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May 9, 2025Acts 9:1-20Jn 6:52-59III Easter Friday5/9/25
I was on my way to New Orleans to have lunch with another friar when my phone started to go crazy with notifications—white smoke! I quickly (but carefully) used the voice feature to turn on the live streaming for the rest of my trip to St. Anthony’s—another 40 min. drive. I had enough time to get to the house and watch Pope Leo XIV greet the world for the first time as the Roman Pontiff and give his first blessing Urbi et Orbi—"to the city and to the world.”
Ever since, the internet is trying to find out who Robert Cardinal Prevost is, where he came from, what kind of family he grew up in, is he a Cubs fan or a White Sox fan?—a Sox fan. In the days leading up to the announcement, there was something in the Church that we don’t like to feel:uncertainty. Is he going to be like Pope Francis, or is he going to do something completely different? His first appearance (much like a first impression) said much with little: his respect for tradition and his care for the fringes of the world by highlighting a small diocese in Peru; a scripted address and words from the heart; and, most importantly to me, I could sense clear authenticity: he wasn’t trying to prove himself as a liberal or conservative, as American or Italian, as intelligent or charismatic, as following or breaking from Pope Francis. He is a spiritual father as only Leo XIV can be. And that’s what the Church needs.
But the speculations remain, and it turns out that he has deep roots in NOLA! That his mother was a great cook, so he met several priests b/c they’d go to her house for meals! I think we sometimes underestimate how and where the Lord can work in the lives of each of us. A guy born in Chicago, who worked in St. Louis, studied at Villanova, was bishop in Peru, educated by Dominicans in Rome, from a mixed Hispanic American family. And he became the pope! There is no secret formula!
Well, there is. Jesus gave it to Nicodemus: The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit. That is the secret formula: to let the Holy Spirit guide each of us, as the Cardinal Electors were led to choose Cardinal Prevost, guided by the same Holy Spirit. We do not know where the wind blows or where it’s going; sometimes we hear something crazy like, Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. No wonder the Jews questioned! How can this man give us his Flesh to eat? It’s okay to wonder why it is this way, but faith will guide us to Communion with God in the Lord’s Body & Blood
We don’t know where the Lord is taking each of us—and that’s okay b/c we know that He is with us b/c we are born of the Spirit. The same Spirit led Bob Prevost to become Fr. Prevost, then Cardinal Prevost, and now Leo XIV. I don’t know his life nor his sins (and I don’t need to) b/c I trust the Spirit. I want each of us to have the same trust in the Holy Spirit—each of us gathered here. We must remain in Communion with God. Whoever eats my Flesh and drinks my Blood remains in me and I in him. That’s the means for how we remain in Communion with God, guided by the Spirit, even when we feel uncomfortable by uncertainty. The Lord says, I am with you.
Universal Prayer- For Pope Leo XIV, may the Lord preserve him, give him a long life, make him blessed upon the earth, and not hand him over to the power of his enemies.
- For those who have renounced their Catholic faith, that the joy of the Gospel and the radical witness of faithful Catholics may guide them to listen to the Holy Spirit.
- For those who suffer under persecution b/c of war, terrorism, and abusive relationships, that the peace of Christ reign in their hearts.
- For the assembly gathered at Christ’s Altar here today, that we may become greater listeners to the Holy Spirit in our lives.