Pentecost Sunday
Jesus Is Our Rock
If I had the recording, I’d play for you the theme music and opening words from the TV show “Mission Impossible!” Remember it? “Good morning, Mr. Phelps! Your mission, should you choose to accept it…” Just before Jesus returned to heaven, He charged us to do something that seems impossible. It’s one of the most amazing verses in the Bible.
One translation reads: “Verily, verily, I say to you: You that believe the works I do, you also shall do. Even greater works than these, shall you do.” It sounds like a mission impossible! And yet, our God, who cannot lie, has said it… …so, how can we make it a reality?
Our coming community retreat will offer us an opportunity to spend some time in self-evaluation with our Core Values statement. How well do I personally espouse the values? How well does the community put them into practice? Which ones do we do well? Which might we give more attention to? (Copies available) Jesus fed 5,000 people with a lad’s lunch. He walked on water. He raised the dead. How can we do “greater” than that!? Did Jesus say we would be able to top his works? No, He did not say we’d work greater miracles than He, but that we’d do greater works! What are the greater works?
Our corporate commitment empowers us to do just that: to respond to the hungers of the people of God, with the same compassion that Jesus showed the hungry crowd. The greater work is salvation, seeing people pass from spiritual death to spiritual life. His primary work was to seek and save that which was lost. Jesus says His miracles were nothing compared to what is coming. These greater things that we can accomplish will not happen by merely focusing on our community. It’s mission impossible to put our prayerful arms around the world unless we have a plan of how to reach outside of our geographic limits! The price will be going the extra mile: attentiveness, physical expenditure, emotional drain, consideration for the details of hospitality and self- and interpersonal care. We have a purpose greater than just ourselves and our problems. Jesus began a work that we are supposed to bring to completion. He began it in His earthly body, and He will continue it through us. That goal is impressed on us every time we enter the chapel and see the writing on the wall: that in all things God may be glorified!
I’ll close with a little story that reminds us we can do greater things. Three friends were spending the day fishing in Lake Jovita. After they were out in the boat, one realized she had left the bait on the dock. So, she stepped out of the boat and walked on water to the shore and back to boat! The others marveled at such faith! With that another discovered she had forgotten her lunch box back in the car. She nimbly trotted across the water and back. The third fisher exclaimed: “That’s incredible! I am in the presence of greatness! But I believe – I have faith, too!” She needed to use the restroom, so she stepped out of the boat and promptly sank to bottom of the lake! Her two fishing companions looked at each other: “Should we have told her where the rocks are?” We can depend on Jesus to be there when we need a stepping stone. He is our rock!
~S. Roberta Bailey, OSB
‘Tis the season to say a daily prayer to avert storms and for the protection of all who are in the path of summer violent weather.
This prayer can be traced to St. Anthony of Padua.
Jesus Christ a King of Glory has come in Peace. God became man, and the Word was made flesh. Christ was born of a virgin. Christ suffered. Christ was crucified. Christ died. Christ rose from the dead. Christ ascended into Heaven. Christ conquers. Christ reigns. Christ orders. May Christ protect us from all storms and lightning. Christ went through their midst in Peace, and the Word was made Flesh. Christ is with us with Mary. Flee you enemy spirits because the Lion of the Generation of Judah, the Root of David, was won. Holy God! Holy Powerful God ! Holy Immortal God! Have mercy on us. Amen! (From the Pieta Prayer Book)