Faith

Second day of the mission by Father Roger Keeler

What does it mean to be friends of Jesus? We get to know Him and build a relationship with Jesus. In doing so, we renew our enthusiasm for our faith. We share our stories and experiences of Jesus with others. In this context, it is more about the witness than the teacher. We are to be witnesses of and for Jesus Christ.

Jesus doesn't promise us a life free of death and suffering, but He does promise He will be with us always. He is with us in the Paschal mystery, the process by which we share in the body and blood of Christ in the Holy Mass. Father Keeler talked about death, terminal death, which is death to our earthly life. Paschal death is our dying as a grain of wheat; we change in our dying to our old selves and coming to a new life in Him. The Paschal mystery is the process of transformation from our old selves to a new person in Christ, to be reborn in Him. Father Keeler also took us from Good Friday's loss of life, to Easter Sunday's new life in the Resurrection, and the 40 days of adjustment to the risen Jesus to the Pentecost where new life was given to the apostles so they could go out into the world evangelizing.

Father Keeler talked about growing old gracefully, naming our deaths and claiming our rebirths; he said we should let go of earthly things and accept Jesus into our lives in the Paschal mystery, the Eucharist. The bread being brought to the table is you and me: in our paschal dying, we are carried by the community to the table as gift to God, sacramental gifts. This is what makes us one with each other and with God.

St. Augustine once said that we are what we eat; therefore, when we consume Jesus, we become Christ. What a heavy responsibility!