May 3, 2026 ~ Fifth Sunday of Easter ~ Year A

Spiritual Reflection

May 3, 2026 ~ Fifth Sunday of Easter ~ Year A (pdf)

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.
In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
...so that where I am you also may be. Jn 14:1-3

There are some very privileged moments in your life: when your plans fall apart, when you become sick, or when somebody to whom you are very much attached and very close is no longer a part of your life. These moments, although difficult, are a privilege because they point out to you that God is knocking on the door of your heart. Through these events, He attempts to remind you about the truth that you are only on a journey on this earth and that everything that happens to you is subject to the law of passing away.

Thomas A. Kempis, the author of The Imitation of Christ, describes the individual as a pilgrim, a wanderer who should maintain a distance from all temporal things by putting his trust in Christ:

This world is not your permanent home; wherever you may be, you are a stranger, a pilgrim passing through. You will never find peace unless you are united with Christ in the very depths of your heart.…Why do you look around here to find peace when you do not really belong here? Your place is in heaven, and you should see everything else in terms of heaven. All things pass away, and you pass away with them too. See that you do not cling to passing things, lest you become caught up in them and perish with them.…Let your highest thoughts be with the Most High and your prayer be directed to Christ without ceasing. (Thomas A Kempis, The Imitation of Christ )

This path on which we travel to fullness entails faithfulness to Christ’s call to separate ourselves from our illusory attachments. The call also entails that we must not place our hearts in anything which we pass on the path – anything that will not reconcile us with the pilgrimage to our true homeland. When traveling toward this fullness, we must gradually rise to the freedom of spiritual poverty of a soul that does not want to be rooted in this world. While traveling along this path, we have to lose everything of which we are possessive and everything that we attribute to ourselves. In turn, by becoming poor and, through this poverty, free, we can travel farther along the path that leads to union with the Lord…

We cannot stop time. Here on earth we are travelers who have to unceasingly journey on the pilgrimage to our heavenly homeland. The world in which we live and everything upon which a person builds, thanks to God’s grace, are subject to the law of passing away. Someone who is poor in spirit knows and accepts this truth about the temporal order of the things of this world… Our countless attachments bind our hearts to things of this world that do not last and things that will disappear like a flowing stream of water. All our worries, preoccupations, bitterness, and disappointments come from our possessiveness and our attempts to rule over that which we cannot rule…

We have to take advantage of everything in a worthy way, according to God’s will. Everything that God gives us is only a means to serve the end of becoming more deeply united with Him. The fragility and lack of stability of everything in the world should remind us that, apart from God, everything is nothing. Our relationship to everything should be that of a traveler as he makes his way to God…

When we remember about our status as pilgrims, it helps us to maintain a certain distance of spiritual poverty from the world. It shields us from excessive involvement in things and relationships that are essentially short-lived. On the path to fulfillment, thanks to the attitude of spiritual poverty, we engage in various activities only to the extent to which it is God’s will, rather than giving our hearts to those things.

S.C. Biela, Open Wide the Door to Christ, pp. 155-159

References from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

2545 All Christ's faithful are to "direct their affections rightly, lest they be hindered in their pursuit of perfect charity by the use of worldly things and by an adherence to riches which is contrary to the spirit of evangelical poverty."337

2548 Desire for true happiness frees man from his immoderate attachment to the goods of this world so that he can find his fulfillment in the vision and beatitude of God. "The promise [of seeing God] surpasses all beatitude.   In Scripture, to see is to possess. . . . Whoever sees God has obtained all the goods of which he can conceive."344

Questions for Reflection

1.          In my daily life, what is my usual reaction when my plans fail, if I become sick, or I lose the support of loved ones/friends?
2.          How does God’s love manifest itself in these difficult events? How do I want to respond?
3.          Reflecting on Mary’s attitude when her own plans were foiled and changed, how can she help me to travel ‘light’ on the way to my homeland? 

Prayer after Sharing

Thank you, God, for allowing me to see the truth about my weaknesses and how it calls upon the abyss of your merciful Love.