Monday of the Fourth Week of Easter

As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them as it had upon us at the beginning, and I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, ‘John baptized with water but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?

Sometimes we are tempted to put people into boxes. These people are good. These people are bad. These people are holy. These people are immoral. However, no one is guaranteed salvation and no one is beyond redemption. People are bigger than the boxes we want to put them in and if we look at a person as believe they are irredeemable, then perhaps we should look in the mirror, too. Jesus didn’t look at sinners and see only their sins. He looked at them and saw their potential, too. He saw the Divine Image behind each individual’s disfigurations. The Good News, the sacraments, and the Church couldn’t remain hidden in Israel precisely because of this universal, shared, Divine Imprint on every human being. Jews and gentles were made in God’s Likeness and so they both became heirs to His Kingdom. They both have the opportunity to believe in Jesus Christ and receive the same Holy Spirit. It is God’s Infinite Image within us that makes putting anyone into a box impossible... because within us all is the potential to become uniquely Christ.

How can we keep ourselves from putting others into boxes? How can we overcome our biases, prejudices, and opinions and see others with Jesus-colored glasses? How can we learn to love the Divine Image within each individual?

O Lord, help us to be as welcoming of others as you are.

Amen.