Making God Visible

Dear Friend,

In his homily last week Father Garrett Galvin powerfully reminded us of the importance of considering context when exploring the meaning of a scriptural passage. He pointed out that Jesus offers us - his disciples - a new commandment to love one another “as I have loved you” at the very moment of his own betrayal. Thus, a second related reminder: our own best intentions to imitate Jesus in “making God visible” (that is, to “glorify God”) can easily evaporate in a “context” charged with stresses and threats.

Over the last four years in very challenging circumstances we’ve worked creatively as a parish community to make our Franciscan evangelization real and alive. Now, as we shape a pastoral plan for the coming year, we again find ourselves in a context highly charged by violence and division. As we seek to make the God of hope more visible in our world, what will it take to move our best intentions into actions?

For the authors of this week’s scriptures, the answer to that question was two-fold: a courageous engagement with one another, coupled with a bold embrace of the Holy Spirit. Paul and Barnabas propose initiatives in the face of great opposition, while the visionary author of the Book of Revelation writes of a new Jerusalem “coming down out of heaven from God” even as the destruction of the Jerusalem temple was surely fresh in the minds of his first readers. And finally, again at the last supper, we hear Jesus urging us not to be conquered by fear, but to stay open to the teacher, the Holy Spirit.

As we continue to shape our future as a parish, I invite you to consider how you might engage more fully and open yourself to the Holy Spirit.

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan ofm, Pastor