Daily Reflection Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter

Peter and John have been filled with the Holy Spirit. This energy enables them to preach the Good News in the public square and on the steps of the Temple to anyone who will listen. In addition, these disciples of Jesus continue to spread the good news because they have the support of the community of believers. They preach the power of the Word. Once this power is loosened on the world, it cannot be reclaimed. 
 
    We hear repeated the good news that John himself relates in today’s gospel. God’s unconditional love for us is the gift of Jesus, the light to the world. With any invitation to love—especially God’s personal one—there needs to be a response. We, too, have that energy, that spirit within us. Those gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit that we received in Baptism and Confirmation energize us. They not only open our hearts and deepen our love for the Divine. Like Peter and John, we are sent forth to spread and deepen this divine energy in our daily lives.
 
    Today’s Scripture readings encourage us to go within ourselves and review those natural gifts that God has enriched each of us. What talents has God given us to love and grow ourselves, as well as to share with others and help them mirror good? Albert Einstein once said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid.” Ah! Lesson One: We refrain from negatively judging ourselves and anybody else on the basis of what we cannot do! Lesson Two: In our conversations with the God who loves us unconditionally, we search for ways to use our gifts as a light to the world.
 
    Peter and John preach that the power of the Word has been loosed on the world. This power cannot be reclaimed. God’s Son was given to us, so that we could give him away again and again. Let us spend some time today in heart- to- heart dialogue with our God. How can we use our natural and spiritual gifts to deepen our love for ourselves, to be attentive to the needs of other people, and to be in awe of the risen Jesus?