May 19, 2019: Fifth Sunday of Easter

In those remarkable early years, those in the Church had to strive to uphold the faith, even in the face of opposition.  So we in this day must keep persevering in the faith. We know that a glorious end will come, when all suffering will end, and everything will be made new, as described in the reading from Revelation 21

We are already experiencing everything made anew, for Christ has been glorified through His death and Resurrection.  He imparts His glory to us, and we see it revealed when we follow His commandment to love another in the same love He showed us in dying and rising, which was His glorification.

I think about my life of faith and how it has been made new in so many ways, ever since my baptism on the Fifth Sunday of Easter 28 years ago, and has especially been shaped significantly in the 6 years since I graduated from Valparaiso University, with experiences like teaching Religous Education, joining the Knights of Columbus, and attending World Youth Day, which I incorporated in many ways into my excursions this weekend in Washington, D.C.

I visited St. Joseph Parish, some of whose parishioners I met at World Youth Day.  I visited and prayed at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and the National Shrine of Pope St. John Paul II, two places that evoke such a strong sense of the glory of God.

It is amazing to think of how glorious it is when my faith has come alive, and the ways I have put it into action, as God has done one amazing thing after another.

So I strive on in this journey of faith toward the glorious vision God has revealed to us, even as this glory is present to us now when we live the Love He showed us so fully in the Paschal Mystery.