Rooted in Christ’s Love, We Receive Superpowers
The book of Acts is astonishingly laconic and understated with respect to geography. In just a paragraph or two, it says that Paul and Barnabas traveled from Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, Perga, Pamphylia, etc. In fact, this journey was actually an epic of over a thousand miles, across mountain ranges and over seas, and it took two years.
Yes, long ago, I did teach at Villanova, but alas, I did not meet the pope! The young pope was before my time. But all my friends and former colleagues, today they are bursting with joy. And of course more broadly – far beyond the mainline of Philadelphia - what a great ten days it’s been. We’ve been part of a collective exhale, a renewal.
At this stage, with respect to what our new pope might mean for the future, my main advice is to be careful what we read in the media and online. Human nature being what it is, you can already see different factions trying to spin Leo one way or another. My advice is: be patient, time will tell, and, whenever possible, read his own words. Let him speak for himself.
Before I taught at Villanova, I spent five years in television news. My experience is that most reporters, when it comes to religion, they don't know what they don't know. The sports guys tend to be experts in their field, but not so much the religion reporters. They reliably try to squeeze the Church into a political "liberals versus conservative" framework. There's sometimes something to that, but if that's all you can see, you will misunderstand a great deal.
For example, in one of his talks yesterday, Leo condemned "indoctrination" that stifles thinking and conscience. That part got reported. But, at the same time, Leo emphasized that conversation about "doctrine" is positive, necessary, and helpful for approaching decisions rigorously and carefully. I haven't seen anyone in the media explore this emphasis on the upside of doctrine. So, while I trust The Pillar and recommend it as the best source for Catholic news, even more do I recommend following Leo himself through the Vatican website.
Anyway, let's move on. I am sure that Leo would tell us that our most important job is to stay rooted in the Lord, to participate in the sacraments, to say our prayers and listen to scripture.
And so in that spirit, let’s turn to today’s readings.
The book of Acts is astonishingly laconic and understated with respect to geography. In just a paragraph or two, it says that Paul and Barnabas traveled from Lystra, Iconium, Antioch, Perga, Pamphylia, etc. In fact, this journey was actually an epic of over a thousand miles, across mountain ranges and over seas, and it took two years.
When you look into these different places, it gets even more interesting. Just a few verses before, on an earlier visit to Lystra, Paul was stoned and left for dead. Why was he stoned? Because he had been “speaking out boldly for the Lord.”
In other words, in today’s reading, when he returns to Lystra, he’s heading backwards on purpose, returning to work in the city where people had lynched him for being bold about the Gospel.
In today’s only direct quote from Paul and Barnabas, they say “it is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” These two men are heroes, and they’re telling us that being a Christian is going to cost us something.
How did they do it? Where did they find the energy, the courage? Our reading also says that as Paul and Barnabas travelled, they fasted and prayed. They were able to do what they did because they were centered in the Lord, because they had spiritual practices that made themselves docile in God’s hands.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus commands us: “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” Are we docile and ready to participate in divine life? Are we ready to receive this love and pass it along? What kind of love is this?
Ancient Greek, the language of this Gospel, has many words for love, capturing different shades of meaning. In Philadelphia, we know that “philia” is Greek for fraternal or friendship love. “Storge” is the Greek for spontaneous affection, say between family members. “Eros” is the aching longing of romantic love. But today, the word on Jesus’s lips is “agape,” the self-sacrificial divine love.
Today Jesus is commanding us to be like Paul and Barnabas, to receive his grace and play our part in his work. Jesus gives these words at the first Eucharist. This is the moment when Judas is outside betraying him, on the eve of his crucifixion. In this moment, when the temptation to self-defense must have been immense, Jesus is doubling down on agape love. He is saying: “I have loved and served you in a particular way…it is costing me something…but it is glorious…and if you love others in the same way, if you offer your life in the same way, I promise you, you too will share in my glory.”
If we let this love shape our lives, it’s a superpower. His love started a chain-reaction. Ignited by Jesus, this love propelled Paul and Barnabas over a thousand dangerous miles, spreading the Gospel in all those ancient Mediterranean places.
Closer to home, if we invite him to work in us, his love can transform our ordinary lives. Almost every single day presents a situation where we need grace to suffer well, or to forgive, or to persevere in a difficult relationship, or to do something sacrificial for someone else. It might be as simple as giving our attention to someone who is lonely, or as difficult as purifying our hearts and overcoming our pride. Situations where we need courage to face and live what is true rather than what is easy.
For these superpowers to flow in our veins, we have to step away from the noise, ask for grace, and direct our attention to the places where Jesus can be found. The flower will bloom if we water the roots. Remember Paul and Barnabas fasting and praying; this is what devotions and the sacraments are for. God is active and real, but for the Spirit to flow, we need to cultivate our hearts intentionally.
We’re about to receive the Eucharist, and the Eucharist is becoming as intimate as possible with Jesus. The sacraments, when we receive them with open hearts, are seeds of renewal, the source of our superpowers. As we receive the body of Christ, let’s pray for the grace to live Jesus in our everyday lives.
You can read Pope Leo XIV's speeches at this link. Yesterday he said, "In the context of the ongoing digital revolution, we must rediscover, emphasize and cultivate our duty to train others in critical thinking, countering temptations to the contrary, which can also be found in ecclesial circles. There is so little dialogue around us; shouting often replaces it, not infrequently in the form of fake news and irrational arguments proposed by a few loud voices."
