My friends, I come to this feast of Corpus Christi—the Body of Christ with a bit of angst.  This is due to the fact that what I and many theologians alike feel is the real importance of this feast, and in fact, what our brother Jesus more than likely, intended the Eucharist to be, is apparently lost on many in leadership within the National Association of Catholic Bishops as they are planning a national Eucharistic Congress for 2024 in Indianapolis. 

   Interestingly enough, these same bishops are running a similar 3-year “revival” time alongside that of Pope Francis’ synodal process—the only thing is that the two processes are on divergent tracks, never intended to meet one another.

   Francis’ synodal process is intended to encourage our Church once again, “to open windows and doors,” as did Pope John XXIII 58 years ago at the 2^nd Vatican Council.  John’s intent then, as is Francis’ now, was to be open and understanding, being good listeners to all the unique stories out there that make up the “Body of Christ.” 

   Many bishops in our country today, including our own, Robert Barron in the Winona/Rochester diocese, do not even mention Francis’ inclusive work in our world to complete Jesus’ mission of welcoming “all to the table,” not with a set agenda, but with open minds as to how we can make our Church more viable in our present day, open to, and addressing current problems and concerns. 

   As many of you are probably aware, the Winona/Rochester diocese sponsored its own Eucharistic Congress yesterday in Mankato.  They billed it as a “renewal,” but if you read the agenda for the day, in my mind, it could only be billed, “a return” to the past. 

   After I read the agenda, I experienced a “floundering moment,” –something my friend Alice would call, “crazy-making,” about what I could say regarding this event.  Another friend suggested that “I say nothing.” 

   After a good deal of reflection, I found that I could not, “just say nothing,” so trying not to be overly negative, but rather aiming toward truth-telling, I find that I must say something. 

   Yesterday’s event in Mankato offered confession, Eucharistic adoration, the rosary, among other pre-Vatican II practices, concluding with a Eucharistic procession through the streets of Mankato. All these rituals and practices are reminiscent of pre-Vatican II times when a relationship with God was more of an individual thing, not with a look-out to the larger world. The event hosted several speakers, including the bishop, religious sisters clad in more traditional garb, and lay men and women, all with the mission of reviving “love” for the Eucharistic bread of the altar-the Body of Christ.  There was an English and Spanish-speaking track for all speakers and musicians, with translations available into Vietnamese. Apparently, all avenues were covered to present the Church of pre-Vatican II times. 

   Now, I want to be clear.  At face value, there is nothing wrong with any of the rituals and practices that made up yesterday’s event or the event being planned for next year.  The trouble with such events is that they make no connection to the present-day world and its problems that so desperately need Christ’s body to be transformed in us, and for us to move into our world with the love and understanding that Jesus came to share in his. 

      I find it extremely hard to understand how we can profess to love and worship the Body of Christ on the altar, and yet abuse that same Body where we find it in our world, in people and ideas and ways of life that are different from the set agendas of these proposed Eucharistic Congresses.

   As we always say here—we must get beyond the surface, literal message of what is taught in our Catholic church.  Unless love of and for the Body of Christ moves from the altar, from the constructed adoration chapels, the confessionals and individual prayer lives of Jesus’ followers, we are basically, “spinning our wheels,” if our intention is to follow him in our lives.   

   In today’s 1^st reading from Deuteronomy we hear, “Not by bread alone, [we can insert the Eucharist here] do we live, but by every word that comes from the mouth of our God.”  I believe Jesus intended the Eucharist as a means of comfort, yes, because he couldn’t remain physically with us—but it was meant to be just a beginning…just a place to start. That is why at the end of our liturgies, we say, “The Mass is ended, but let the service continue!”

   If we truly follow “every word that comes forth from [Jesus’] mouth,” then we must not imprison him on our altars, or in golden monstrances.  We must take him into our own bodies, now transformed into his, to all the places, and to all the people that this old way of thinking and acting ignores, sometimes shuns, and all the time, sees as unworthy because they do not follow the established rules. 

   This is why the 2^nd Vatican Council was so needed—to free Jesus up—to let him live among us again, challenge us to be our best, in a Church free of patriarchy, one that is inclusive of all the differences—all the ways to live out our own, wonderful lives—all the ways that can express God’s love.  We must not live by “black and white” rules, that so many today can’t live by. We need to allow God’s love to open up, to grow. 

   Jesus supported and called women to serve, and so should real Eucharistic people support God’s call to women to be ordained—a Church that acts through half of the people, and one gender at that, to tell its people how to follow God’s call, instead of letting that work to the Spirit, seems to not be attentive to “every word coming from the mouth of God.” 

   What I see wrong with the “return” to a theology of pre-Vatican II rituals is that it leaves the Eucharist, “a static thing” and it was always, I believe, meant to be an active word, a verb!  As Paul says in the 2^nd reading today from Corinthians, “Because the loaf of bread is one, we who are many are one body.”  That’s quite clear to me—we are all invited!  How dare any cleric ever refuse the Eucharist to someone who presents themselves, telling them, “No, you aren’t yet fit to receive” what our brother Jesus so freely gave, to everyone.

   Then we come to John’s gospel message of Jesus’ words to the people of his time about the “real” food he was offering them. We see the Temple authorities asking, “How can this be?” and it is because they are looking at just the literal meaning, which unfortunately, many still do today.  Diane Bergant, Scripture scholar, states that “blood symbolized life itself,” and for us, that means the life of Jesus, his words—his actions—all that he taught about living-loving, dying and rising to a new place.

    She goes on, “the significance of the cup of wine is not in its material substance, but in its incorporation of the partakers in the blood of Christ”—in other words, the sharing of Jesus’ “essence” with the community is where the true goodness lies. This feast of Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ, should not leave us “settled” in simply, worshipping the body and blood on the altar, because if it does, perhaps we have missed the point of this feast.  Jesus never asked us to worship him in the elements of bread and wine, but to care for his “body” in the world.

   Exegetes continue; breaking bread with someone was looked at in the time of Jesus as a sign of forming community with them.  Jesus raised that to a new level in saying that sharing Eucharistic bread forms us into the body of Christ.  In other words, when we eat regular food, we incorporate that food into our very selves.  The opposite is true with the Eucharist, Bergant says.  When we partake of Eucharistic bread; we are transformed into Eucharistic bread, meaning—we become Jesus’ body for the world. 

   Looking at the Eucharist in this way, is indeed another level—receiving communion is not just between us and God, but us, (think Jesus) and our world. Receiving communion is a community action for the larger community.

   In the Gospel from John, Bergant tells us that “flesh and blood,” on a literal level, was a common way of characterizing a human being—when applied to Jesus, speaking of Jesus’ flesh and blood is our proclamation of faith in the incarnation—the fact that Jesus became one of us to have a human experience, thus telling us how much we are loved by our God—that God in Jesus would go to that extent to make sure that we creatures know how important we are to the Creator.  Jesus became one of us, flesh, and blood through his entire life; not just when he gave us the Eucharist. When we make conscious efforts to live as Jesus, we do give his “body and blood,” on a deeper level, to our world.

   In conclusion then my friends, this feast should embolden each of us as Jesus’ followers to go out into our lovely world and see each and all we meet as loved by our God—in Jesus—as his body and blood, and adore, respect, and honor each one, in the same way, as many did in Mankato yesterday, but only in the elements of bread and wine.  Jesus called, and continues to call us to so much more! Amen? Amen!

My friends, as I said in the bulletin, this Sunday gives us the opportunity to truly come to know our God if we carefully study the messages within the Scriptures today. 

   Let’s begin with the reading from Exodus.  The 1^st thing we should notice is that God initiates the encounter with Moses, not the other way around.  This is important!  This truth reminds me of the 23^rd Psalm in the biblical translation, The Message. The writer of this translation opens up the traditional line, “Only goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life,” to “Your beauty and love chase after me, every day of my life.”  I don’t know about you, but I rather like the idea that God is, “chasing after me” through the ups and downs of my life.  It speaks to the intimacy of our God and that wanted relationship with us. 

   If we look at God’s words to Moses, we can see this most clearly.  “I am…a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger and rich in kindness and faithfulness.”  This is really such a beautiful and telling reading and one unfortunately, that I have heard far too many homilists get stuck on—the beginning that is, which is apparently God’s answer to Moses’ question of, “Who are you?”  God says, “I am who I am,” or some form of that.  This again, is an example of “staying” on the top level of a message and failing to go deeper to truly understand what is being said. 

   It doesn’t matter what we call God, as much as who God is and we learn that going deeper— “I am a God of tenderness and compassion…”

   This reminds me of a young man who was interviewed on public radio, MPR, this past week.  He is the valedictorian of his high school graduating class and will, as a result, be giving the commencement address to them.  The interviewer was interested in knowing what he might speak to them about. 

   He was quite clear that he didn’t want it to be about him alone, what he had done and so on, but he wanted it to be about all of them.  He wanted them to know that just because his grades allowed him to have the highest place in their class, academically, he had the same worries and struggles that they all had and that they were all in this together.  He realized that he hadn’t gotten to where he was alone, and that he had much to be thankful for.  He saw himself as no better than anyone else and he wanted his classmates to know that. 

   The interviewer had also invited several adults to be on the show who had given commencement addresses in the past to learn what they had imparted to the newly graduating students.  One man said it best I think when he shared a general list of good things, he had heard other speakers remind graduates of as they look at their lives ahead of them.  Some of the things that we would expect to be on the list, included, work hard, when you don’t quite make it, pick yourself up and try again, and so on.  He ended his comments sharing an idea he had heard along the way that he found very compelling, in making your way in the world— “be kind.” 

   This notion seems to be in sync with what Moses heard from God on Mount Sinai—his, and our God said that we all could expect, “tenderness and compassion, one, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness. 

   So, if we were merely to stop in the Exodus reading with, “what should we call God?” we would miss the deep relational response that God offers here. The valedictorian that I mentioned above ended his comments by saying to his peers, “It is my hope that each of us will make our own particular way.” A “kind” response, I would say. 

   Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians says as much; “Encourage one another –live in harmony and peace.” 

   And John’s gospel today confirms this idea through Jesus’ words: [God does not] “condemn, but through Christ, the world may be saved.”  Once again, we must get beyond the surface meaning.  The “saving” that our brother Jesus came to do was in showing us—each of us, through the justice, mercy, understanding, and kindness, that he showed in his own life, how in fact to do the same in our lives. 

   And as always, we must take the Scriptures and apply them to our own lives.  To read about Jesus but fail to do the same in our own lives, or to at least try, seems to miss the point of Christian living. 

   If we were truly, each of us, following Jesus, there could not be two tiers in our society in so many ways—the rich and the poor, white and black—we call that, “racism,” by the way, something our country is far from getting its arms around. We call this, “white privilege,” –another concept to take to our prayer. We might be closer to a resolution if we laid our “hearts” and not just our “heads” on these issues. 

   If we were truly following Jesus, gender issues—sexism, which really is about patriarchy—who has the “right to speak and act,” would also, not be an issue.   This is true in state, country and Church. Again, we must look back to our brother Jesus and what he had to say about these issues.  He was crucified in the time he lived, “not for our sins,” but because he was speaking, in his time, against inequality, patriarchy, and more, and the powers that existed then, needed to silence him. Pure and simple. Makes me think of women today following our God-given calls to be ordained. We have been told that this will immediately excommunicate us if we do, as they wish to silence us too.  So, if we get caught up in that old theology of “reparation for our sins” in the face of a tyrannical God, that takes us off the hook to really follow in Jesus’ footsteps.

   We would do better to look to the beautiful words of Psalm 8 today, and remember who God truly is, “Who are we that you should be mindful of us?”  Being “mindful” seems to me, a “relational” skill.  In this regard, this past week, I heard a news special on the social and political divide in our country.  All of those interviewed were asked to state their beliefs, and on the merit of what they said, were then paired with someone who held an opposite view.  They were asked to sit together and “truly listen” to each other. 

   The amazing thing that they discovered was, when you, “put a face” to the opinion, trying to see why each other felt as they did, it helped break down some of the animosity. Now, you might be thinking, and questioning as I have, “what do you do if you have someone in your life who has told you, they don’t want to hear your opposing view.” And my friends, this is precisely why being a Christian is not for wimps. 

   Our lives today in the midst of so many concerns, many of which I have mentioned here, call for what I will name, “eucharistic moments.”  If you think about it, you probably could all name for me a time when something truly wonderful and unexpected happened between you and another person, or group that was able to move you and them, beyond the things that divided you to a place where you could truly be one. Naming such times, “eucharist moments” where the “body and blood” of our Savior Jesus, was truly evident—not on the altar, but in the humanity of our every day lives seems to be most appropriate and what Jesus had intended the Eucharist to be. We will continue this conversation next week when we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi—the Body of Christ.  Amen? Amen!

   My friends, if we are simply checking a liturgical calendar today, we see that with the feast of Pentecost, 50 days after Easter, we come to the end of the Easter Season.  But we as our brother, Jesus’ followers, must go deeper.  If he taught us anything while with us, it was that we must, “always go deeper,” especially when we aren’t sure of the way to go.

   With this thought in mind then, Pentecost must be seen, not as an “ending” to one season, but truly, as a “beginning” to our life, walking in Jesus’ footsteps.  As I prepared for this homily, reading what theologians, prophets, and writers have had to say about Pentecost, I have come across many words to describe the feelings, the outlook—perhaps, that we should have coming into this feast. 

   Some of the words that I have encountered are: “passionate, alive—not simply breathing.”  Further on, from the section in Acts used for our 1^st reading today, Luke continues, [Pentecost is about] “seeing visions and dreaming dreams.” Acts 2: 17

   In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians for today, he tells the people of Corinth and ultimately us, that when we are under the influence of the Spirit, “only good” should be the fruits of that encounter with heaven.  That is why, as we discussed last week, it makes no sense to ever unite the words, “Christian” and “nationalism.”  United, they form the title used in our present day to describe a group of so-called, “religious” individuals (Christian Nationalists).

   Looking back once more to the 1^st reading from Acts, we see its author, Luke, speaking about the coming of the Spirit as, “wind from heaven,” thus our first hymn today, by Marty Haugen, Wind Upon the Water.  Additionally, he said the Spirit comes as “tongues of fire.”  Those who witnessed this first group of disciples afterward, were said to be, “amazed and astonished” at what they saw and heard.  Probably one of the best things that these people were “amazed and astonished” about, was the fact that “everyone hearing them that day was included,” even though they came from different places.  We might think about whether seeing us in action would cause anyone to be amazed or astonished!

   I would like to, just for a few minutes, pick up on the idea of the Spirit coming as, “tongues of fire.”  One of the wonderful things about the Catholic church that I have always appreciated, has been its sense of ritual—the use of appropriate colors for each liturgical season, and the signs and symbols used to enhance each season, each time of year. 

   You have no doubt noticed the color red in my vestments and the altar drapes.  Red picks up on the notion of “fire” and “passion” spoke of earlier that tells us in no uncertain terms how we should approach our mission as Jesus’ followers. 

   This reminds me of a mentor of mine who has gone home to God, but one, who, for many years was a most inspiring model of what it truly means to walk and to live as Jesus taught.  Jim Fitzpatrick, an active priest in the Winona diocese for 10 years during the 1960’s and 70’s, eventually left active priestly ministry because he was aware that some of his brother priests were sexually abusing children, and when he took what he knew to the bishop, rather than doing the right thing, this bishop chose to enable this grievous wrong in order “to protect the Church from scandal.”  In other words, for this bishop, the institution was more important than the people.

   When I first knew Father Fitzpatrick, I was a first-year student at Cotter High School in his Old Testament class.  He was an exciting and stimulating educator because he believed what he was teaching, was passionate about it, and wanted us to be as well. When he found us not being engaged enough, he would exclaim, “C’mon people, catch fire!” 

   My friends, as we now begin this new time of “calling” really, to be our best selves, attempting to live as Jesus did, we too must, “catch fire.”  Passionate people are not, “lukewarm,” just going with the flow.

   I am presently reading Senator Amy Klobuchar’s new book, The Joy of Politics.  As you all know, Amy is Minnesota’s senior senator in Washington, advocating for the needs of our state, but also for the needs of our entire country. When she was highlighted recently on the PBS Newshour and asked “why” the title of this book, she said, when you can get things done for people in need, it is truly a joyous thing!

   One of the most refreshing things she said in this new book, reflecting on the past several years that included a pandemic, a campaign for the presidency, a time of ever-increasing inability for Congress people to work together, and an insurrection, to name just a few things, was, and I paraphrase, why would anyone run for office except to make life better for the people they are serving? Why indeed?!

   So my friends, that brings us back once again to our lives, to the here and now and what we are called to do, because we are always called to do something!  There were several things this past week that came to my attention that I will just list here for us to consider, and perhaps get our “juices” going too as to ways that we each can live “passionately” in our world. 

• The people of Florida are now living under a dictum from their governor who has proclaimed, “Don’t say gay!”  There has been some blowback to this from groups who have canvassed the state with billboards proclaiming, “We say gay!”
• You all know of my love for Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister.  She offers a couple of things for us to ponder on this Pentecost Sunday:
• [Today] “is a time of holy hilarity when the Church points again and again to the empty tomb.”
• Joan additionally says, connecting our earthly world to our spiritual world, which, by the way, is as it should be, “Flowers confront us with our responsibility for beauty,” [in our world]. A question to perhaps ponder this week, “Do we bring beauty into our world?”
• A couple of thoughts from John’s gospel today:
• Speaking of being “passionate” followers of our brother Jesus, John fine-tunes how we might do that when he refers to the “fire” [of God’s love for us] saying that it [always] comes with “peace.”  “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’”

Our presence in this world must not only be “passionate” –that which is truly caring, but it must also be filled with “peace.”  Someone else said of this combination of passion and peace, [Come with the] “power of a tornado, and the gentleness of a whisper.” 

• Then finally, and this is especially for the times we may feel weak and not, up to the task, to remember Jesus’ words in today’s gospel, “Receive the Spirit” –that which you forgive, is forgiven, that which you retain,

is retained.”  On the merit of the above words which do indeed give us license to object to statements from Rome that aren’t about, “including all,” but simply about “power over,” we should, and we must call for a Church that is passionate and on-fire with the Spirit—not through stipulations, rules and regulations, but with peace, understanding, mercy, and justice –in a word, love! Amen? Amen!

My friends, with this weekend, we have come to the end of the Easter Season, which will be followed by a few special Sundays, Pentecost, the coming of the Spirit of our brother, Jesus, Trinity Sunday, remembering God in his/her glory as Creator, Savior, and Spirit, and Corpus Christi Sunday, wherein we strive to understand, through our imaginations—really, and through our faith, the holy presence of Jesus, our brother, in the form of the simple gifts of bread and wine upon our altars.  Following these three, the Church shifts back to Ordinary Time, which we have come to see, deals with much more than, “the ordinary.” 

   As I have in the past, today then, we will join this final weekend of Easter and the Ascension, being that the themes of each correlate rather well.  So, you saw that the first reading from Acts describes Jesus’ ascension into heaven, a new plane—space of life that we can only imagine.  The 2^nd reading and the gospel come from the 7^th and final Sunday of Easter, showing us rather well, I think, what was expected of those first disciples and us, going forward. 

   The reading from Acts tells us that [these disciples] “will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes.”  I think so many times we read these stories of the first disciples and hear them rather, matter-a-factly, and don’t let our imaginations run a bit into just what they faced and were perhaps feeling at the beginning of their ministries, carrying on where Jesus was leaving off.

   We see this in their purely, human reaction to Jesus being, “taken from their sight.”  “They were still gazing up into the heavens,” Scripture tells us.  And to this reaction, two, apparently, “heavenly creatures” appear and inquire why, in fact, they are doing this.

   Why indeed, we might echo, but for an entirely different reason than the heavenly visitors.  Here it is important to remember that the sole focus of these disciples’ attention for the past three years, Jesus of Nazareth, for whom they had walked away from families and livelihoods to follow, and whom they had watched die a gruesome death and then, miraculously rise to new life, conquering death, so that we could too, one day, was now being taken from them again!  No doubt there were many unanswered questions for them. 

   Jesus was very conscious that the apostles and disciples were afraid and that was why he promised to send his Spirit to be with them, giving them strength to be, to do, what he had called them to be about in the world, in his footsteps. 

   Jesus knew too from his own, lived human life that the temptation was always there to take the easier route, the way that didn’t cost so dearly.  That is why he prayed so earnestly for them in the gospel selection today from John.  “O God most holy, protect with your name those whom you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” 

   And friends, I think it is good for us to reflect in this year 2023, that marks our 15^th year of existence as a Vatican II parish, that we take our name from this Scripture passage, where Jesus prayed not only for his first disciples, but for all who would follow their lead, that they all, “would be one!” 

   Next Sunday then, we will celebrate Pentecost, the day that marks 50 days since Easter, when Jesus’ Spirit was unleashed in a special way into the world.  It might be good this next week to remember our own special day of confirmation when we first said, our own, personal “yeses” to the indwelling of the Spirit that would give us the strength too, to faithfully carry on the Good News of God’s love in our world.

   Once these first disciples receive the Spirit, we see Peter in the 2^nd reading today proclaim, “Happy are you when insulted for the sake of Christ, for then, [you will know] that God’s Spirit, in its glory, has come to rest on you.”  And he goes on, “If you must suffer, let it be because you have been a follower of Christ,” [not because you have done evil things].

   We can hardly hear these words and not realize that truly “following Jesus” will not be easy.  The end of the Easter Season, Jesus physically leaving the earth, and sending his Spirit are truly about more than us, “looking to the heavens” for answers.  Jesus has shown us the way, and for him, it was all about love—and for us it must be the same!  Each of us, my friends, will do this differently, and if, at the end of the day, whatever we choose to do, however we choose to respond to our world, if we can honestly say that our response, was all about doing the most loving thing—we will have walked faithfully in Jesus’ footsteps.  Amen? Amen!

My friends, it is with great joy that I can stand and perhaps at times today, sit before you, and for all of us to gather once again.  We have been away from each other for four weeks as I have been recovering from knee surgery. 

   Now I compare this time to where we were three years ago in the beginning weeks of shut-down due to the COVID pandemic for which there was no vaccine to keep us safe, except for masking and social distancing.  We all stayed away from each other in order to keep us safe.  And now today, this is the first Sunday with masks being optional, following the lead of all the hospitals in the area. 

   These past several weeks then, have not been about you, but about me, as I was simply not able to either prepare much, or to be present to you due to my recovery.  I found myself being filled with gratitude for your out-pouring of love and care for me, through cards, emails, calls, gifts of food, and all other expressions of love.

   Being that we are still in the season of Easter, the Scriptures are filled with ways that the apostles—now, also filled with the Spirit are reaching out, not just to the Jewish people, but to all who will listen to the story of Jesus, the Christ—and of how he spoke to, visited with, and was generally present to all who he encountered.  It didn’t matter where people came from, who they associated with—he welcomed all, and offered alternatives to lives without hope and as a result, showed all who he encountered, the best ways to live.

   John’s gospel for today includes Jesus’ wonderful words of promise and hope— “I will not leave you” [alone]—actually, he says, “orphaned”—which is the same idea!

   A word on these first disciples…we see them going out among strangers—for the most part, preaching what Jesus had said to them that gave them such hope. With the life of the Spirit, they had the faith and the strength to proclaim Jesus’ message of love, justice, and mercy to all who would listen.  We might consider friends if we would be able to do the same.

   In many ways, for these first disciples, this is all that they, as Jesus’ true followers could do—share with others what had been so graciously shared with them.  The psalmist today says rightly what should be the song of us all, as we attempt to follow in Jesus’ footsteps— [Let us] “make a joyful sound to God…” [over] “all the earth.” 

   There is much talk in our country today from folks who claim to be, “Christian Nationalists.”  To my mind, these two words seem to contradict each other.  To be a “Christian” in Jesus’ footsteps is all about “including” everyone, whereas being a “nationalist” seems to advocate for “excluding” many, except, “our own kind.” 

   Jesus, when with us, always talked about knowing someone’s identity by, “the fruits” they produced—is it about justice, mercy, love, and care, not just for ourselves, or for others too? When a group tends toward angry statements, untruths, an inability to really listen, and to hear, and basically a self-serving stance in our world, we have to wonder what Christian actions are in fact taking place. 

   This time of year within Catholic and other Christian churches is often when young people are confirmed within their faith communities and challenged to be their very best as inspired followers of their brother Jesus. 

It is also a good time for those of us to recall our own confirmations, even if it was many years ago, and re-confirm within ourselves what that meant then, and if it means the same today.  Peter’s opening to the people in the 2nd reading today seems appropriate for those of us who wish to walk in Jesus’ footsteps, “Venerate Jesus, the Christ in your hearts.”  We might also say, keep his message, his actions, always before you, if you truly wish to follow him. Amen? Amen!