Today we celebrate mass with our grade school; therefore, the readings are different than those listed in the Roman Lectionary.
What is the biggest miracle that you can imagine? Most of us begin to think of miracles outside ourselves in the physical word – like making one of your classmates float in the air for a while or making your least favorite teacher disappear or making your favorite sports team win all the time or maybe parting a big ocean (that’s in the Bible) or maybe healing someone who is sick (that’s in the Bible, too).
Today we see that God thinks differently than we do. He has a different plan. Rather than making a miracle outside of us, he starts by making a miracle inside of us. God loves us so much that he sends his son, Jesus, to us to recreate our souls and lives by becoming part of our humanity.
Today we hear in the Gospel Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper. He prays for unity and communion. This is a sign of a true Christian, a person living in the resurrection of Jesus, a person who has been recreated. This is the miracle that the whole world needs to see from each of us and from our local parish. All living in community within the family, the neighborhood, the school, and everywhere else we go. We are called to show the victory of Jesus in our lives by renouncing sin, violence, and division. That is the best miracle.
The whole group of believers was united heart and soul.
The first Christians lived like that. Today’s first reading proclaims how they helped each other; they shared all they had with everyone else; and they used their time and resources to proclaim God’s love for us through Jesus’ victory over death and violence, the resurrection. Division, selfishness, hatred, and violence disappeared among them.
God began working this great miracle inside each one of us from the moment we were baptized. We have the capacity inside our heart and soul to live in communion with others and to serve others.
Take some time today to ask yourselves if you are living as signs of the miracle of communion for others to see.
I am one with them,
and you are on with me,
so that they may become completely one.
Image: https://www.wikiart.org/en/simon-ushakov/taynaya-vecherya-1685