May 16, 2015
Saturday,
6th Week of Easter
1st Reading: Acts 18:23-28
Gospel: Jn 16:23-28
Jesus said to his disciples, “When that day comes you will not ask me anything. Truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my Name, he will give you. So far you have not asked in my Name; ask and receive that your joy may be full.
I taught you all this in veiled language, but the time is coming when I shall no longer speak in veiled language, but will tell you plainly of the Father.
When that day comes, you will ask in my Name and it will not be for me to ask the Father for you, for the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and you believe that I came from the Father…”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
By the sign of the cross we make we proclaim our belief in God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Truly the signs of the cross we make are footprints of our faith. How unfortunate that we hardly pay attention to this very meaningful Catholic practice!
I can’t help but look back to a funny experience in high school. Don Bosco schools maintain the tradition of giving “good morning” talks to students at flag ceremonies. One morning the Father Principal began his talk with, “In the name of the Father…” At this we all made the sign of the cross. What he really wanted to say was, “In the name of the Father Rector who has something urgent to attend to, I am giving this good morning talk”.
Some religious denominations not only criticize the way we mindlessly execute the sign of the cross but attack the very tradition itself. They argue that since the cross was the instrument used to kill Jesus there is no point immortalizing it as an important sign of faith without appearing inconsistent. But they are missing the whole point which Calvary wants to make. Jesus was not killed; he died voluntarily for love of us. Because of this the cross is symbol of love, and we love recalling and celebrating that love by marking ourselves with the sign of the cross.
In today’s Gospel Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my Name, he will give you”. By beginning our prayers with the sign of the cross we invoke not only Jesus’ name but the Trinity. Let us do the signs of the cross with reverence so that God may see them as footprints of our faith. Seeing those footprints traced from forehead down to our breast and unto our shoulders, may God interpret every sign of the cross we make as manifestation of the unity of our heart and mind and our commitment to bear on our shoulders the consequences of the faith we proclaim. — Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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