Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • April 20, 2018 5 1260 Ocean Springs Road, Ocean Springs, MS 39564 Ph: 228-818-0650 For more information, contact Jody Ellis Stoddard, Executive Director or email her at gardensED@BlueHarborSL.com Web Address: www.gardensseniorliving.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheGardensSeniorLivingOceanSprings 9274 Hwy 49/Airport Gulfport, MS 39503 228-863-5525 1-800-880-2446 FAX: 228-863-9612 www.butchoustalet.com In 1941 Father Maximilian Kolbe was in a line-up of prisoners in the Auschwitz concentration camp when the Camp commander randomly selected ten prisoners to be stripped naked and put into the “block of death,” in total darkness, to begin the slow process of death by starvation. The selection of Sergeant Francis Gajowniczek, a man with a wife and children so moved Father Kolbe with love and pity that he boldly stepped forward asking to take the man’s place -- his request was granted. Where the guards outside the starvation bunker were accustomed to hearing screams of anguish day and night until death came, instead, with this group of ten, they heard singing and praying. By the evening of the Assumption four men were still alive. The jailer finally injected Father Kolbe with a hypodermic needle that killed him. Saint Maximilian Kolbe’s death was not a sudden, last minute act of heroism, he had prepared for it his whole life. Ordained at the age of 24, he saw religious indifference as the deadliest poison of his day. His mission was to combat it with the witness of love, prayer, work and suffering. Acts of the Apostles tells the story of disciples bearing witness to Jesus through preaching, teaching, healing, sacramental ministry and, of course, martyrdom. Today’s reading finds Peter being interrogated for healing a crippled man by the power of the name of Jesus. The plot thickens when he puts the blame for Jesus’ crucifixion squarely on the shoulders of his interrogators. “We are being examined about a good deed done to a cripple, namely by what means he was saved, in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead.” This is the central truth of apostolic preaching that everyone needs to hear. Simply stated, Jesus, by rising from the dead, conquered sin and death and there is no salvation through anyone else. That pattern of witness and mission endures today with saints and disciples still laying down their lives as did the Master. How can you and I continue the legacy? Granted, martyrdom is not for everyone, but discipleship certainly is. We can examine areas of our lives where held beliefs and practices are at odds with Christ’s life, love, and gospel imperatives, and begin by conforming our ways to his. Archbishop Chaput (author of Render Unto Caesar -- a must read) in a more recent book “A HEART ON FIRE -- Catholic Witness and the Next America,” writes, “How did we get from the America where on Sundays the commercial and industrial life of the nation seemed suspended in piety and all noise ceased, to the America where we are the galley slaves of pleasure, an America of excessive consumption and confused sexuality where the intention was to produce freedom but the result our unlimited appetite for s e l f - s a t i s f a c t i o n regardless of the consequences? Too many people who claim to be Christian simply don’t know Jesus Christ. They don’t really believe in the Gospel. They may keep their religion for comfort value, or may adjust it to fit their doubts, but it doesn’t reshape their lives and has no transforming effect on their personal behavior. What can believers do? We make the future, not the other way around. If we do not know and love Jesus Christ, and commit our lives to him, and act on what we claim to believe, everything else is empty, but if we do, so much else is possible, including the conversion of the world around us. A genuine Catholic life should feed the soul as well as the mind; should offer a vision of men and women made whole by the love of God, the knowledge of creation, and the reality of things unseen; should allow us to see the beauty of the world in the light of eternity; and should help us recapture the nobility of the human story and the dignity of the human person. This is the kind of witness that sets fire to the human heart. It starts the only revolution that really changes anything: a revolution of love.” Jesus was called a blasphemer and crucified for declaring himself the Son of God. His critics were anxious to get rid of him but those who deeply loved him did not want him to go. He never separated his words from his deeds and caused a revolution of love by willingly laying down his life. “I am the Good Shepherd. AGood Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). For Jesus’ original audience these words stirred memory of past actions that birthed faith and brought glory to a nation. Heart wrenching stories of how David, a shepherd boy, stood firm in defeating a lion or bear coming to devour one of the sheep from his father’s flock, and how he saved their ancestors from annihilation by defeating the giant Goliath and the Philistine nation in a crucial battle (1 Samuel 17:1-37). And now, from the house of David, comes Jesus, the Good (ideal) Shepherd. Unlike the self-absorbed shepherds of Ezekiel 34 and those first-century rulers he called “blind guides” (Matthew 23:16). Jesus acts with unselfish, revolutionary love to liberate his people, by freely giving his life. Resurrection victory triumphed not just 2000 years ago, but for all time. The same Christ lives today in the hearts of disciples with zeal for witnessing to his outrageous love and saving power. What opportunities do you see to bring healing and salvation to those within the circle of your influence? Deacon Ralph Torrelli lives in Hattiesburg and is assigned to St. Thomas Aquinas Parish. Visit his website: www.homi- lypearls.com. 1st Reading: Acts of the Apostles 4:8-12 Responsorial Psalm: 118:1, 8-9, 21-23, 26, 28, 29 2nd Reading: 1 John 3:1-2 Gospel: John 10:11-18 Fourth Sunday of Easter Love revolution Deacon Torrell i Sunday Scripture Commentaries