Simply overwhelming

What can we say about the Good News as we reflect on the texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary? These texts are being proclaimed today to hundreds of thousands gathered around St Peter’s Basilica to be witness to the canonization of two popes. This gathering is set among magnificent surroundings and a gathering of many in ceremonial attire. The pictures from Rome also show the catholic or universal quality of the people assembled. The day and our tradition gives us some cognitive dissonance to contemplate. Simplicity is the quality of the community life of the early Christians described by Luke in the text from the Acts of the Apostles.

Our pomp and ceremony in the square of St Peter is in praise of God through ancient liturgy which stirs our being to attend to the moments of grace we know from God. Friar Jude Winkler comments on the amount of “Lukan exaggeration” there may have been in the idyllic description in the Book of Acts. Deacon Keith Fournier writes in Catholic Online about the deep understanding of Pope John Paul II, expressed at the canonization of Sister Mary Faustina Kowalski, about the mercy and love which is Jesus Good News for the world. Robert P. Heaney reflects on our tendency or need to over complicate the Good News. The proclamation of Thomas described by John in the Gospel “My Lord and my God” as he encounters the physical wounds of Jesus point to the Presence of Jesus in suffering Himself and in the suffering of the many of our brothers and sisters in the world. The simple Truth that the Love, Mercy and forgiveness of God is given unconditionally and that we are already recipients of that grace at the initiation of God is difficult for people who see paying for and earning as necessary steps to create value. Our faith is that we are surrounded by Divine Mercy and our senses need to be attuned to see and hear the evidence of this in the real Body of Christ of which hundreds of thousands are gathered today in Rome.