Sixth Sunday of Easter, Cycle A May 17, 2020

First Reading
Acts of the Apostles 8:5-8,14-17
The people of Samaria accept the Gospel of Jesus proclaimed to them by Philip.

Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 66:1-7,16,20
Sing praise to God, all the earth.

Second Reading
1 Peter 3:15-18
Be ready to give explanation for your hope in Christ.

Gospel Reading
John 14:15-21
Jesus promises his disciples that he will send them another advocate, the Spirit of truth.


Gospel JN 14:15-21

Jesus said to his disciples:
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
And I will ask the Father,
and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always,
the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept,
because it neither sees nor knows him.

But you know him, because he remains with you,
and will be in you.
I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me,
but you will see me, because I live and you will live.

On that day you will realize that I am in my Father
and you are in me and I in you.
Whoever has my commandments and observes them
is the one who loves me.
And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I will love him and reveal myself to him.” 


Background on the Gospel Reading

Today’s Gospel is a continuation of last week’s Gospel: Jesus is speaking to his disciples at the Last Supper. In today’s reading Jesus offers encouragement to his disciples, who will soon see him crucified. He reassures them that even though he will leave them, he will not abandon them. Instead he will send them the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, through whom the disciples will continue to live in union with Jesus.

Jesus uses the term Advocate to describe the Holy Spirit, whom the disciples will receive. Another word used to describe the Holy Spirit is Paraclete, a legal term meaning “one who offers defense for another.” Note that Jesus says that he will send “another Advocate.” Jesus himself is the first advocate, interceding for his disciples with the Father.

In today’s reading Jesus contrasts his impending departure with the permanence of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus will leave to return to the Father, but the Holy Spirit will remain with the disciples.

Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, the disciples will come to know and appreciate the unity of the Son and the Father. They will also understand that they too participate in the communion between the Father and the Son: “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you” (John 14:20).

Today’s reading is one example of the contrast that John’s Gospel presents between the community of disciples, to whom God will reveal himself, and the unbelieving world, which will remain in darkness. The unbelieving world cannot accept the “Spirit of truth,” whom the disciples will receive. Only through the Spirit will God’s revelation and love be known.


Family Connection

The mystery of the Trinity can be difficult for us to grasp. Today’s Gospel invites us to consider how the three persons—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit— work together so that God’s salvation is made known to us. Jesus’ mission is continued through the activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of his disciples. We have received this same Spirit through our Baptisms. The Spirit, living and working within us, reveals the mystery of God’s love for us. Just as the first disciples were not left orphaned, we are not orphaned; we remain in God’s embrace through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Gather your family and invite each family member to say what he or she knows about the Holy Spirit. Read aloud today’s Gospel, John 14:15-21. What does Jesus say the Holy Spirit will do for the disciples? Through the gift of the Holy Spirit, we come to share in the love of God made known to us in Jesus. Pray together, thanking God for this gift of the Holy Spirit by praying the Prayer to the Holy Spirit.


Sources: Loyola Press; Sunday Readings

Youtube Censors PRI Investigative Video

source

By Colin Mason
7/2/2008

Population Research Institute (www.pop.org)

Front Royal, VA, 07/02/08—YouTube.com, in what the Population Research Institute (PRI) is calling a case of blatant censorship, has removed a video from its website for the sole reason that it criticizes a pro-abortion journalist.

The video, edited and posted by the Catholic News Agency, shows PRI affiliate Carlos Polo in conversation with pro-abortion activist Eve Reinhardt. Reinhardt had obtained an interview with Polo by assuring him that she was impartial and balanced. Polo, however, discovered that she was affiliated very closely with a hard-left, pro-abortion documentary project, entitled The Decency Gap. Polo brought his own cameraman to the interview and confronted Reinhardt, accusing her of deliberately misleading him.

Shortly after this video was posted, the website for The Decency Gap vanished, and the video was taken down by YouTube. YouTube cited vague “terms of use violations” as their reason for censoring the video.

“As the editor of a news agency that strives to provide people around the world the truth about the Catholic Church and issues of concern to Catholics, I find it frustrating that The Decency Gap project is able to convince YouTube to remove a factual video without any explanation,” David Uebbing, executive editor of the Catholic News Agency told PRI.

“None of the information provided in the video has been contradicted by The Decency Gap,” he continued. “Additionally, the project’s links to the International Planned Parenthood Federation, Marie Stopes International, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the Peruvian pro-abortion association PROMSEX have not been disproven.”

According to Uebbing, censorship of this kind is nothing new on YouTube. He points to the example of a video posted by American Life League, which was taken down for supposedly “inappropriate content.” This video criticized clips from two online Planned Parenthood ads. But while YouTube removed ALL’s video, it left the original Planned Parenthood ads online.

Catholic News Agency has since reposted the video, labeling it “The Decency Gap / Eve Reinhardt Censored Version,” as well as posting a version on Google Video as well. The video can be found here.

"Stop censoring people with whom you disagree," PRI President Steve Mosher told YouTube. "This is America, not the People's Republic of China."

###

The Population Research Institute (PRI) was founded in 1989 by Fr. Paul Marx, OSB, PhD and is dedicated to: (1) ending human rights abuses committed in the name of "family planning", (2) opposing outdated social and economic paradigms premised on the myth of overpopulation, (3) informing the public about the social and economic benefits of moderate population growth, and (4) promoting pro-natal and pro-family attitudes and policies worldwide. Steven Mosher is the author of numerous books, including A Mother's Ordeal.

- - -

PRI is a 501(c)(3) educational organization. We work to reverse the trends brought about by the myth of overpopulation. Our growing, global network of pro-life groups spans over 30 countries. To date, we have successfully eliminated $750 million in U.S. tax dollars to population control groups or programs.

Put A Condom On Greed - 2nd of 2 parts

GLIMPSES
Jose Ma. Montelibano

2nd of 2 parts

continued from yesterday....

Pro choice advocates who appear so tough against the Church's stand on population control claim so much concern for the quality of life of poor families with many children but so muted and meek against the purveyors of corruption which caused poverty in the first place and continues to deepen the suffering of the poor today. Their deafening silence against the agents of corruption make their claim of concern for the poor almost comical.

I do not know whether to laugh or to cry at the hypocrisy being foisted on us. They are all leaders of Filipinos, officers of the State, shepherds of the Church. How can they be so blind, or so deceptive? How can they be less than courageous, less than honest, even when they each try to call our attention and ask for our support for their respective positions? Why can they not break an ugly pattern of centuries, confess to their victims how their corruption brought a rich land and a gifted people to their knees to wallow in poverty?

The poor are not animals in a breeding program, but they end up as such because they are treated as though they are. Their choices, pro or anti, are uninformed because of their level of awareness and understanding. Worse, though, is their level of freedom - which is just slightly better than the carabaos being tested in breding programs. Carabaos, at least, are ensured that their masters will look for the land, the food and the bath they need.

On the other hand, the poor are driven to where they cannot be seen, heard or smelled. The poor are sacrificed to the altar calamities which lessen their numbers more effectively in proportion versus natural family planning of artificial contraceptives. Those who want to engage in population control should just hope that more disasters like floods, typhoons, landslides, earthquakes, fire, sinking ships, and bloody conflicts visit the Philippines.

This is a time for courage, not debate. This is a time when the poor must be attended to and relieved of their fears and hunger. This is a time when conflict among the rich and powerful, including the Catholic Church, directly hurts the poor in their most vulnerable moment. We gripe about the effects of fuel and rice prices, but the poor actually cringe from hunger and fear at a deeper level.

Let us not quibble about what they do in bed; rather, let us give them a bedroom. Let us not quibble about contraceptives or family planning methods to lessen their number of children, rather, let us put condoms over greed and the exploitation of the more powerful and wealthy. And for us who are neither the poorest of the poor or powerful like the Congress or the Church, let us overcome our own reluctance, our attachment to comfort, cross over to the wrong side of the fence, embrace the poor as our own brothers and sisters, and walk with them to freedom and well-being. ***

--
GLIMPSES
"In bayanihan, we will be our brother's keeper and forever shut the door to hunger among ourselves."

Put A Condom On Greed - 1st of 2 parts

GLIMPSES

Jose Ma. Montelibano

1st of 2 parts

I cannot believe how former partners in the exploitation of land and people can suddenly turn on each other over reproductive and population control issues but deftly avoid their common guilt. I cannot believe how bishops and politicians can touch on how the poor should behave in their reproductive practices but veer away on the undisputed cause of poverty.

In previous articles, I have twitted the protagonists on the pro-life versus pro-choice controversy that they skirmish on the less essentials in order to distract themselves, and the people, from the most essential. One points to how the bigger number of children aggravate the poverty situation and the hardship of the poor families affected. The other points to fundamental religious tenets about the primacy of life, including the rights of the unborn. Both have valid points, but both remain afraid to do battle against the single biggest cause for what pro choice and pro life condemn.

Population does not cause poverty. A bigger family size can aggravate the suffering of poor families, but poverty also causes a bigger family size. The justification of the loudest pro choice advocates in Congress, and in legislative bodies of towns and cities, in calling for all types of birth control methods, products and devices is poverty. Yet, they are strangely quiet on the only proven cause for the ugliness and massiveness of poverty in the Philippines - corruption.

The Church suddenly finds the courage to challenge some representatives of the States. It called for Catholics to show their support for the pro life stance in a prayer rally which generated 10 -12 thousand instead of 1 - 2 million. And among the embarrassing number of Catholics who joined the pro life gatheri8ng in the University of Santo Tomas, the poor were not present, not even when they were the ones the Church tried to protect the most from the evil of artificial birth control. Perhaps, the poor were trying to tell the Church that they wanted to be protected from greed and exploitation, not condoms.

Just earlier this year, the Church finally articulated what ordinary Catholics and Filipino citizens have long been talking about - the cancer of corruption. After doing so, however, the newfound courage quickly retreated and could not lead the victims of corruption, or the whole Christendom of the Philippines, to an effective initiative against the most public of agents of corruption. Instead, it chose to hide behind the principle of separation of Church and State to wash its hands from having to be the righteous David to the corrupt Goliath. But condoms managed to make the same religious hierarchy shriek in dismay and anger, then call on catholics to do the same.

Who is right - pro life or pro choice? It is difficult to assess as advocates of both have shrank in credibility. Pro life Catholics have tolerated, maybe even participated, in corruption. Corruption has caused our poverty, and poverty has demeaned life that is and not just life that is yet to be. When pro life advocates led by the Church in the Philippines are seen as inutile or unconcerned in the active protection of the poor, their words or claim to being pro life rings hollow, even hypocritical. And because they are not that credible, even the message they give lack credibility.

to be continued tomorrow.......
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GLIMPSES

"In bayanihan, we will be our brother's keeper and forever shut the door to hunger among ourselves."

Faithful Gather to View Mystic Italian Saint Padre Pio's Remains

SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO, Italy  —  The body of Padre Pio, a hugely popular 20th century Italian saint, went on public display Thursday in a southern Italian town where thousands gathered to pray.

Padre Pio, who died in 1968 at age 81, was a mystic monk who many Catholic faithful believe bore "stigmata," or wounds like those Jesus suffered at his crucifixion, on his hands and feet. He was made a saint in 2002.

Read on this site:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,352408,00.html

The Gospel of the UP chapel

Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 08:23:00 07/01/2008

(EDITOR'S NOTE: The Catholic chapel on the UP Diliman campus, officially named the Church of the Holy Sacrifice, is a modern, circular, open structure. It has been declared a National Historical Landmark and designated an Important Cultural Property by the National Museum. Much has been written about this place of worship, but trust an Atenista to present it in the context of how we should live our lives.)

Onofre Pagsanghan, a.k.a. Mr. Pagsi, the superstar teacher at the Ateneo high school, likes to use the UP chapel to illustrate what he learned from the man he considers his greatest teacher, Fr. John Patrick Delaney, S.J., under whose watch and spiritual guidance, as UP chaplain from the late 1940s through the mid-1950s, the chapel was built.

The altar is in the middle of the dome-shaped chapel.

The UP chapel altar answers the question Fr. Delaney often asked of people: What do you put in the center of your life?

When I talk to value education teachers, I ask them to list down 10 things they want to do with their lives. It is a list that is meant for their eyes and God's eyes only, not to impress others. After maybe 10 minutes, I ask them to stop writing and look over their lists.

How many of you think you can accomplish all those 10 things, I ask. Two or three hands go up. All right, 10 may be too many so cross out five things from the list. Which ones do you cross out and which ones remain? Then I ask how many of them think they can accomplish the five things on their lists. Four or five people raise their hands. Cross out two more, I say. More hands go up when I ask how many think the three things on their lists are doable, but still not all hands. All right, I tell them, cross out two more and leave just one.

That one item is your core value. It is what's in your heart, the very thing that governs your life. Let it be the one criterion by which you live your life. What is the most important thing for you? What is in the center of your life?

As Fr. Delaney used to say, "What is truly valuable is what lasts. Aim for the hardest and the best because, almost always, the hardest is the best and the best is the hardest."

There are doorways but no doors.

I can just hear Fr. Delaney saying, "I want a chapel that reflects the God I love and the God who loves me." He used to always say, "God is open 24 hours a day."

Outside his anteroom there was a simple, poorly made poster that delivered the same message: "Nobody ever says no."

The man practiced what he preached. He never said no. He was my idol. If I had a tough decision to make, I would go see him. At 8 p.m., there would still be people waiting to see him in his office. Sometimes it would be 10 p.m. before I got my turn to see him and, at that late hour, Fr. Delaney willingly gave me as much time as I needed, even though he knew there were still three or four people waiting outside to see him. That was the Delaney I idolized. He always made time for everyone. Maybe that's why he died at a young age. (Fr. Delaney celebrated only one Mass in the UP Chapel, the Christmas Eve Mass. He died in 1956 at the age of 50.)

There are four National Artists represented in the chapel.

When I take my students to the UP chapel on Holy Thursday, they notice the altar in the middle and the open architecture, but what make their jaws drop are the 15 Stations of the Cross murals by Vicente Manansala. I ask them how come their eyes widen when you say Manansala. "Sir, he's a National Artist (visual arts)," they say.

These are bright boys (Mr. Pagsi teaches the first year high school honors class in the Ateneo). They know you cannot own an original Manansala without paying a huge amount of money. Well, I say, Manansala is not the only National Artist who is represented here. Look at the floor (mosaic mural called "The River of Life"). It is by Arturo Luz, National Artist for visual arts. Look at the roof. It is by Leandro Locsin, National Artist for architecture. Look at the cross, it is by Napoleon Abueva, National Artist for visual arts (so is the marble altar).

What is the lesson here? Each of these men was not a National Artist when he was asked by Fr. Delaney to work on this chapel. Each was an artist struggling to make a name for himself. Fr. Delaney could spot genius. He was able to bring out the best in people. The best, not the beast. And that's what makes a good leader, a good teacher, a good boss.

That's why in my talks, I always say, "Love your students to excellence. Love your employees to excellence. Love your children to excellence."

The Christ on the crucifix has disproportionate hands.

People who look at the crucifix may think there is something wrong with the hands of Jesus. As one of my students put it, the National Artist Napoleon Abueva doesn't know anatomy. But the UP Chapel crucifix is not a lesson in anatomy. It is a lesson in how God loves you.

I can just hear Fr. Delaney saying to Abueva, "Carve me a Christ who is not only man but is God. Go ahead, distort the hands. Extend the arms beyond beyond because that's how much God loves us."

And that's what the artist did. The hands are spread outward, open to all-the somebody and the nobody, the billionaire and the pauper, the virginal and the prostitute, the guy who has a PhD after his name and the guy who is unlettered. Tanggap ka kahit ano ka-babae, lalaki, bakla, tomboy-lahat kayo tanggap.

I ask myself as a teacher, do I have favorites among my students? If Christ was standing in this classroom instead of me, who would his favorites be?

One boy dares to answer my question, "Sir, the 3 Ls. The lost, the least and the last." The lost sheep-the prodigal son; the least-the poor, the deaf, yung leproso; the last-the worker who comes in on the 11th hour and gets paid the same pay.

We cannot choose the people who come into our lives, but we can choose
how to treat them.