Memorial of St John Neumann, Bishop

January 5, 2022

by Judith Schiavo

“This is how we know we remain in him and he in us,
that he has given us of his Spirit.”—1 John 4

     How often after Jesus has socialized and ministered to the people, he goes off by himself: “And when he had taken leave of them, he went off to the mountain to pray.” (Mark 6) Jesus is human; he gets tired and hungry. His humanity does not know the future. He has difficulty figuring out how and why people act as they do. So, Jesus needs to spend time alone and in conversation with his Father. Like us Jesus seeks understanding of human nature with its gifts and foibles. He climbs the mountain and is sandwiched between meeting with the 5,000 people and his disciples. Mark tells us that his disciples do not understand the miracle of the loaves or Jesus’ walking on water. “Their hearts were hardened.”
     So, what does harden our hearts? …. Allowing healthy self-love to degenerate into selfishness; embellishing vanity for God-given natural gifts instead of using them in service of others; wallowing in ignorance of the good characteristics of people from different races, faith traditions, nationalities, and sexual orientations instead of understanding and befriending them.
      God is love; therefore, Jesus is love. As a human like us, Jesus struggles to understand people with their differences, sins, and virtues. He spends time with his followers to show them the meaning of understanding, choosing right over wrong, accepting other people and their cultures—no matter how different. Jesus lives Psalm 72 by endearing himself to the economically, intellectually, and spiritually poor.
     Today we commemorate the feast of the Redemptorist missionary, St. John Neumann. In the nineteenth century, God called him out of his comfort zone. He left his homeland of Bohemia to minister to the German speaking people in the USA. Anyone settling in a foreign country, a new home, a different community of people knows the pain of adjustment. John Neumann willingly suffered separation to minister to people hungering for God. For the past two years all of us have been in new territory. We are attempting to adjust to becoming a mask-wearing people who are also trying to avoid a lethal virus. Many are dealing with sickness, death, and loss of jobs.
   Our Christmastide Scriptures encourage us to trust that what God asks of us will always be followed by grace and an abundance of love. We must be willing to accept this package plan. Part of this plan is our looking on others with respect and reverence. “Perfect love drives out fear.”—John 4