May 15- 5th Sunday of Easter
(Acts 14:21-27; Rev 21:1-5a; Jn 13:31-33a, 34-35)
The theme from this week’s readings focuses on enduring hardships and trials—embracing the crosses that God allows into our lives. In our human nature, we find ourselves resistant to this kind of suffering. We avoid it and anxiously try to change situations that are unpleasant. But God is inviting us to trust him in our day-to-day lives, even when our circumstances are unpleasant or involve difficulty. God is inviting us to share in his passion. This theme comes through clearly in the Gospel reading when Jesus says, “Now is the Son of Man glorified,” just as Judas is leaving to betray him. It is precisely through the suffering Christ will face in his betrayal, passion, and death that he is glorified. This is at the heart of our Catholic faith. One of the great mysteries of our faith is that we are all called to share in Christ’s glory, by sharing in his suffering. Just as Jesus offers up the poverty of his battered condition on the cross, and God uses it to transform the world, so too we are called to offer up the sufferings and poverty of our lives. When we are willing to embrace the poverties of our day-to-day lives and offer those up in trustful surrender and in union with Christ’s sacrifice to the Father, God will transform them into amazing riches.