Monday of the Third Week of Easter

Lectionary: 273

Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you. 
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” 

During the recent Easter Vigil a Veteran friend of mine was "sealed" in the Holy Spirit, a sacrament I have known as "Confirmation." 

The sacrament has many names and words associated with it: anointed, signed, sealed, Messiah, Christ, beloved, chosen, elect, holy, peculiar, blessed -- and on and on. The words partly explain but mostly deepen its sense of mystery. 

Pentecostalism, beginning around 1900 in the United States, spread like wildfire as they celebrated the wonder and privilege of belonging to Christ. But, inevitably, they also cheapened the blessing as they forced definitions and limitations upon it. When they required a proselyte to claim a particular feeling of enthusiasm to verify his conversion, they clipped the wings of the Spirit. They attempted to fulfill that great Americans ambition, "If we could bottle that, we'd sell it!" But there is no containing the Spirit of God.

In today's selection from Saint John, Jesus declares that "the Father God has set his seal" upon him. If he were to say otherwise he would be lying. 

He also insists that we should trust him; he will give us "food that endures for eternal life." Everything depends upon our willingness to believe and trust Jesus. 

In his "Little Office of the Passion," Saint Francis sang of Jesus:

For the Most Holy Father of heaven, our king before all ages sent his beloved son from on high and he has planted salvation in the middle of the earth. 

To be human is to trust others. From the day we're conceived until the day we die we rely on one another. Dependent as we are, we are obligated to provide the safety of the womb to every man, woman and child until they are laid in the tomb. 

This safety should include everything from courteous conversation to the sound construction of our roads, bridges and buildings. When a contractor declares he will build that public building, for instance, according to the specs he has been given, including its sturdy materials and proven methods, thousands -- perhaps millions -- of people will depend upon his word of integrity. Although the architect may include redundant security systems, he should not have to presume a builder will cheat. 

The foundation of human life is the truth. We speak it; we do it; we love it as a young man loves his bride and an old man dotes on his wife. It is always beautiful, demanding, delicious and desirable. 

Jesus is Truth Incarnate. Upon him "the Father God has set his seal." He is the middle of the earth, the core of all reality. At one time European cartographers believed that Jerusalem was the "pole" of the Earth. Spiritually, they were precisely right. Jerusalem, the Cross, the Christ: there is the center of our vision. 

"The stone rejected by the builders has become the cornerstone."