There are a couple of different ways to look at our desire for more. In the physical part of our ONE world, the desire for more fuels a consumer mentality. It is often essential to marketing and sales efforts that drive the consumer products of our world. These efforts are almost always based on inspiring people to purchase more. Our desire for bigger, better, faster, easier often makes us more efficient, but can also put us on a path to ultimate UNsatisfaction. Is anything perfect in life? No. Were we created as perfect humans? No. Will our consumptive drives for more ‘stuff’ ultimately make us perfectly happy? No. Will we ever have enough in the physical world? No.
Psalm 62, written by David centuries ago, tells us, “Only in God will my soul be at rest.” St. Augustine paraphrased the psalm in the fifth century by saying, “My soul is restless until it rests in God.” These two statements usher us into the more of this world as we know it – into eternal life. Reflecting on it is a profound spiritual exercise.
Our readings this weekend invite us to reflect on the spiritual more that is very much at work in THIS world. The spiritual more of this world is always available to us. We can experience more spiritually again and again and again. We can ALWAYS learn MORE about God’s love and forgiveness. The physical more will eventually run out. The spiritual more is limitless.
In our first reading this weekend we hear from the Acts of the Apostles that being baptized is not enough. There is MORE to the Christian identity, and those seeking it received a laying on of hands from Peter and John in Samaria. Baptism alone wasn’t good enough. They needed the more of the Holy Spirit.
In the second reading from Peter, we are reminded of the more of Christ’s suffering that leads to life in the spirit. Hope and faith are key ingredients to the passage into more. This week’s passage from the Gospel of John continues a long discourse during the last supper, and it tells us that Jesus is promising that he will ask God to send us the Holy Spirit, which is a spirit of truth. He acknowledges that the world (at that time) did not even recognize that Spirit (how much do we recognize it now?), but he also promises that when the day comes (has it?) when we do realize the sanctity of the Holy Spirit, we will do so by recognizing that Jesus is in the Father, we are in Jesus and he in us, and whoever loves him will be loved by God, and he will reveal himself to us. All of this being a manifestation of the MORE of the God we call Trinity – three persons – one God.
The spiritual more is a key underpinning for the Trinity itself. The world needed more – so the first person of the Trinity created. That same world raised by human creation needed more, so God sent us Jesus. The human community, through Christ and the Church, needed more, so we have the Holy Spirit. The people asked for more, so God gave us the gift of the Messiah. We didn’t realize what we were asking for; we just knew there was more. God sent us Jesus as one like us, but he was and is MORE. Jesus is the human raised up. We all are raised up at moments because we become more with God’s help. It is the divine in us. Jesus came into the world, suffered, died and rose, but he knew that we would need more. But also, don’t misunderstand me, the physical more is important as well. In health, fitness and competition we can become more for a certain period of our young and middle aged lives, but we ultimately decline physically. It is a fact of life.
So he commissioned disciples to baptize in the name of more. We see this clearly in the blessing gesture as we call down the Holy Spirit to make things and people more, bread more – the Body of Christ – wine more – the Blood of Christ. US – more.
Congratulations to two women from Holy Family who have recently been acknowledged for their service. Linda Yamamoto was honored as Woman of the Year for Deanery D of the Archdiocese of Chicago for the National Council of Catholic Women at Cotillion Banquets in Palatine on May 3.
Sue Geegan, our Director of Human Concerns, was also honored as Woman of the Year by JOURNEYS | The Road Home for her extraordinary efforts in assisting families in need over the past 16 years. Congratulations to both Linda and Sue!
We welcome Fr. Jack Wall from Catholic Extension Society to Holy Family on Sunday, June 4 during the 9:00am Mass. We will present Fr. Wall with our very generous $90,000 gift for San Miguel de los Banos parish in Cuba as a result of our Lenten Social Justice Project. Once again, thanks for your unbelievable generosity.
I would like to remind all of you that our Sunday evening Mass will REMAIN AT 4:00pm throughout the summer months. No 6:00pm Mass this summer. All Sunday evening Masses will be at 4:00pm.
I would also like to remind ALL Eucharistic Ministers to serve regularly at Mass. We are often in need of EM’s at the beginning of Mass, and often after Mass begins. Thanks for your ministry and service.