Friday of the Third Week of Easter
This week, I had the privilege of chaperoning a senior Kairos retreat. I love the meaning of Kairos–God’s time. Retreats were always a powerful experience for me when I was in high school so now as an adult, especially now that I’m a parent, it is special to journey through the experience with our CJ students. As an adult leader, one of my roles was to present a talk at the retreat. I won’t share my entire talk but our gospel today connected with some of the messaging that I pray our retreatants took away from Kairos this week. While teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum, Jesus teaches that “Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him.” (Jn 6:56) One thing that I hope they took away from this week is that we were created with and for deep purpose; not just to be individuals but part of the Body of Christ.
Christ went to the cross and literally gave us his flesh and poured out his blood for us. “God is love” (1 Jn 4:8) and we are of God. We were made to love one another because God is madly in love with us. This is the beauty of our faith; we are all part of the body of Christ. Each of us has gifts to offer this world. Every time we celebrate mass, the final phrase is to go forth to live the gospel, to love and serve the Lord by our very lives--in big and small ways. We are called to holiness. And this often means that we offer small gestures, we do little things for people, we give what we can, where we can to support others, to be the light of Christ, to be the body of Christ.
Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which He looks
Compassion on this world,Yours are the feet with which He walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which He blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are His body.Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours. (St. Teresa of Avila)
We are ordinary people; God calls us to be extraordinary. My prayer today is that you may recognize that you are extraordinary; you are loved; you are called to be holy; you are the body, the hands, the feet of Christ. The results of God’s friendship are all around us, if we, but look and listen.
Peace,
Brandon Meyer