Excellence, Respect, and Friendship

The Olympics is a global event that unites people from all corners of the world, transcending race, color, lifestyle, and faith. It is a time when we showcase our shared humanity and our best through the spirit of sportsmanship.

The three values celebrated in the Olympic Games are excellence, respect, and friendship. 

Sadly, at the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Paris, a portrayal mocking Christianity and its central belief in the Eucharist was included. (I don't have to describe it to you. You can easily search for it online, or you probably tuned in and saw it on television.) This portrayal trivialized the sacred moment when Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper.

The Eucharist is not merely a ritual; it is the very heart of our Christian life. Vatican II calls the Eucharist the "source and summit of our faith."

In the Eucharist, we encounter the real presence of Christ, who feeds and nourishes us just as He miraculously fed more than 5000 people in the Gospel. 

The Olympics, which aim to unite people of different backgrounds and beliefs, have failed to respect Christianity and its faith. Do you think they would dare mock other religions in such a way? We know the answer. The disrespect highlights a bigger issue in our world today, where the values of respect and inclusivity are sometimes applied selectively.

As followers of Christ, how should we respond to this? 

First and foremost, we are called to forgive. As Jesus teaches us, we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, asking God to open their hearts (and ours) to understanding and respect.

Second, we must stand firm in our faith by celebrating the Eucharist well, recognizing it as the true bread from heaven that sustains us.

Finally, just as Jesus fed the multitude, we are called to feed our world so hungry for true friendship and respect. In a world that often misunderstands or dismisses our Catholic Christian faith, we are called to be living examples of the love, respect, and friendship that the Olympics aspire to celebrate. NQ

Deeper Faith, Not Contempt

You have likely heard the saying, "Familiarity breeds contempt." This phrase means that the better we know or become more familiar with someone or something, the more likely we find their faults and ordinariness, often leading to dislike or a lack of respect or appreciation.

In today's gospel reading, we see an example of familiarity breeding contempt. Jesus returned to His hometown, and the people who had known Him since childhood could not accept the ordinariness of His presence. They knew His family well: His mother, Mary, and relatives. They saw Him grow up as a carpenter's son. Despite the wisdom and miracles He displayed, their familiarity with His ordinary upbringing bred contempt. They could not reconcile the divine grace in the man they had seen grow up among them.

Sometimes, we also find it hard to see the grace of God right under our noses. In the ordinariness of life, in the moments of misunderstanding and hurt, in the acts of care and compassion, the grace of God and the love of God are active and alive. Yet, we might miss these divine manifestations because they come to us in familiar and ordinary forms.

When the people of Nazareth allowed their familiarity with Jesus to breed contempt, they missed out on a great opportunity. Jesus, as a result, chose to take His message and blessings elsewhere because of their lack of faith. A similar tragedy can happen to us if we let our familiarity with the divine in our everyday lives lead to contempt and disregard. We risk losing the blessings that God offers us.

The secret is to pay close attention to Jesus's words. By immersing ourselves in Scripture and staying grounded in the sacraments and prayer, our familiarity with Christ's teachings will lead to greater blessings and deeper faith rather than contempt.

Prayer, in particular, helps us stay attuned to God's presence in the ordinary moments of our lives. NQ

Breathe on Us, Breath of God!

The Bushmen tribe, the oldest inhabitants of South Africa, have a deep reverence for the wind. For the Bushmen, the wind is the source of their life. They feel they are living within it and believe in its transformative power. 

They observed that strong winds can wear down rocks and shape landscapes and desert dunes. They noticed that many plants rely on the wind to disperse their seeds to grow and thrive in new areas. They observed how strong winds can uproot trees and clear away dead or decaying matter, making room for new growth. The Bushman Tribe relies on the wind to blow away their footprints upon their death, symbolizing a fresh start and a return to the great wind from which they came. 

On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples like a strong driving wind, breathing new life into their weary souls. Before Pentecost, the disciples were gripped by fear, their hearts heavy with confusion and doubt. But the Holy Spirit, like a powerful gust, swept away their fears and doubts, replacing them with a burning courage and a deep conviction to spread the Gospel. 

In the Gospel, Jesus appears to His disciples after His resurrection and says:

"Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, so I send you." Then he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."

Like the wind, Jesus' breath, the breath of God, the Holy Spirit is invisible yet undeniably felt and present. The Holy Spirit is life-giving, forgiving, and transforming!

The Bushmen Tribe always feels as if they live within the wind. 

How about us? Are we truly living by the Holy Spirit? Do we allow the mighty wind of God to blow through our lives, clearing away our fears, doubts, and selfishness? 

Just as the wind blew away the footprints of the Bushmen, the Holy Spirit can remove traces of sin and despair from our lives, leading us to a transformed, renewed life in Christ. The Holy Spirit heals broken relationships, brings peace in times of turmoil, and gives us the strength to overcome our weaknesses. The Holy Spirit inspires us to love more deeply, to forgive more readily, and to serve others selflessly.

Do we want to know if we are living by the Spirit? How do we know we are breathing the Holy Spirit in?

Saint Paul says that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Do we bear these fruits in our lives? Are these qualities what we breathe out to the world around us? 

If the answer is yes, then we live by the Spirit! If the answer is no, we pray: Come, Holy Spirit, breathe on us! Come, fill our hearts!