yet transcends physical constraints.

Nor does He strike them, however, as any random stranger on the shore. When He tells them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat, they obey Him. Simon Peter had only obeyed a similar command before the Resurrection, because the command had come from Him: “Master, we have worked hard all night and have caught nothing, but at your command I will lower the nets.” Now, though, Peter changes the nets to the other side of the boat without questioning. Something about this man whom he has not yet recognized is compelling. Perhaps he is thinking that it might be Jesus, but is not sure.

John is the first to affirm His identity: “It is the Lord.” Upon which, Simon Peter plunges into the water. He doesn’t want the fish. He wants Christ.

Even when the disciples are eating with Jesus, they are not completely sure it is He; they are tempted to ask Him, but dare not. Christ is everything to them; He is their happiness and fulfillment; His Resurrection is their joy; but He also remains a mystery to them.

The same Simon Peter of today’s gospel appears in the first reading, filled with the Holy Spirit, bearing confident witness in the face of enemies to that same risen Lord. But even then, this confident apostle is not enjoying definitive possession of His prize, which is perfect union with His Lord. This is reserved for Heaven.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Thank Jesus for His Resurrection, for all that it has meant for the possibility of salvation in your life. But also tell Him that there is a certain melancholy in not fully possessing Him just yet, in that degree of separation. Tell Him that you cannot wait until you possess Him definitively in Heaven. Tell Him that your life is like the disciples’ fishing as they waited for Him; that your heart is restless until it rests in Him.

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April 8, 2021March 23, 2021

Restrained Power

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Today’s readings are full of wonder.

In the first reading, Peter and John have just healed a crippled man. The scene reminds us of what might happen in our own time if a known cripple suddenly were healed in the sight of all. Rightly, everyone is amazed and wants to understand more. Peter explains how he and John did not heal of their own initiative and power, but by God’s action, and then proceeds to call them all to repentance and belief in the risen Christ.

In today’s gospel, we see the risen Christ in a mysterious and beautiful mode–he eats some fish in front of his disciples, after having appeared without explanation in their midst. He is both part of the physical world, and also utterly unfettered by its limitations.

If we put these two readings together and contemplate with wonder the mysteries of divine power that unfold, we may well proclaim today’s psalm: ” O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!”

There are signs here of an incredible, unlimited power on the part of the risen Christ in these readings. And yet, He uses that power in a subtle way. He does not overwhelm, but just provides a taste and an invitation–much as He does today, in our own hearts.

He is not looking to enforce; He is looking to open a door, and entice human freedom to walk through it, while changing our natural surroundings as little as possible. He even leaves the natural effects of original sin, that is, our fallen nature and the brokenness of the natural world, in place in respect for that freedom.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Jesus that you believe in Him and trust in Him, the risen Lord, with all your heart, even though He does not choose to use His power yet for the full restoration of the world. Ask Him to bring His power completely to bear in you, however, to sanctify you and empower you to assist in His work of salvation.

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April 7, 2021March 18, 2021

Anticipation

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

There is something beautiful and exciting about anticipation.

Peter told the cripple in today’s first reading, “Look at us.” The man looked at them, full of excited anticipation, thinking that he was going to receive alms, perhaps something generous, given Peter’s response to him. What he received exceeded his wildest expectations–he immediately experienced strength in his limbs, and the ability to walk. He was fully cured.

It is interesting to note that the man did not expect this. In the gospels, the people whom Jesus cures seem always to expect it, to see it coming. To cure is a native trait, as it were, of Jesus. It is simply something that He does; in a sense, something that He is.

Not so for the disciples. They are mere creatures, with the same human limitations that we all endure. But the Holy Spirit gives them the divine power to accomplish what He asks of them, when He asks it of them. It is a borrowed power, in a sense; not native. But this is what makes our role as Christians, with all our humanity and limitations, particularly exciting. God will not hesitate to “lend” us the power, not to do what we think good, but to do specifically what He asks of us through promptings of the Holy Spirit.

Indeed, there is something beautiful and exciting about anticipation. We see it in today’s gospel, too. As Jesus explains the fulfillment of the Scriptures in the life of the Messiah, the disciples feel a burning excitement of anticipation. They don’t know what’s coming. But they can sense it is something spectacular having to do with Jesus. Even when He is revealed to them in the breaking of the bread, they are left in a state of excited anticipation, as He is immediately removed from their presence, in the most mysterious way.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to fill you with the joy, not of glorious enjoyment, but of anticipation that comes with the Resurrection. Ask Him to apply that excitement to everything that forms part of your life, the highs and the lows–all of which are filled with the promise of your own resurrection from death, and opportunity to offer your life for the resurrection to life of your fellow humans.

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April 6, 2021March 18, 2021

Are We There Yet?

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

The Resurrection of Jesus is beautifully mysterious. In its monumental power, it holds an air of great expectancy: There is an “already” aspect to it, and a “not yet” aspect.

The “already” aspect can be seen empirically in today’s gospel; Jesus has clearly “already” risen. And yet, the “not yet” aspect is there too. “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.” It’s as though Jesus’ earthly resurrected embodiment is just a way station on the path to the definitive glory He will enter, and which we will one day enjoy with Him.

We see this dichotomy likewise in the first reading. The power of the resurrected Christ is “already” present, leading to the conversion and baptism of three thousand persons in a day. And yet, what the apostles are “selling,” so to speak, is described as a “promise,” not as a “fulfillment” in the here and now.

Because of the “not yet” element, the Resurrection, perhaps like few other mysteries, provides us with the opportunity of a glorious faith and hope. Even though there will be no joy like definitive possession of God, there is also a special pleasure in the anticipation we can enjoy as we await the full revelation of the Resurrection in which we believe.

Heightening this anticipation is another mystery that we see in today’s gospel: Mary at first does not recognize Jesus, just like the two disciples on their way to Emmaus in another passage. Jesus is Jesus, He is real, He can eat and be touched…but there is something gloriously different about Him, which the Gospel does not fully describe to us.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to fill your heart with the joy of hope, even though you do not yet experience the full joy of eternal revelation.

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April 5, 2021March 17, 2021

The Peak

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

“You will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.”

Peter points out that David’s prophecy in today’s psalm did not apply to himself, for (rather poignantly), King David’s tomb was present and known to the Jews of Peter’s time.

Rather, Peter tells us that David penned these lines from the psalm with an eye to the promise that his descendant would reign forever; in other words, he penned them with an eye to Jesus’ Resurrection.

Very dramatically, Jesus’ Resurrection is portrayed as the very peak, the epicenter of history itself: The fulfillment of all David, Israel’s greatest king, was looking for. And so it is.

When the Gospel writers use the word “Behold” (“Ecce” in Latin, “ἰδοὺ” in Greek), it seems to signal something powerful and momentous. “Behold the man,” says Pilate, as he displays Jesus before the crowds, impressed at His poise and serenity after being scourged nearly to death.

And today’s gospel uses the word when it presents the risen Jesus for the first time. “And behold, Jesus met them on their way.”

Just like that, Jesus is back, full again of poise and serenity, returned from the dead.

Jesus has risen, never to die again. He is risen, among us now. How we would like to encounter Him, as the women suddenly did when He met them on the way!

While this earthly life is our time of suffering, let us remember that He will come meet us, as He did the women, if we ask Him to.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to encounter you as He did the women. More than likely, He will not take your sufferings away, and He will not solve all your earthly problems. But, as He did for the women, He will give you the inestimable consolation of His presence.

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April 4, 2021March 17, 2021

Quiet Night

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

The Cross was loud; the Resurrection, silent.

The Cross was public; the Resurrection, private.

And yet the Cross was weakness; the Resurrection, strength.

The Cross was impotence; the Resurrection, power.

“My Kingdom is not of this world,” said Christ to Pilate on Good Friday.

The power of His Resurrection came to bear in this world, but there were few witnesses in this world, and those there were, immediately fainted to unconsciousness.

And after the Resurrection, as St. Peter says in the first reading, God “granted that he be visible, not to all the people, but to us,” His intimate friends.

Understand, Christian, that however much joy God may give you in this life, He is jealously guarding the full manifestation of His glory and your glorious destiny for eternity where, as St. Paul says in today’s second reading, “your life is hidden with Christ in God.”

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Easter will be a day of disappointment if we expect all our earthly problems and sufferings to go away. For us, it is a day of hope, not of fulfillment. Thank Jesus for dying and rising from the dead for you. Tell Him you do not expect fulfillment now, but that you exult in the hope that He has given you this day: hope that you will one day imbibe the fullness of His glory.

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April 2, 2021April 2, 2021

True Strength

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Throughout today’s Scriptures we find a paradox: Our Messiah is laid low, is weak and subjugated, and yet He consistently stands out as by far the strongest man in the scene, next to whom His adversaries appear weak.

When the soldiers come to arrest Him and He responds to their inquiry “I AM,” they spin away from Him and fall to the ground.

Pilate asks Him what truth is, and momentarily becomes His advocate upon hearing His merciful words about having committed the lesser sin.

Pilate recognizes His greatness: “Behold the Man!”, he proclaims about a stricken Jesus who is nonetheless still standing on His own two feet. And when challenged about writing “The King of the Jews,” Pilate stands by the inscription.

Jesus speaks of drinking His cup Himself, and it is He who carries His own cross out to Golgotha.

Jesus is not grandstanding to make some tragic but glorious point. He is simply, firmly, fulfilling His Father’s will. He is doing what He has done throughout His earthly life; indeed, even before that, in eternity.

It is this obedience that saved us.

If we give ourselves wholly to God, the cross will come. Jesus has promised it. But so will the strength to endure it, to be like Jesus even with the cross on our shoulders.

Ultimately, this is the goal of our daily contemplative prayer, where we seek union with God and His will: Obedience. Obedience to God, in good times, and in bad. Saving obedience, in union with the obedience of Jesus.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Thank Jesus for His obedience up to death. Ask Him for the gift of this virtue, whereby your life becomes complete surrender to God’s will, for the salvation of many, by the infinite power of Christ’s cross.

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April 1, 2021March 15, 2021

The Cup of Salvation

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

In addition to the extreme drama of this evening’s readings, there is an element of them that is absolutely startling.

This is the climax of Jesus’ life, and the institution of the Eucharist is the climactic moment of His gift of self for us and to us down through the generations. This is HIS moment.

And yet, in line after line of each of today’s readings, Jesus–and God, in His message to Moses and Aaron in the first reading–He makes it all about us. About OUR participation in His saving mystery. As if we had the central role in the salvation of humankind, and not He Himself!

Examples from the readings that center attention on us: “Do this in remembrance of me.” (second reading) “I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” (gospel) “How shall I make a return to the LORD for all the good he has done for me? The cup of salvation I will take up, and I will call upon the name of the LORD.” (psalm)

A startling message leaps from the pages of Scripture today: While of course, Jesus’ act and none other is the all-powerful wellspring of salvation, He is relying on us to take up the cup of salvation, to follow the model He has left for us, to do this in remembrance of Him. Even as He is all-powerful, yet we are co-protagonists with Him in the act of salvation.

Central to this, of course, is the repetition of the Mass throughout the ages. But we must remember: Every time we offer Him our lives freely as that bread, that cup, is elevated, we augment the reach and application of the all-powerful salvation won in Christ. He chose to need us; and to fulfill that need, our role is marvelously simple: We must simply give Him our lives, with all their sufferings and joys, and strive to fulfill His will, as He fulfilled His Father’s.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Adore Jesus silently at the very moment of His “yes” to the Father in Gethsemane–His “yes” for us. Adore Him; thank Him; and offer Him your life in imitation.

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March 31, 2021March 11, 2021

Destructive Chaos

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

The world crumbles in chaos. It is World War II, and whole towns are ravaged by bomb and mortar; nations succumb to conquest and tyranny. Bodies of countless young men in the very prime of their lives are ripped asunder by machine gun fire.

Elsewhere, after World War II, innumerable religious and political exiles, who have done nothing wrong besides hold to their convictions, freeze to death in Siberian work camps.

What are the signs of evil and chaos in your time?

Whatever they are, however great and broad, they are inferior in magnitude to the betrayal of God Himself to torture, for the price of thirty pieces of silver. For what the good thief said of Jesus, all of us who suffer on this planet may well repeat: “And indeed, we have been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes, but this man has done nothing criminal.” This man, who is God Himself.

And so, if in smaller catastrophes, even though we believe in God’s Providence, we feel helpless against the overwhelming power of destructive chaos, how are we to blame the apostles for feeling that the Jesus they loved had lost control of the situation?

And yet, in control this sovereign Lord was. So serenely was He in control, even in His greatest agony, that the clues may slip by us, as they did the apostles.

But today’s gospel is full of those clues. Jesus obtains the designated room for the Passover with a mere word. He predicts His betrayal. His restraint in the face of the knowledge of His betrayer bespeaks His will to allow it, and more broadly, His sovereignty over the situation.

And more broadly still, the first reading eloquently shows that this drama was planned from all time, and foretold.

What are the signs of evil and chaos in your time? In your life? Having seen Christ’s sovereignty through His Passion, death, and Resurrection, do you still not see that He has your life and history itself in hand?

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Consider the travesty that was the torturous execution of God, and then consider the clues that Jesus was the Master of that moment: His predictions at each step, His “I am He” causing the soldiers to faint in the Garden of Gethsemane, His mitigation of Pilate’s blame and stubborn refusal to defend Himself even at the hour of His condemnation, etc. Then, consider the frightening and anxiety-causing elements of your own life. Ask Him, dare to ask Him, if He has those in hand as He did His own hour. And tell Him that you trust Him.

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March 30, 2021March 10, 2021

Sharpened Weapon

This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.

Jesus is the sharp-edged sword of the first reading. He is the polished arrow. Whereas today, we might think of spreadsheets when we think of honing effectiveness and efficiency, the ancients thought of literal “honing”–sharpening the sword, polishing the arrow.

And Jesus is the great honed one, the great effective one, the great efficient one; He accomplishes what He has set out to do. And what is this? The end of the reading tells us:

It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant,
   to raise up the tribes of Jacob,
   and restore the survivors of Israel;
I will make you a light to the nations,
   that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.

In the Gospel passage, as we come closer in time to the mysteries of the Sacred Triduum, we see words that confirm and crown those of the first reading:

Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself,
and he will glorify him at once.

But let us not forget that this effectiveness of Jesus comes not through engineering analysis of how to do things in the most precise way, but through a mighty clash with sin. To battle sin and bring salvation to the ends of the earth, to achieve the glorious destiny for which He has come, Jesus must submit utterly to the consequences of sin. He must descend to the depths that sin has created. Hence it is that, immediately before declaring this to be His glorious hour, the omnipotent Jesus gives the nod to Judas to set the wheels of his betrayal in motion.

As we enter the mysteries of this Holy Week, let us not dream of a life different from Jesus’, an antiseptic life that is peaceful in the worldly sense and protected from suffering. Rather, let us desire a heart like His, which discerns our mission, its effectiveness, and its glory in the midst of the apparently random sufferings that life brings.

Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Ask Jesus to help you plumb the depths of this Holy Week in your prayer. Ask Him to give you a much deeper understanding and assimilation of the mysteries that this week presents. Ask Him, at long last, to give you the heart of a Christian.

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