Trinity, May 30, 2021

The Triune God is always with us. We have been commissioned by Jesus to evangelize.

Matthew 28:16–20

Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

“And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Music Meditations

• “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” (sung by Singing Nuns) [YouTube]
• “All Creatures of our God and King” (arrangement by John Rutter) [YouTube]
• “The Summons” (sung by Robert Kochis) [YouTube]
• “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (sung by Chris Rice) [YouTube]
• “Here I Am, Lord” (sung by John Michael Talbot) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

Your name, O God, is the name of love. You exist in a Trinity of love. When we make the sign of the cross, we place your badge of love on our bodies. Helps us to accept that we are loved and lovable, and help us to embody that love in all that we do.

[Take a moment to think of and pray for any particular people who may especially need to experience God’s love and be comforted and sustained by it.]

Companions for the Journey

Commentary on Matthew 28:16–20

Stanley Saunders, Associate Professor of New Testament, Columbia Theological Seminary, Atlanta

Each of the Gospels ends in a distinctive way.

Mark focuses on the empty tomb and the fear of the first witnesses; Luke on the appearances of the risen Jesus to the disciples, his ascension, and their preparation as witnesses; and John on a series of appearances of the resurrected Christ, especially to Peter. Matthew depicts the resurrected Jesus’ commissioning the disciples for mission. In what ways is this a fitting end—not only the right stopping point, but the goal—of Matthew’s Gospel? What does this ending tell us about that mission?

This episode draws together many of the most important themes and motifs of the Gospel, thereby suggesting that this ending is designed for this very story. As so often before in Matthew, the setting is an unnamed mountain (28:16, cf. 4:8, 5:1, 14:23, 15:29, 17:1), which Matthew associates especially with the revelation of divine presence and authority. Matthew also refers prominently here to “heaven and earth” (28:18), terminology that recalls the story of creation in Genesis 1, thereby linking this episode to a long tradition of stories about the fracturing of earth from heaven and the hope of their repair.

Jesus also provides the warrant for the disciples’ commission by affirming that he has been given “all authority in heaven and on earth.” Authority—its nature, source, and effects—is yet another persistent Matthean interest (7:29; 8:9; 9:6, 8; 10:1; 21:23, 24, 27). Matthew also returns in this scene to the Christological identification of Jesus as “God with us” (28:20, cf. 1:23), thereby framing the entire Gospel with this claim.

Even as this ending emphasizes key themes and claims of the whole Gospel, it also marks a fresh beginning point, signaled in part by the return to Galilee (28:16), where Jesus’ own ministry began. While they are called to be people on the move in mission, the disciples must also be rooted in the story and the land where their own journeys began. They will conduct their mission between two worlds: with Jesus on the mountain—itself apparently a thin place between the human and divine realms—they stand at the edge of a new world and a new time.

The time of empire, of debt and slavery, of the reign of death, is passing away. It will continue to exercise sway only where the death and resurrection of God’s son is not proclaimed. But the truth about Rome’s empire has been unveiled for all the world to see. It has wielded its most powerful tool—death on a cross—against God’s son as he proclaimed and inaugurated God’s empire, but now even Rome’s control of the apparatus of death has been shown to be hollow. The empire of the heavens has not just begun; it has already won the crucial victory.

Living between two worlds is not easy, however, even for those closest to Jesus. Matthew introduces elements into the story that challenge the apparently triumphal character of this scene. There are not twelve disciples with Jesus, but eleven, a reminder not only of the absence of Judas but, implicitly, of the betrayals in which the eleven also participated. Matthew also notes that their initial response to the presence of the risen Jesus is a mixture of worship and doubt. Most English translations of 28:17 leave the impression that the disciples included some worshippers and some doubters (e.g., “doubting Thomas” in John 20:24–29), but the Greek may also be translated, perhaps more naturally, to suggest that the whole group of disciples both worship and doubt.

In either case, Matthew acknowledges that both responses are to be found in the community of disciples. The word translated “doubt” is found in the New Testament only here and in the account of Peter joining Jesus in his walk on the sea in 14:31, yet another story of divine presence and power, marked by both doubt and worship (13:31, 33). The Greek word distazo carries a sense of standing in two places at the same time or being of two minds. Jesus commissions not perfect disciples, but people who both worship and doubt as they stand at the edge of the world that is passing away and the one that is coming to them.

What does this new world look like? Apparently, the key differences include both the presence of the resurrected Jesus, promising to remain with the disciples to the end of the age, and a reconciled earth and heaven. Jesus’ claim to have been given “all authority” in both realms signals the culmination of a biblical drama first announced in the earliest chapters of Genesis, where we find accounts both of the creation of “heaven and earth” and the disruption of the unity of that creation through the story of the fall and subsequent human rebellion and violence.

Matthew takes very seriously this story of the ruin of the relationship between earth and heaven. The terms “heaven and earth” constitute a “merism,” a figure of speech in which an entity is identified by means of its constituent or defining parts. In Genesis 1, heaven and earth comprise a single entity—God’s whole creation. By Genesis 4, their unity has been fractured. The prayer we pray nearly every Sunday in most churches, which is largely based on Matthew 6:9–13, recognizes this divide and asks for its resolution (“thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven”).

Matthew repeatedly tells stories that recount the ways Jesus, and sometimes his disciples, cross and blur the boundaries between heaven and earth. But it is only with Jesus’ defeat of death that the breach between heaven and earth is mended. Jesus sends the disciples into the world not only to announce the salvation of humans, but to bear witness to the end of a broken creation. Jesus’ words at the Great Commission are thus not merely the fitting end of Matthew’s story of Jesus, but a vision of the end of a broken world and the beginning of new creation.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

I am with you always.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• When I think of “God” what image comes to mind? (Father, Son or Spirit? … Something else?)
  When I pray, to whom do I pray?
• What does each “face” (persona) tell me about the nature of God?
  What gifts and support does each element of the Blessed Trinity bring to my life?
• What has the natural world around me taught me about God?
  How have I responded to the God I discover in nature? Is it praise, awe, thanksgiving, or something else?
• Why do you think the term “Trinity” does not show up in scriptures? Fr Jude Siciliano, O.P., thinks it is because when we in the institutional Church think of Trinity, we often think of theology and doctrine; the people who lived and wrote the scriptures were instead thinking of a people’s experience of God…what God has done for them.
  What has been my experience of God?
  What has God done for me?
  What is God doing for me right now?
  When I think about the Trinity, do I think of theology and doctrine, or do I think of my experience?
• How does the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Spirit) reflect the relational nature of love in our salvation history? In my own personal history?
• Do I believe that I am a reflection of the loving relationship that exists in the Holy Trinity?
  If so, how do I let others know that they, too are such a reflection?
  If not, what can I do to foster this confidence in myself as the very reflection of a loving Godhead?
• Consider this quote from Fr. Jude Siciliano, O.P.:

  Individual Christians and the church as a community, are expected to be a beatitude people: always hungering for growth in love; merciful to enemies; single-minded in our commitment to our Lord, and ready to accept persecution in Jesus’ name. Jesus taught that our response is to be total, not only in observable religious practices, but also in our unseen thoughts and attitudes. His disciples are to teach the world to act as Jesus acted, giving to the poor, and vigilant in prayer and fasting. The essence of Jesus’ commands was that we are to act in love and he told us that we will be judged according to how we loved.

  How does this challenge me personally?
  The gospel says that the disciples worshipped, but they doubted. Is it possible to worship and doubt at the same time?
  What are my doubts?
• What does this gospel tell me about my status as a child of God?
• What frequent behavior of mine diminishes me as a child of God?
• How do I experience the dignity I have as a child of God?
• What do I do to make the love of God available to all those whom I meet?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Meditation:

Adapted from Love a Guide for Prayer (a five volume guide to the Ignatian Exercises) by J.S. Bergan and Sister M Schwan:

Read the following psalm slowly, several times. As you read, breathe in the kind, tender and understanding love of God. Imagine the strength of this love flowing through you, permeating your entire being. Pause and remember a time when you felt the strength of God’s love in you. Allow yourself to delight in the energizing refreshments the awareness of this love brings.

Close with: “Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. Amen.”

Psalm 103

Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all within me, his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and never forget all his benefits.
It is the Lord who forgives all your sins, who heals every one of your ills,
who redeems your life from the grave, who crowns you with mercy and compassion,
who fills your life with good things, renewing your youth like an eagle’s.
The LORD does just deeds, full justice to all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses, and his deeds to the children of Israel.
The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and rich in mercy.
He will not always find fault; nor persist in his anger forever.
He does not treat us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our faults.
For as the heavens are high above the earth, so strong his mercy for those who fear him.
As far as the east is from the west, so far from us does he remove our transgressions.
As a father has compassion on his children, the LORD’s compassion is on those who fear him.
For he knows of what we are made; he remembers that we are dust.
Man, his days are like grass; he flowers like the flower of the field.
The wind blows, and it is no more, and its place never sees it again.
But the mercy of the LORD is everlasting upon those who hold him in fear, upon children’s children his justice,
for those who keep his covenant, and remember to fulfill his commands.
The LORD has fixed his throne in heaven, and his kingdom is ruling over all.
Bless the LORD, all you his angels, mighty in power, fulfilling his word, who heed the voice of his word.
Bless the LORD, all his hosts, his servants, who do his will.
Bless the LORD, all his works, in every place where he rules. Bless the LORD, O my soul!

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Adapted from “First Impressions”, a service of the Southern Dominican Province, 2021:

From today’s Gospel reading:

Jesus said to his disciples: “All power in heaven and on earth has been given me. Go, therefore and make disciples of all nations…”

Reflection:

Jesus chose to give power and send out as witnesses, the least likely of his day. Doesn’t that speak to us “ordinary folk” who may not feel particularly gifted in matters of religion? Still, we are the ones upon whom Jesus pours his Spirit and appoints to “make disciples of all nations.”
So we ask ourselves:
How do we give daily witness to our faith in Christ?

There is a tale repeated in “Sacred Space” that a man went out on a starry night and shook his fist at the heavens yelling: “God what a lousy, rotten world you have made. I could have done much better.” Then a voice boomed from the clouds saying: “that’s why I put you there. Get busy!”

St. Francis of Assisi said: “All friars should preach by their deeds.” It is not enough to be telling people that they ought to follow Jesus; we need to demonstrate the love and care for others in an active way, as Jesus did. Many of us do not exert ourselves, beyond writing a check, to be active in helping the poor, the ill or the otherwise marginalized. We cannot preach the love of Jesus effectively if we ourselves are not the embodiment of that love in the way we treat those most desperate. Do some research. Find out where you can get your hands dirty in the service of Jesus.

Poetic Reflection:

How does this poem (from To Keep From Singing) by Ed Ingebretsen, S.J. illustrate that Jesus' mission was also His Father's mission?

“From Narrow Places”

From narrow places
the strength of our voice
rises:

our every breath
is prayer,
the great poem of need,
a constant scattering
of praise.

Early
we reach to God
in the claim of our hearts,
while he,
our father,
mothers us
in his

Closing Prayer

Lord, you terrify me with this command: “Go and teach all nations”. Help me to be rooted in you so that what I teach is actually your message and not mine pretending to be yours. Help me to have confidence in my ability to do as you ask—this in the face of my own lack of experience and theological knowledge. Help me to have the courage to keep going in the face of derision or lack of attention to your words, and finally, Lord, help me to believe that you—Creator, Word and Sustainer—are with me always.

Pentecost, May 23, 2021

The Spirit of God is always with every one of us

John 19:20–23

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Music Meditations

• “Veni, Sancte Spiritus” (Taizé) [YouTube]
• “Holy Spirit” (by Francesca Battistelli) [YouTube] (Praise and Worship)
• “Hymn to the Holy Spirit” [YouTube]
• “Be Still and Know That He Is God” (sung by Steven Curtis Chapman) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

Come Holy Spirit, fill the heart of your faithful one, and enkindle in me the fire of your love. Help me to recognize your presence In my life, help me to act on that presence and help me to love [name a particular person here] more each day.

Companions for the Journey

A Pre-Note:

Remember, the Gospels are NOT history, they are a theological testimony of the disciples’ experience of Jesus on this earth. Do not attempt to reconcile the first reading and the gospel into one narrative. The story from Acts takes place on the Jewish feast of Pentecost; the gospel story takes place on the evening of the Resurrection. It is enough to know that after his death, Jesus fulfilled his promise to send a helper to the disciples, an advocate who would help them be His witnesses in the world. And so this Advocate has been sent through them to us as well.

PENTECOST SUNDAY May 23, 2021
Fr. Gerard Austin, O.P.
Province of St. Martin de Porres

For the first generations of Christians of the early Church, the liturgical year consisted of only a weekly celebration of the Resurrection: the Day of the Lord, the Sunday. At this celebration all the various elements of the Paschal Mystery were recalled. God was blessed, thanked, and praised for all the wonderful works of creation and redemption—especially for the wonder-of-God par excellence, God’s only-begotten Son, who gave of himself for us. By the end of the second century, we see attestations of an annual celebration as well. It was modeled upon the weekly celebration, but it lasted for a period of fifty days, thus being referred to by St. Athanasius as the “Great Sunday.” Thus our present “Norms Governing Liturgical Celebrations” state: “The fifty days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost are celebrated in joyful expectation as one feast day, or better, as one ‘Great Sunday’.” This fifty-day period has its roots in Jewish tradition, sharing for example, in the notion of being a “seal,” a completion.

At first, no particular day or days of the fifty-day period was privileged; rather, during the entire period was celebrated: the death, the resurrection, the later appearances, the ascension, the sending of the Spirit, and the waiting for the final coming of Christ. Nevertheless, before the second half of the fourth century, certain churches and certain Fathers of the Church did emphasize different aspects of the Paschal Mystery on particular days (as the Ascension on the fortieth day, the sending of the Spirit on the fiftieth day), but never destroying the notion of whole as whole. This approach was called the “global view of the Great Sunday,” and during this time the notion of “Pentecost” extended to the entire fifty days. The entire period was a “period of the Spirit.” Jesus had promised his followers that he would not leave them orphans; he would stay with them but in a new way: through his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, which he would leave to them as his departing Gift.

Thus, one can well argue that the entire period from the Ascension of Christ to his Final Coming at the end of time is the “Era of the Holy Spirit.” This era, in which we are now living, is an era where Jesus is no longer with us in bodily form, but in a new way—in the presence of his Spirit. We have been assured the Gift of that Holy Spirit, but still down through the ages the Church never ceases to cry out, “Come, Holy Spirit, come”—not just on Pentecost but each and every day. I think my favorite book on the Holy Spirit is I Believe In The Holy Spirit by Fr. Yves Congar, O.P. I find it significant that the final chapter of that highly respected three-volume work is entitled “The Life of the Church as One Long Epiclesis” (the Greek word meaning ‘invocation’ of the Spirit). We know that Jesus’ promise not to leave us orphans is true, but still we pray each day that the Holy Spirit who already abides within us (and among us), might penetrate even more deeply into every fiber of our being! Yes, pentecost is not just a once-for-all event of history; it is an ongoing mystery of faith.

Let us allow the global view of the Great Sunday, the view that contains all the multiple aspects of the “Paschal Mystery” to be reflected in our own private prayer as well. In conclusion, may I suggest your praying slowly the following trilogy of mantras:
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.”
“Lord Jesus, Crucified and Risen Lord, send me your Spirit.”
“Come, Holy Spirit, come!”

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• A longer version of this gospel is read on the second Sunday of Easter. The action takes place on the evening after the empty tomb was discovered, and the disciples are cowering in fear in the upper room.
  Why are Jesus’ first words to the disciples (Peace be with you) so important? Is this a wish or a statement of fact?
  What does “Peace” mean to me?
• From “First Impressions” by Jude Siciliano, O.P.:

  The Spirit isn’t up ahead of us, cleaning out and arranging our heavenly quarters for our arrival—someday. Rather, the Spirit is here and now, urging us out to work at community building, peace and justice, love and reconciliation; helping us overcome destructive addictions, opening our eyes to God, so present in the world around us—in others, nature and in the wonders of our own beings.

  In other words, I am being sent forth by the Spirit of Jesus. I am individually sent. What, in concrete terms, is my mission?
  To whom am I being sent? (My family and friends, my worship community, the wider world?)
• The gifts of the Spirt are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, long-suffering, gentleness, faith, modesty, chastity and self-control.
  Which ones do I feel I have been blessed with?
  Which ones do I still need help with?
  What does the gift of the Spirit of Jesus mean to me in my life right now? What are the challenges of such a gift? What are my gifts that I am commissioned to use for the good of others?
• Do I have any personal wisdom to impart to others?
  What is the source of my personal wisdom? (my education, my religious community, my family and friends, the culture I live in, my prayer, personal reading, for example)
• How do I define wisdom as opposed to knowledge or intelligence?
  When I say that today is the birthday of the Church, am I thinking of the church hierarchy and structures, or am I thinking of all of us in the “cheap seats”?
• How are we “church” in our homes, workplaces, communities and in this parish?
• Do I see reconciliation as something reserved to the sacrament and not requiring any agency on my part?
  What is my role in forgiving the sins of others?
  Do I see myself as an agent of reconciliation?
• Can I think of a sin that might not be forgiven?
  Is forgiveness the same as license to continue destructive or bad behavior?
  Is forgiveness optional?
• Is there anyone in my life that I have failed to forgive (“kept bound”)?
  How does this failure keep ME bound?
• Is there anything I have to forgive myself for?
• “As the Father sent me, so I send you”. What is God sending me to/for?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

Read Acts of the Apostles 2:1–11. Imagine that you are one of those disciples in the upper room. How do you react to the noise of a strong wind and then tongues of fire? What are the expressions on the faces of the others there with you? How does it feel to speak in a strange tongue? Do you actually feel the energy of the Spirit entering you? When the people, alerted by the commotion, gather around, do you wish for a little more time to be with this new experience? What actually, are you saying to thee people who gather? What is your purpose? After the excitement has died down and you are once again alone with your fellow disciples, how do you process this experience? Have you ever experienced a time when you were able to reach a group of people and convey an important truth to them? What was the message or insight you were trying to impart? How did it feel to be so empowered? Did you feel exhilaration, pride, humility, fear, or awe? Take some time to pray to the Spirit, not only for yourself, but to ask for gifts and the strength to allow you to make a difference in the world. Exactly what difference would you like to make? What message of Jesus is important enough to you that you would expend the energy and take the risk to share it?

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Adapted from Sacred Space, a Service of the Irish Jesuits:

When have you experienced Pentecost in practice?

When you feel an inner urge to be kind, constructive, forgiving or compassionate, do you sense the Spirit at work in your heart?
When you settle down to pray, do you sense the Spirit bringing you into the world of God?
When you take up a demanding task because it is the right thing to do, do you sense the Spirit encouraging you?
When you protest against injustice or falsehood, do you sense the Spirit protesting in you?
When you stand up for gospel values and try to be inclusive, do you sense the Spirit calling you?
When you find yourself watching out for the needy, do you sense the spirit making you aware of others?
When you experience deep-seated joy without any special reason, do you sense the Spirit of God working in you?

Once you begin to catch on, you find that the Spirit is everywhere! You begin to attend to your inner promptings, asking “is this a nudge from my friend the Spirit?”. Life will take on a new color and will cease to be boring and predictable. You become free to dance with the Spirit.

Literary Reflection:

What does this poem by Denise Levertov say about trust in the Spirit of God?

“The Avowal”

As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them;
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
freefall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.

Literary Reflection:

This beautiful, profound little poem, “Primary Wonder,” by Denise Levertov (1923–1997), reminds us what is important when we get overshadowed by life’s little problems. When she became present to the mystery, experienced that joyful cosmic stillness within, she realized her life, and all of creation was sustained by the Creator. Life’s problems receded, became insignificant when presented with such primary wonder. (from a commentary by Philip Goldberg)

“Primary Wonder”

Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; caps and bells.
And then
once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng’s clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, O Lord,
Creator, Hallowed one, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.

Poetic Reflection:

The coming of the Spirit into our lives is not always as dramatic as it was described in the Acts of the Apostles. Sometimes the Spirit works within us slowly and deliberately, quietly teaching us how to be and teaching us where we are meant to go in our lives. This sense of the gradual working of the Spirit, especially through the beauty of the natural world, is captured beautifully by Theodore Roethke in the following poem:

“The Waking”

I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.

We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.

Light takes the Tree; but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.

Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.

This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.

Closing Prayer

Dear Jesus, help us to radiate your spirit, and by word and example help us to share it. Help us to understand that the gifts of your Spirit are not for us alone, but are to be shared. Help us to tell others how much God loves each and every one of them… Help us to BE God’s love for them.

Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, May 16, 2021

We are called to carry on Jesus’ mission

Mark 16:15–20

He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents [with their hands], and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.

Music Meditations

• “Be Not Afraid” (sung by John Michael Talbot) [YouTube]
• “Christ Has No Body Now But Yours” (written by David Ogden, sung by Exultate singers) [YouTube]
• “Christ in Me Arise” (composed by Trevor Thomson) [YouTube]
• “Untitled Hymn” (“Come to Jesus”) (Chris Rice) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

O Lord, you are the way. The goodness I find in life comes from you. Help me to be grateful and joyous because of the gifts you have bestowed on me. Teach me to be generous in sharing your love and your gifts to those I meet along the way.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from Jude Siciliano, in First Impressions 2021, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

During the years I preached in West Virginia I remember small towns, “up the hollows”, where there were churches whose ministers and members of the congregation, as a test of their faith, would plunge their hands into a box of rattlesnakes, pull one out and hold it before the congregation. Others would drink strychnine poison. Why not, isn’t that what Jesus is saying, in today’s gospel, believers will be able to do as we go about proclaiming the gospel? The rural communities that performed those tests of faith saw their ability to do these feats as a sign that the living Christ was in their midst fulfilling his promises to them. Some of the faithful were able to handle snakes and drink poison and survive. Their community supported them and celebrated their faith. Others suffered snake bites and the effects of drinking deadly poisons...some even died. But even then, their communities took the failure on themselves as a congregation, they didn’t fault the individual preacher or believer’s faith. They saw the failure as a sign that the whole community needed to turn more fully to the Lord.

I belong to a church community that interprets these signs of belief in another way. I hear in today’s gospel a promise that signs will accompany believers. In Jesus’ time there were large cracks between the human world, what we can could see, measure and explain, and God’s. Illnesses and negative human conditions that were beyond their ability to explain or heal, were credited to evil spirits and demons. So, for example, a person suffering from mental disease was said to be “possessed.” Since the afflicted weren’t their usual selves, the community reasoned, it must be the fault of an outside and malevolent spirit possessing the person. Nowadays, science, modern medicine and drugs have filled in a lot of the cracks between what was once unknown, mysterious and frightening and what was in the realm of the measurable and explainable. We have narrowed the void, answered a lot of “mysteries.” So, then, where is God in all this and what about Jesus’ mission and the signs he promises we will perform as a testimony to our faith?

Jesus tells us we will be able to “drive out demons.” New medical drugs can now alleviate schizophrenia and bi-polar disorders. But there are more powerful demons medication can’t deal with, that concerned Jesus and continue to require believers to confront and drive out. For example, the demon poverty: even in a wealthy country it grows and continues to victimize the young and elderly. The demon of ignorance: it holds people captive and locked in darkness, superstition and prejudice. The demon of war: it seduces the powerful into thinking that problems can be solved quickly by force. The demon of racism: a sometimes subtle demon, but these days it has raised its divisive head in ugly manifestations. Even the so-called enlightened discover racism is still a part of their lives. The demons of homophobia, sexism and ageism and all the other “isms” that permeate our institutions and churches. These are demons that might not be driven out with a prayer of exorcism. But they may be driven out by a prayer for conversion, a prayer to have our own hearts and attitudes changed; a prayer for wisdom, to know where and how we must get involved to do something; a prayer for strength, to keep us in the struggle against these demons over the long haul; a prayer for courage, as we face opposition; a prayer for hope, as we deal with discouragement and lack of quick progress.

Jesus says we will lay on hands to cure the sick. We do this in our prayers and sacramental anointing of the sick. But we also show the sick and very old, who are often on the periphery of our communities, that we want to stay in contact with them through visits and gentle touch—“laying on of hands”. Some years ago Vernon Jordan, a presidential aide, was shot in the back. While acknowledging the expertise of the doctors who worked on him, he said what really saved his life, was the doctor who sat with him and held his hands—day after day. We lay hands on the sick in many ways. We stay by the side of someone struggling with illness, despair, loneliness, addiction, divorce and death. Someone said to me once, “I don’t always know what I am to do—I just show up.” That’s a way of “laying hands on the sick,” just show up. That’s also one way to face the powerful forces that surround us and need to be driven out: we “show up.” The risen Christ acts through his disciples who show up, giving them: wisdom when serious problems and issues arise; power over the evil forces of unjust systems, policies and governments; a healing touch, when someone just needs a faithful presence standing with them in the valley of the shadow of death.

What are we doing at each Eucharist? Are we holding a memorial service for someone long gone, who once inspired the world? Lamenting his absence saying, “If only Jesus were here, he would know what to do.” No. We are celebrating the signs of his presence we have experienced in and through his community, the Word and the sacred bread and wine we eat at this meal.

The Acts of the Apostles starts with an injunction by the risen Christ to wait. I wonder if the activists in that early community weren’t frustrated by his directive. You can see that they were ready to get on with things—and they would have gotten it all wrong. It’s their question that reveals their mis-direction, “Lord are you at this time going to restore the kingdom of Israel?” Of course, they mean a purely external, politically and militarily dominant kingdom of Israel. No, they will have to wait for the baptism with the Holy Spirit, then they will know how and where to be Jesus’ witnesses. He wants them to break free of their limited view, their biases and tendency to misinterpret the meaning of his life. What he also wants is that they witness to him far beyond the boundaries of Israel. They will, he says, have to be, “my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.” For all this they will need help, so they must acknowledge their dependence on God and wait for God’s pleasure to pour that help out on them.

We are not good at waiting. We tire out if we do not get quick results. Waiting on lines, for lights, for our children to come home from the dance, with our aging parents at the doctor’s office, for the strife to end in Myanmar, and Yemen to come finally to peace. Waiting is not what we do well. Why is waiting so frustrating? Because it means someone else, or some other power is in charge, not us. And being out of control and subject to other forces reminds us of our finiteness, and vulnerability.

Jesus tells the disciples to “wait for the promise of the Father.” They cannot go off spreading the news of his resurrection on their own. They are a small, fearful community that has no power on its own. As the Gospels showed, they have a tendency to get Jesus’ message all wrong. What’s more, they flee when things get tough. On their own they will be misguided, perhaps engage in ways that are not of Jesus. Haven’t we made some pretty big mistakes in our history about his message and in his name? Our history has tales of promoting our religion by forced baptisms and by trampling over the dignity and cultures of whole civilizations. And like the original disciples, we have been cowardly when courage and resistance to force was required.

So the disciples and we must “hold our horses,” restrain ourselves and wait for God’s promise to be fulfilled. What’s more, the fulfillment will come at God’s timing, not our own. We are action-oriented aren’t we? We have our projects and plans; we want to get on with things. Even when our plans and intentions are noble and serve a good purpose, how does God figure into them? Do we know? Have we asked? Do we wait for an answer, some direction? Maybe we have to “hurry up and wait.” “Don’t just do something, stand there!” Waiting on the Spirit is a reversal of our usual mode of operating.

Thomas Troeger, the Presbyterian preacher and homiletician, in a sermon preached on Ascension Day, recalls the frustration of the disciples and the early church in their waiting and longing for the fulfillment of the reign of God. He says we too know that frustration. After having given our lives over to Jesus Christ, we experience not triumph, but a mixture of triumph and defeat. Has anything really changed? What difference does our faith make? “When will things come together in some whole and enduring pattern?” he wonders. And then Troeger quotes Yeats’ lines to describe our world:

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
the blood dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
the ceremony of innocence is drowned;
the best lack all conviction, while the worst
are full of passionate intensity.

—from “The Second Coming”

We are wearied by our waiting. With Yeats we voice our longing, “Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand.” It’s a lament, a prayer of need and dependence. We need help that we cannot provide for ourselves. Troeger invites us to hear again what the early church heard in its anguish and yearning, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by [God’s] own authority.” How difficult it is for us to hear these words surrounded, as we are, by the kind of events we see and hear on the evening news—pictures and sounds of human distress. What we have, Troeger reminds us, is the belief that Christ reigns and will send the Holy Spirit to help us live as we must. We cannot force the hand of this Spirit, it is a gift constantly coming upon us. And one that still requires waiting.

(Thomas Troeger’s sermon was preached in 1982 and is reprinted in Seasons of Preaching, pages 158-9.)

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• What signs of Jesus’ presence do I recognize of in my world? In my life?
  When have I felt the absence of God in my own life?
  What happened to my relationship with God, the church, and the world because of this felt absence?
• Have I ever had anyone to whom I was very close depart, either through death, physical separation, or a relationship which ended? How did I deal with it? Do traces of this person’s presence still continue to be felt?
• What are the personal demons that I to drive out of my life and psyche? Have I called on the Spirit of Jesus for help?
• What serpents lurk in my life to threaten me? What are some of the poisonous substances and ideas I drink in every day? Is Jesus the antidote for me, or is something else the antidote?
• Do I experience the Gospels as revealing to me how God is working in my own life?
• Do I understand that I am called to be “another Christ”, to be a person who makes known the love of God and God’s care for the world?
  Do I understand that I may never know how much of this I have actually accomplished?
  Do I understand that it is enough to do what I can?
  Mother Teresa said: “I am not called to be successful; I am called to be faithful” How does this give me hope in my own efforts?
• Am I sometimes overwhelmed by the enormity of the task of being Christ for others? How paralyzing is this fear?
  Do I understand courage is acting in the face of fear?
  What people in my life have been examples of determination to do the right thing, to do the better thing?
• How does prayer and how do the sacraments give me some strength to simply do the best I can?
  Can closeness to the love of Jesus and his forgiving heart help me to forgive myself when I have failed to measure up to the goals I have set for myself to be more Christ-like?
  Can I hit the rewind button and try again?
• Am I a blessing to anyone in my life?
• Adapted from “First Impressions”:
  God has some work to be done that can only be done by one person, with that person’s specific personality, strengths, weaknesses and gifts. What gifts have I been given to use in the service of Jesus’ mission?
  Am I using them now?
  In what specific way am I called to ministry in Christ?
• When Jesus left the disciples for the last time, he did not call them to stay in a tight circle, guarding the message, and imparting it only to those in “the club”. He did not tell them to be careful, to protect themselves, to be careful not to bite off more than they could chew. Do I understand that Jesus’ command to preach to the whole of creation is a challenge for me to be inclusive in my love?
  Where is my heart narrow and exclusive?
  Where am I open and expansive?
  Where do the poor, the homeless, the dirty, the addicted, the mentally ill, the difficult to love, the outcasts of any kind, fit into this mandate?
• To be disciple one first needs to be in relationship with Jesus. What is my relationship with Him?
• From Father William Gallagher:
  When Jesus asked the disciples to go into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature, what do you think he really meant?
  What is God’s desire that is being revealed to us by this simple statement?
  How does your parish do this?
  How do you?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

This section of the gospel after verse 8 very likely was an addendum by a later writer to end Mark’s gospel on a more hopeful note. It has stayed as part of the gospel to this day, and provides a very good picture of the tasks committed to the church by Jesus. In addition, I am commissioned to be Church, to be Jesus’ emissary in my world.

The Church has a preaching task. It has been commissioned to tell the story of God’s good news to all the earth, to all creation. We, too are part of the church and commissioned as well. So I ask myself: what do I consider God’s good news? How proactive am in in sharing this with others, especially those outside my safe circle? Do I understand that I proclaim the gospel by the way I live my life and the way I treat others?

The Church has a healing task. When in the Church’s history has she brought comfort and healing to those so in need of love and care? When has the Church instead brought judgment, exclusion, division? Do I think the Church has some more work to do in this regard? Where does the world need healing the most? Am I, as church, a source of healing or a source of division for those around me?

The Church has the task of conveying the power we all have, in the name of God, over the forces of evil and despair. How has the Church’s power been used in her history? Where has the Church been a real force to counter evil and persecution? Where can the Church do better? I may not be a snake handler, exactly, but where can I do better to demonstrate the power of God in my life?

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

Imagine that you are one of the disciples, returning from that scene on the mountain where Jesus disappeared forever. What do you remember about his final words, and how you felt to see him leave? What questions are in your mind at this point—such issues as “Is it really over?” or “Who will lead us now?”, or “Am I willing to commit to this group to complete what Jesus started?” or “Is it time for me to go back home, to my former life?” What joy do I feel as I move forward with our mission? What gives me that joy? What do I say to my friends? What do I tell our followers? How do those in the temple receive our message?

In my own 21st century life, all I have is the story of Jesus that those before me have told. Do I believe it? If so, how do I live out my call to carry on the work of Jesus and the early disciples? I compose a prayer, asking Jesus to give me the tools I need to spread the joy of the gospel, and to give me the energy I need to change the world, to make a difference.

Poetic Reflection:

How does this poem comfort us with an understanding that Jesus is with us still?

“Ascension”

And if I go,
while you’re still here…
Know that I live on,
vibrating to a different measure
—behind a thin veil you cannot see through.
You will not see me,
so you must have faith.
I wait for the time when we can soar together again,
—both aware of each other.
Until then, live your life to its fullest.
And when you need me,
Just whisper my name in your heart,
…I will be there.

—Colleen Hitchcock

Closing Prayer

Lord, you have chosen me to be your ambassador. You trust me to be your good news in the present tense, in the here and now. Help me to see the signs of your presence in my life. Help me to proclaim the good news of your love by the way I live my life.

Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 9, 2021

What it means to love Jesus

John 15:9–17

As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.

I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

You are my friends if you do what I command you. I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.

It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another.

Music Meditations

• “Open My Eyes, Lord” (by Jesse Manibusan) [YouTube]
• “Whatsoever You Do” (sung by Robert Kochis) [YouTube]
• “In Christ Alone” (sung by Travis Cottrell) [YouTube]
• “Love (One Another)” (sung by The Maranatha Singers) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

Your prayer, Lord, is that my joy may be complete. This joy, Lord, is not based on illusion or self-deception, but on knowing in my heart that you, too, faced evil and sorrow and still provided a way for us to keep your joy in our hearts. On our faces too… Help me to present a face of love to those around me, as you wished me to do. Here are those that need to be reminded of your love and friendship this day: [Take a moment to think of one or two specific people, and offer their names in prayer].

Help me to love as you do.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from an online service called “Sermon Writer”:

Note: The term “pericope,” used in this section, refers to any selected section of scripture used for study or for liturgical purposes.

The gospel for today might be divided into two major sections, the first (9–12) focusing on the abiding relationship of love that binds Father, Son and disciples into one, the second (13–17) focusing on the empowering love of the Son by which he laid down his life for his “friends.”

“Just as” Love

Love is to be seen above all in the love of the Father as shown forth in the love of the Son. Our thoughts are intentionally directed back to the announcement of the depth of God’s love for the world as evidenced in the giving of the Son. “God so loved…” (3:16). In the interconnected and unfolding message of John’s gospel, it is as if every word and every passage mutually interpret one another. Using a modern analogy, one might imagine that every word in the gospel were hyperlinked to every other word in the gospel, so that “clicking” on one word necessarily explodes and expands into every other word as its commentary and frame of meaning and understanding. One of those important words in the first section (9–12) is a simple word variously translated as “so,” “as,” or “just as” (Greek kathos). In the original this word essentially frames the whole section. “Just as the Father has loved me…;” “…just as I have loved you” (9, 12). “Just as” is a key motif (31 times in the gospel) in John’s “theology” for what it reveals about the mutual relationship of Father, Son, and disciple community. As the Father has loved, so the Son loves. The Son’s love imitates and mirrors the Father’s love. The Son’s deep love in the giving of his life for his friends is no accident, but stems “just so” from the way the Father has loved the Son. To abide in the Son’s love is to know oneself as abiding in that same love which originates in the relationship of Father and Son.

Abiding in Love

The abiding relationship of vine and branches of last Sunday’s pericope, which culminates in the bearing of much fruit, is now given further delineation in terms of love. If abiding is not for its own sake but has an end or a purpose, we learn that in this passage, that purpose takes shape in love. Love is the fruit of the abiding relationship of Father and the Son, just as it is of the Son and those who follow his words. Those “words” of Jesus are characterized in this lesson as Jesus’ “commands” (5 times as verb or noun). Consistent with John’s “just as” theology, even these commands which Jesus calls upon his disciples to keep are simply an extension of the commands of the Father which Jesus has already kept. Jesus asks nothing of his disciple community that he has not already modeled in the abiding love which he has with the Father. In this way abiding, loving, and keeping commandments are all bound up together in a mutual relationship.

Lest we miss it, the first section concludes with a direct and clear statement of the outcome or fruit of this abiding love. The commandments of Jesus are not general or scattered but focused and specific: “This is my commandment, that you love one another” (12). The repetition of these words again at the conclusion of the second section (17) underscores their importance as a key to understanding the end goal of all this talk of abiding love (Incidentally, this repeated literary structure in 12 and 17 also makes clear that the NRSV’s translation of verse 17 cannot be correct. The text should read “I am giving you this command, that you love one another.”)

No Greater Love

If love for one another is the goal of our abiding in Jesus’ love, then the model for that self-giving love is stated clearly in the memorable beginning words of the second section (10–17). There is no greater love than that shown in the giving of one’s life for one’s friends. Though stated in general terms, the “laying down of one’s life” is a pointed reference to God’s giving of the Son, and in the narrative an only slightly veiled reference to and anticipation of the passion and death of Jesus on the cross. The power of God’s great love in Jesus, confirmed in Easter’s promise of the resurrection, always has its frame of reference and its power in Jesus’ giving of his life on the cross.

Jesus now speaks of the power of that giving of life to transform the disciples’ relationship and calling into a new status. These disciples are no longer to be counted as “servants” but as “friends.” In the cross and Resurrection they have come to know what this “greater love” has power to accomplish in them through their unity in the abiding relationship with Jesus and the Father. Jesus’ words now make it further clear that the power to respond to his command to love one another comes from Jesus’ own prior love and calling: “I have called you…; I have chosen you…; I have appointed you…" (15, 16).

Whatever You Ask

The key guarantor of this abiding relationship that will usher in the fruit of love is the power of prayer. Prayer, too, is grounded in the mutual abiding relationship of Father, Son, and disciple community. “The Father will give you whatever you ask in my name (16). When this promise is linked immediately with the repeated reference to Jesus’ command to “love one another,” it is clear that “whatever we ask” defines and directs Christian prayer toward the fulfilling of the command to love for the other. The promise that such love can be fulfilled resides in the giving that has already preceded in Jesus’ love on the cross. This confidence in the power of prayer (16–17) mirrors a similar promise in last Sunday’s pericope (see 15:7–8). If there prayer is grounded in “abiding in me” and “my words,” here it is grounded in Jesus’ announcement “you did not choose me, but I chose you.” If there we hear that the Father is glorified in the bearing of much fruit, here we now know that such bearing of fruit is to be found in the fulfillment of Jesus’ command to “love one another.”

Mutual Joy

To be called and appointed for such an exercise of love is for the Christian neither mere sentimentality nor drudgery. There can be no simple sentimentality in a love whose depth is to be seen in a life laid down for one’s friends. At the center of this text and at the heart of love stands the cross of Jesus. Nor can there be any painful drudgery in Jesus’ promise that all of this abiding love, this life given for us and for the other, has as its goal “so that your joy may be complete” (11). The abiding relationship in love of the Son with the Father is mirrored and modeled in the Son’s laying down of his life for the world.

Jesus came so that we might experience an overflowing life (John 10:10). Jesus expresses here the longing and the promise that his joy might be in us and that only in such abiding love and joy is the wholeness of life that the Father’s love has in its purview and promise. Just as the power of this love for our lives comes when we draw power from the vine, so our joy comes from knowing that we have been chosen, called, and sent. The abiding power of that love in and through us has power to renew and transform us and the whole of creation.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Remain in my love.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Whose love was it that taught me the meaning of the word?
  What, exactly, does the word “love” mean to me?
• Love is not a feeling. Love is a decision. Who have I decided to love today?
• If love is not so much affection as connection, how am I responding to the command at the end of today’s text?
• Who are my intimate friends? How important to me are those relationships? Am I more comfortable doing things together or just being? Can I think of ways I have made sacrifices for those who are dear to me?
• How have others invited me to move beyond casual friendship to a more intimate friendship? Have there been people who seemed to invite me into intimate friendships where the invitation seemed to be inappropriate?
• Do I experience God inviting me into an intimate friendship? Do I experience the invitation more as a “being” with God or “doing” with God? Are both aspects present? At times, does one aspect become more important at than the other?
• Am I comfortable calling Jesus “friend”?
• What do I need to change in my life to reflect better my friendship with Jesus?
• Do I realize that I do not need to earn God’s love?
• We often see Jesus in scripture, but do we see his love for us running through those scriptures?
• Do I consciously “abide” in God’s love? What holds me back?
• How are love and prayer linked?
• Do I see loving God and others as a chore or as a source of joy?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Today when we hear Jesus say, “Keep my commandments”, our minds tend to run to the 10 commandments, and we worry that we might have broken some of them. We forget that we had the ten commandments before Jesus even came on the scene. So let us assume that Jesus is speaking of something a little less negative and maybe quite a bit more challenging: Love one another as I have loved you. What might an unpacking of the commandment “love one another” look like in my everyday life? What or whom are my particular challenges? Do I understand that “like one another” is not always required? Do I feel like I can never match the love of Jesus so that I am discouraged before I ever begin? How does that feeling negate Christ’s love and understanding? (After all, his beloved in the world—his disciples—failed again and again…)

What part of my life must I lay down to love another as Jesus loves me—my prejudices, my unwillingness to help, my angry feelings, my envy of another, my list of wrongs I keep against a person, my resentment about where my life is right now, my exalted vision of what I am owed in this world, my need for material goods, my need for approval or need for power, etc.?

Finally, I spend some time thanking Jesus for being the expression of God’s love for us, and making some changes in my own relationship with others that might better reflect the commandment to love one another.

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Read the excerpts from Psalm 98 (today’s psalm selection). Reflect on the ways that God has been revealed in your life.

Take some time to journal about your specific experiences which manifest God’s love for you. Ask yourself if you pray to God to curry God’s favor, to earn God’s good will toward you, or if you pray in order to create a relationship of mutual love and affection with the Lord. Finally rewrite this psalm so that you are talking TO God, not ABOUT God (I sing a new song to you, Lord, etc.)

O sing a new song to the LORD, for he has worked wonders.
His right hand and his holy arm have brought salvation.
The LORD has made known his salvation, has shown his deliverance to the nations.
He has remembered his merciful love and his truth for the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Shout to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song, and sing out your praise.

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Adapted from At Home with the Word:

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is intimate and urgent, repeating himself and using words such as “command”. How many times does he ask his followers to love him and each other, to remain united? “remain in my love, keep my commandments”; “love one another as I love you”; or, “this I command you, love one another”. He is begging those who follow him to accept what he has offered, no less than his life, by becoming and staying in a unified body of love and faith. Read John 17:21 and reflect further on Jesus’ overriding desire for us. Are you living out that desire? In what way do you foster unity in your faith community? Where do you perhaps encourage division? Does your love for “neighbor” go beyond praying for someone outside your circle? Does love for neighbor extend to some concrete action on behalf of the poor, the marginalized? In what ways can you make love not a noun, but a verb?

Poetic Reflection:

How does this poem by Ed Ingebretzen, S.J. reflect on how to respond to the great and amazing love God has for us, for you?

“You Are Hungry”

Father
you are hungry
and we may be nothing in your hands

but let us at least
taste your fire:
let us be ash,
be dross, be waste
in the heat of your desire.

Let us at least
need, and want, and learn
that it is impossible
to want you too much,
to want you too long.

May the heat of our thirst
for you
dry the rivers
reduce the mountains to dust,
thin the air.

God, you who want us
more than we want you,
be a fan to our flame,
the end to our need,
the ocean we seek to drain.

—From Psalms of the Still Country

Poetic Reflection:

This poem by Sister Miriam Therese Winter, MMS, speaks to the need to love those no one cares about but Jesus.

On this Mothers’ Day, how does it speak to the countless women who may not realize that God is their mother?

I saw you in the doorway.
You were black and bruised and broken.
I knew you were someone’s daughter.

You are your mother’s daughter.
If she could, she would sit with you
and say how much she loved you.

I saw you in the shelter.
You looked much older than your years.
Your kids were tired and making a fuss.
I knew you were someone’s daughter.

You are your mother’s daughter.
Imagine her here as a sister, a friend,
saying how much she loves you.

I saw you on the news last night
on a dirt road in Soweto.
They were screaming at you.
You had no shoes.
I know you were someone’s daughter.

You are your mother’s daughter
and she is her mother’s daughter.
She has put up with so much abuse.
That shows how much she loves you.

I saw you in the delivery room
in drug withdrawal, writhing.
They say you have AIDS. You are three hours old.
And I know you are someone’s daughter.

You are your mother’s daughter
and she needs you to forgive her.
She doesn’t know how to love as yet,
but when she does, I promise you,
she will say how much she loves you.

I saw you in an orphanage.
How sad you looked, and lonely.
They say that you are hard to place,
but I know that you are someone’s daughter.

You are your mother’s daughter
and a foster mother’s daughter,
and one of these days she will come for you
and say how much she loves you.

I saw you in a nursing home.
You were slumped in a chair with a vacant stare.
I knew you were somebody’s daughter.

You are your mother’s daughter,
your Mother God’s own daughter.
Soon, very soon, She will come for you
and say how much she loves you.

Closing Prayer

From “Sacred Space”, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

A person blind from birth cannot understand color. A person who has never been loved can find love a baffling word. I feel I have an inkling of love’s meaning, but how? Whose love was it that taught me the meaning of the word? What do I know about the sort of self-giving that is unearned, unquestioning, looking for no return?

Lord, I have so much to learn from you about love.

Fifth Sunday of Easter, May 2, 2021

What it means to be rooted in Jesus

John 15:1–8

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.

“Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.

“Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.

“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you. By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

Music Meditations

• “I Am the Vine” (John Michael Talbot) [YouTube]
• “Give Me Jesus” (sung by Fernando Ortega) [YouTube]
• “In Christ Alone” (lyrics by Chris Tomlin) [YouTube]
• “Abide With Me” (Matt Maher) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

Adapted from “Sacred Space,” July 2012:

O God, you are with me, but more,
You are within me, giving me existence.
Let me dwell for a moment in your life-giving presence
In my body, my mind, my heart
And in my whole life.
Lord, grant that I may always desire
To spend time in your presence.
May I not forget your goodness to me.
Guide me to share your blessings with others.

Companions for the Journey

From “America” Magazine 2009, the national Jesuit weekly:

“Already Pruned”

“Remain in me as I remain in you” (Jn 15:4)

I am not much of a gardener. As a city-dweller, I am lucky if I can keep a few houseplants alive. What is especially difficult for me is to prune parts of a plant that still have life in them, even if they are scraggly and have stopped flowering. I have no problem clipping off parts that are clearly dead, but it is hard to bring myself to trim off something still living.

In today’s Gospel Jesus speaks of the Father as a vintner who prunes branches that are bearing fruit so that they will produce even more. There is a strong emphasis on “bearing fruit”; the expression occurs five times in the passage. It speaks not only of the fecundity in our relationship with God, but also of missionary outreach and of interdependence with the other branches on the vine.

The image of God as a vine grower and Israel as the vineyard is a familiar one in the Scriptures (for example, Is 5:1-7; 27:2-5; Jer 2:21; Ps 80:8-18). Most often the metaphor is used to express God’s disappointment in the lack of yield from a vine so tenderly planted and nurtured. In the Gospel of John, this is not the case. The disciples Jesus is addressing in this Last Supper scene are “already pruned” so that they will bear more fruit. Branches that do not bear fruit are taken away.

There is a word play between the verb airei, “takes away” and its compound kathairei, “prunes.” Moreover, there are verbal echoes of other parts of Jesus’ farewell discourse at the supper and the passion narrative. The imperative form of the verb airei is found in the cry of the people who call for Jesus’ crucifixion, “aron,” “Away with him!” (19:15). The adjectival form of the verb kathairei, which literally means “to make clean,” occurs in the footwashing scene (13:10-11), where Jesus assures the disciples they are clean (katharoi)

Pruning then is another Johannine metaphor for the passion. It is akin to the image in Jn 12:24, where Jesus speaks of the seed that must fall to the ground and die in order to bear much fruit. The emphasis is on the life that sprouts forth from the dying and the pruning. Expert gardeners know that the place to prune is, paradoxically, where the nodes are bursting with life.

From pruning, the stress in the Gospel shifts to the importance of the branch remaining united to the vine in order to bear fruit. A branch cannot bear fruit on its own; cut off from the vine, it withers and dies and then is good only for kindling. That remaining or abiding in Jesus is crucial for disciples is evident in that the verb menein, “to abide,” occurs eight times in these eight verses. This mutual indwelling has been spoken of since the opening chapter of the Gospel, where the first question asked by the initial two disciples is, “Where are you staying?” (meneis) (1:38). Another important moment is when the Samaritans ask Jesus to stay (menein) with them (4:40). In the Bread of Life Discourse, Jesus tells his followers, “those who eat my flesh and drink my blood, abide [menei] in me and I in them” (6:56). True disciples abide in Jesus’ word (8:31) and Jesus’ words remain in the disciples (15:7). When Jesus tells his disciples he is going to prepare a dwelling place for them (14:2), it becomes clear that the “abiding place” is not a geographical locale, but is Jesus himself (14:6), where also the Father makes his home (14:23) along with the Spirit (14:17).

How can we insure that we are abiding in Christ and he in us? In the second reading, 1 Jn 3:24 gives a simple formula: “Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them, and the way we know that he remains in us is from the Spirit he gave us.” The writer also spells out what it means to keep the commandments: “We should believe in the name of...Jesus Christ and love one another just as he commanded us” (1 Jn 3:23).

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Remain in me, as I remain in you

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Are we connected to the life of God? Can we prove it?
• Do I believe that I am a friend of Jesus?
  What does that mean to me?

• From Paul Gallagher, OFM, in “First Impressions” 2006:

  Do you garden?
  What have you learned about yourself by trying to grow plants?
  What have you learned about relationships by trying to grow plants?

  Why do gardeners prune plants?
  What do they hope will happen?
  What, in human development, would be the equivalent of pruning plants?
  How does it happen in your own life?
  What happens because of it?
  What happens to you if you go through long periods without entering a process of being pruned?
  What does that say to you?

  How do you retain your relationship with Jesus and/or God?
  How do you know if that relationship is healthy?

  Do you have relationships where you have no responsibilities?
  How do you feel about the notion that you have responsibility in your relationship with God?

• Using the metaphor from agriculture, how are we changed by being grafted on to the life of the Spirit that is Jesus? Do we lose our personality?
• What does it mean to be rooted in Jesus? How do we do this?
• What is the role of the gardener in pruning and training the vine? How did Jesus’ passion prune and refine who Jesus was? Is it comforting or disturbing to think that Jesus’ own father in heaven cut off and trimmed whatever in Jesus that was not going to bear fruit?
• What in my own personality, goals, or behavior needs pruning to better dwell in Jesus and to bear better fruit? What would that better fruit look like?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Adapted from Professor Barbara Reid, O.P., PhD, President of the Catholic Theological Union, Chicago:

• In your own words, ask Christ to prune in you whatever impedes your “bearing much fruit.”
• Spend some quiet time today enjoying simply dwelling with the Triune One who makes a home in you.
• In your own words, give thanks for the Word and the Eucharist, through which we abide in Christ and Christ in us.

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

How diverse is our faith community writ large? How diverse is it in my local community? How does the vine and branches image respect the diversity within our church—in this community and beyond? How comfortable are we in that diversity? What are the personal and institutional challenges of diversity in our faith community? How do they affect you? How have we worked to minimize the diversity until we are comfortable?

Sit for a moment and let the image of the vine in this gospel speak to you about your rootedness in Jesus, and about our interconnectedness because we are ALL rooted in God. Where can you do better in this regard?

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

Adaptation from “First Impressions”:

Imagine Jesus on that night in Gethsemane: Imagine the noises around you, the snuffling (read: snoring) of your friends behind you. What do you think is about to happen? How do you know this? Imagine talking to your Abba, your Father in heaven, telling him of your fears. What are you afraid of? Name it. What goes through your mind and heart as you ask for His help, his comfort, ask, even, to have this whole thing go away? How do you feel when there is silence from the other end? Is there silence from the other end? What makes you decide to let all of the events play out? Do you hope to be rescued? When you are at your lowest point, without even your friends to bear you company, and you hear the noises of an armed crowd coming through the darkness in your direction, what is being pruned in your spirit?

Upon deeper reflection of Jesus’ last days, we realize that out connectedness to God does not insure that life will be a cake walk. No one was more connected to the “vine grower” than Jesus, yet he had to “walk through the valley of the shadow of death.” Look at how much fruit the “vine dresser” brought out of Jesus’ life through his suffering. Feeling abandoned may be a natural feeling when we are suffering; but faith in Jesus reminds us that we are not cast off and that, through Christ, we are in a powerful and meaningful relationship with God. It becomes easy to drift away from Jesus through busyness, anxiety, or personal and relationship preoccupations. What can I do to “remain” in Christ, letting his words nourish and direct me when I am in danger of losing touch with Him?

Poetic Reflection:

Read the following poem by the late Stanford professor and poet Denise Levertov. What does it say about the difficulty of “remaining” with and in God?

“Flickering Mind”

Lord, not you
it is I who am absent.
At first
belief was a joy I kept in secret,
stealing alone
into sacred places:
a quick glance, and away—and back,
circling.
I have long since uttered your name
but now
I elude your presence.
I stop
to think about you, and my mind
at once
like a minnow darts away,
darts
into the shadows, into gleams that fret
unceasing over
the river’s purling and passing.
Not for one second
will my self hold still, but wanders
anywhere,
everywhere it can turn. Not you,
it is I am absent.
You are the stream, the fish, the light,
the pulsing shadow.
You the unchanging presence, in whom all
moves and changes.
How can I focus my flickering, perceive
at the fountain’s heart
the sapphire I know is there?

Closing Prayer

Adapted from “Sacred Space”:

Dear Jesus, you seem to love that little word abide. Teach me what it is to live in you, and for you to live in me. It means being in love with you, being at ease with you, finding my strength in you and being ready, when questioned, to explain to others what you are in my life. Please help those who feel sad, alone, anxious, and abandoned to realize that you are always with them, always abiding in them, always loving them. Help me to reflect that love to others as well.