Friday of the Seventh Week of Easter

In today’s reading Festus doesn’t quite know what to do with Paul. Paul doesn’t fit into any of the categories that Festus is familiar with. I think that is what being a Catholic really is, not fitting into what the world thinks you should be. A large part of who we are as a community is our commitment to social justice. That view point is not always something the rest of the world understands, or want’s to hear about. We cause problems by speaking out against abortion, we make people uncomfortable by saying it’s not ok. We upset people by saying we need to support reforms helping immigrants. It’s usually ok to help the poor, but when we start demanding rights and fair treatment for them, we find that we’re not so popular. We cannot become discouraged however. We must live as Paul did because that is what we are called to do. At times it might be hard and scary, but it is through our devotion to the Church that we are called to be followers of Christ exactly like Paul. This passage is a true example of the Beatitude of, “blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Peter Dellatore