God is love, and He loves us far more than we will ever comprehend, far more even than we can love each other or our own children (and that's a lot).

Fr. Dave reminds us that every time we receive Holy Communion, no matter what age we are, Jesus is saying directly to each of us: "Everything's okay, because I am with you." 

More than a few of us are likely often tempted to ask the Lord if He's really there. While He isn't likely to appear to us as He did with the apostles, you can be assured that He is calling out to each and every one of us. Take your doubt to Jesus and begin a conversation with Him. Just as He did with Thomas, He'll meet us where we are at any given time - even (and perhaps especially) in our doubt and unbelief.

To be Eastered means that we accept and expect that our lives will have frustrations, setbacks, difficulties, and loss - along with many rich blessings - and that we accept and expect that we won't be exempted from any of that, any more than Jesus Himself wasn't exempted from that. That means that we must learn to live with the unknown and what we don't understand, trusting in God that He is actively present in the midst of everything that happens in our lives, the good stuff and the bad. Because of the Resurrection, it is our conviction that God's doors are never shut to us; that His mercy is never exhausted; that He always gives us another chance; that He will never, ever give up on us or on our world.

Think about some aspect of your life, or that of someone you are close to, that you would like Jesus - who intimately understands pain and suffering - to bring His light love to. It was His suffering and dying on the cross, and, ultimately, His resurrection, that transforms our experiences from being meaningless to being redemptive. And that's why, every year, we celebrate this particular Friday as "Good."

We all have parts of our life, of our personality, maybe even of our physical body, that reek, that we don’t like, that embarrass us, shame us, that we shield with anger or pride or defensiveness or other strategies. What the Lord shows to Peter - and to each of us, too - is that we don’t have to hide these things from Him. He didn’t come for the perfect; He works with who we are. And if we accept His mercy, His humble tending of our soul, we’ll find ourselves changing and our future opening up in ways we could never have expected.

As part of our daily prayer this Holy Week (and beyond!), let's pray that we can imitate Jesus and be the kind of filter that filters out the negativity and brings only kindness, thoughtfulness, compassion, graciousness, and forgiveness. Let's pray that the Holy Spirit will do that work within us, so that we, the whole community of us, can go out and change this world one encounter at a time - the same way Jesus did.

What do we do with our loved ones whose lives are out of step with the Church? We love them; listen to them; accompany them. Share with them our own struggles and convictions. We keep them connected to Jesus through our love and prayers so that His grace can work in their lives. We can support those we love without celebrating every choice they make.
As difficult and uncomfortable as it might be, our call is to receive and to trust God; to create space in which His grace can work. We're speaking here about persons, not policies; Church teaching does matter. But love obeys the law of gradualness. Few of us reach the ideal to which we’re called all at once, whatever the virtue, and our culture only makes that harder, particularly in the area of sexuality.