Be a Bold Witness : Start Here

Happy Easter! Today is the fourth Tuesday of Easter not the fourth Tuesday after Easter! That is an important distinction. It is still Easter. Easter, the resurrection of Jesus, is so central to our faith that the church sets aside 50 days to celebrate the Easter season. The church and the liturgical calendar give us time and space to unpack what we experienced through Holy Week and Easter. We take a pause to celebrate Easter for several weeks and consider what is the significance of the Resurrection in our own lives and the life of the church! In a world where everything seems to happen at a record pace and we move so quickly from one thing to another, the length of the Easter season and the readings we encounter in the Church's wisdom causes us to pause and take some space to process and unpack the miraculous event of Easter. This season ends with Pentecost sometimes called the birthday of the Church, because it's when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, and they came to the full realization of Jesus' passion death, and resurrection. They were empowered by the Spirit to go out and change the world by sharing their personal witnesses. They went out to share all they had experienced living with and following Jesus as well as their experiences of being changed by the resurrection.

In these 50 days, I think we are called to do the same to share our own witness of where the risen Jesus who is alive and active in our world has shown up and has impacted us. We believe that Jesus shows up in our lives in big ways and small ways all around us and the challenge that is heightened in these 50 days is to recognize where Jesus is acting in our lives. At Christmas, we gave out a book to everyone that came to Mass, entitled Holy Moments, by Matthew Kelly. In essence, a Holy moment is defined as, "a single moment in which you open yourself to God. You make yourself available to Him. You set aside personal preference and self-interest, and for one moment you do what you prayerfully believe God is calling you to do." Alternatively, a holy moment is when someone else has done this and it has positively impacted you and/or others. Some people call the latter a God Wink or God Moment. In an interview, the author referred to a 'Holy Moment" as any time you are united with God; a moment of prayer, an encounter with creation, or a random act of love or kindness which increases Jesus' love and joy in your life.

St Ignatius of Loyola calls this "Finding God in All Things" and this idea is rooted in our growing awareness that God can be found in everyone, in every place, and in everything. Holy moments are all around us. When we learn to pay more attention to Jesus, we become more thankful and reverent, and through this, we become more devoted to Jesus, and more deeply in love with Him. Beginning the practice of recognizing and sharing Holy Moments is a way to pay more attention and strive to become more intentional in our witness. What better time to do that than during the Easter Season, when our scriptures tell us stories of the ways the disciples encountered the Lord and shared the good news with others?

In the first few weeks of the new year, some parishioners shared some Holy Moments that they had created or been on the receiving end of personally. One woman shared that her daughter-in-law makes time to bring her to Church each week which is a Holy moment for her. Another shared a story of how she prays the rosary using her phone at work and her coworkers have begun asking questions about her faith because they have noticed this practice. She now leads prayers at gatherings of the staff in the company. This parishioner works in construction! A young parent shared that she put a children's Bible in her child's Easter basket at the prompting of another parent and that the reading of those Bible stories is prompting their whole family to grow in their faith- all holy moments! Creating, recognizing, and sharing Holy Moments can be big or small! They all count!

Jesus is certainly alive all around us, working in our lives and calling us to approach Pentecost with a boldness to share the ways the Resurrection makes a difference in our lives- like the disciples before us! Have you created or experienced a Holy Moment? Will you be like the disciples at Pentecost and be bold enough to share it on our website: https://christbythesea.net/share-your-holy-moments
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