When St. Paul called the Catholic priests, then known as “Presbyters”, from Miletus to Ephesus, they either spent three days walking the 63 miles, or 2 days walking and part of a day sailing across the Gulf of Latmos.
Many would make excuses to avoid that effort. Those Catholic priests knew two things:
1. Jesus had told them who would get into Heaven: “You are My friends if you obey My commands.”
2. Paul, the first Catholic Cardinal-Bishop after the Disciples, had ordained them as Catholic priests empowered to change bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. Those Catholic priests did as the Cardinal-Bishop who Ordained them requested: they obeyed. Acts 20:17-27 explains:
“From Miletus Paul had the presbyters (priests) of the Church at Ephesus summoned. When they came to him, he addressed them, ‘You know how I lived among you the whole time from the day I first came to the province of Asia. I served the Lord with all humility and with the tears and trials that came to me because of the plots of the Jews, and I did not at all shrink from telling you what was for your benefit, or from teaching you in public or in your homes.’”
Paul spent the last 2/3s of his life: “‘I earnestly bore witness for both Jews and Greeks to repentance before God and to faith in our Lord Jesus. But now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem.’”
Only Catholics see how special the Catholics in Miletus were: The New Testament did not need to include a “Letter to The Milesians”!
Today’s Psalm 68: 10-11,20-21 reinforced the message: “A bountiful rain You showered down, O God, upon Your inheritance: You restored the land when it languished; Your flock settled in it” . . . Blessed day by day be The Lord, Who bears our burdens; God Who is our salvation. God is a saving God for us; The LORD, my Lord, controls the passageways of death.”
Today’s Gospel from He Who Fulfilled the Prophecies identified those who, like the Catholic priests of Miletus, would obey Him: “I revealed Your name to those whom You gave me out of the world. They belonged to You, and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your Word.”
Then, Jesus gives us This Reason for each of us to be among the obedient people about whom Jesus promised: “I pray for them. I do not pray for the world, but for the ones You have given Me, because they are Yours, and everything of Mine is Yours and everything of Yours is Mine.”
May we all be Catholic enough to have Jesus “pray” for us!
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Today’s Simple Rhyme: “Jesus only prays / for those who obey. / May no one be the devil’s prey.”
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