Scripture:
Acts 28:16-20, 30-31
John 21:20-25
Reflection:
There are also many other things that Jesus did,
but if these were to be described individually,
I do not think the whole world would contain the books
that would be written. -John 21:25
One of the great gifts in my life has been my involvement in a program of the Archdiocese of Chicago in the 1970s and ’80s. On the recommendation of Fr. Joe, I made my first TEC (Teens Encounter Christ) retreat weekend in 1969, where I met Penny and a whole host of others who, over the years, have become lifelong companions. Many of my Facebook contacts today are people who I met on one TEC or another. I was not a teen. I was twenty-four years old and would attend as an adult representative of the Church in Chicago.
You see, TEC retreats gathered high school seniors and adult members of the larger Chicago Church community for three days of prayer and sharing. The weekend followed the Pascal Mystery with a period of recalling Jesus’ death, life in the tomb and rising on Sunday. The adult team members would meet a couple of times beforehand, forming a community and divvying up personal witness talks of their dying, their time in the tomb and their rising.
At the first preparation meeting I attended, I introduced myself as: “Dan’s the name, paper’s the game, and the score is kept in dollars and cents.” One of those attending that meeting, Penny, thought that was an odd way of introducing myself. What did she know?
Well, it turns out, she knew quite a bit about the Christian Community. She knew first and foremost that being a follower of Jesus is not a game, nor is it about any one of us, but it is the life of all of us living in one spirit of loving, caring and sharing. There is no score keeping, winners, or losers. If we are not all winners, we are all losers.
Today, because of Penny and the many, many people I’ve met on TEC like her, I believe the Spirit is already with us when we listen to each other and come to an agreed-upon course of action, what we are calling today the synodal method. Pope Francis and it looks like now Pope Leo are encouraging us in this synodal way, listening to all, but especially to the marginalized, the poor, the hungry, the imprisoned.
God help me to recognize you as I continue one day at a time, encountering you in your people and their gifts, especially the gifts of the poor, the outcast, the lonely, the marginalized and the downtrodden. Jesus, help me come to the table, sharing all my God-given gifts, even to dying as you did.
Dan O’Donnell is a Passionist Partner and a longtime friend of the Passionists. He lives in Chicago.