Seen with eyes of perfect love (Henri Nouwen)

    The spiritual life starts at the place where you can hear God’s voice. Where somehow you can claim that long before your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your school, your church touched you, loved you, and wounded you – long before that, you were held safe in an eternal embrace. You were seen with eyes of perfect love long before you entered into the dark valley of life. 

    The spiritual life starts at the moment that you can go beyond all of the wounds and claim that there was a love that was perfect and unlimited, long before that perfect love became reflected in the imperfect and limited, conditional love of people. 

    The spiritual life starts where you dare to claim the first love. Love one another because I have loved you first (John 4: 19). 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: https://www.lionsroar.com/the-perfect-love-we-seek-the-imperfect-love-we-live/ 

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 9, 2021: Love one another as I have loved you...

Love one another as I have loved you…

What does it mean to be a good friend?

   Imagine if Jesus were to tell you in person that he loved you! In the Last Supper discourse in John’s Gospel, Jesus does just that: As the Father loves me, so I also love you, he tells his disciples, and so he is ready to lay down his life for his friends. It is an extraordinary gift. But to understand that gift, the disciples must do as Jesus has done: they must pay attention to God’s will and follow his commandments:  You are my friends if you do what I command you, he tells them. Jesus explains that he is willing to sacrifice his life for us because he loves us, loves us so completely that he subordinates himself to all of humankind, so that in the end he might raise us up.

   Moreover, the invitation is open to all, as Peter discovers in the home of the Gentile Cornelius in the Acts of the Apostles: In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. God sends his Holy Spirit into the hearts of all who are open to that Spirit at work in them and willing to help others to open to the Spirit as well. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be free of self-concern, focused on the world in which we live rather than on ourselves. The Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts, freeing us of all that might stand in the way of relationship both with God and with one another. It is a fulfillment of the covenant that God made with all of humankind, as Psalm 98 explains: All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God, a salvation that is manifested in God’s kindness and faithfulness toward all nations.

   For our part, we are called to see the death and rising of Jesus as a pattern for our own lives – to die to self, that we might rise in love. Love one as I have loved you, he says: love one another, in other words, enough to want to serve one another, to put others’ needs above your own. The First Letter of John reiterates this invitation: let us love one another, because love is of God. Once again, love here is experienced as mercy revealed through the death and rising of Jesus for the expiation of our sins. Such an extraordinary expression of love transcends our sins; we experience God’s love as we come to know God’s mercy and forgiveness, and every experience of that love will change us, leaving us different than we were before, leaving us ever more ready to be good friends through the love and mercy that we share with one another, manifesting God’s love to all.

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Jesus is the vine (Bishop Robert Barron)

    Jesus declares that he is the vine, and we are the branches who must remain in him. If we ourselves do not participate in who Jesus was, we miss the spiritual power that he meant to unleash. 

    If John’s Gospel is any indication, Jesus does not want worshipers but followers, or better, participants: I am the vine, you are the branches; live on in me; my body is real food and my blood real drink. The one who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. 

   The beautifully organic images that John presents are meant to communicate the life-changing power of the Incarnation: the Logos became flesh, our flesh, so that we might allow the divine energy to come to birth in us. 

   Much of this is summed up in the oft-repeated patristic adage that God became human that humans might become God, sharing in the symbiosis that is the Incarnation, as the proper goal of human life. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, May 13, 2020 

Image source: The Word Became Flesh, St. John’s Bible, https://www.saintjameslancaster.org/urban-well/urban-well-events/the-saint-johns-bible-series/

God wants to prune me (Henri Nouwen)

    It helps me to think about painful rejections, moments of loneliness, feelings of inner darkness and despair, and lack of support and human affection as God’s pruning. I am aware that I might have settled too soon for the few fruits that I can recognize in my life. I might say, Well, I am doing some good here and there, and I should be grateful for and content with the little good I do. But that might be false modesty and even a form of spiritual laziness. 

   God calls me to more. God wants to prune me. A pruned vine does not look beautiful, but during harvest time it produces much fruit. The great challenge is to continue to recognize God’s pruning hand in my life. Then I can avoid resentment and depression and become even more grateful that I am called upon to bear even more fruit than I thought I could. Suffering then becomes a way of purification and allows me to rejoice in its fruits with deep gratitude and without pride. 

 --Henri Nouwen

Image source 1: https://blog.jordanwinery.com/how-to-prune-grape-vines/
Image source 2: https://aviancontrolinc.com/bird-control-vineyards/
Quotation source

The Vine (Brother Isaiah)

Falling, yeah, falling again Lord
And I’m tempted to lose my heart, my peace
Falling, yeah, falling once again, Lord
And I’m tempted to lose my heart, my peace 

And you say, I am the vine, o child,
You are the branches, the branches of my love
Yes, I am the vine and you are the branches
Come grow in me, come grow in me, come grow in me 

Slowly, slowly, my child, is growing, is growing in me
Patience, oh patience, my child, is growing, is growing in me 

And he said, I am the vine and you the branches

Yes, I am the vine and you are the branches

Remain in me, remain in me, and you will see

Remain in me, remain in me, and you will see

Abide in my love now, abide in my love now, yeah

And come begin again child, come begin again child, oh, now,

Abide in my love now, abide in my love now, and begin again

This is the first day of the rest of your life

‘Cause I am the vine and you are the branches

Remain in me, remain in me, and come to see, yeah

Remain in me, remain in me, and come to see

Patience, patience, patience, patience

To hear Brother Isaiah perform The Vine, from his new album Shade, click on the video below.  To purchase Shade, click here.

Image source: https://brentkuhlman.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/vine-jesus.jpg
Video source

Remaining in his love (Jung Eun Sophia Park)

    Remaining in his love means going to an unknown land and people, or going to an unfamiliar people or cultures, with discerning and open spirits. When all kinds of cultural boundaries cross, the activity of the Holy Spirit will be manifest. And when we embrace all kinds of unexpected reality, we can then sing a new song to the Lord. 

    Like a tree which gives up all things, only to then experience new leaves budding, we are standing in our faith, desiring a new song to emerge from our everyday life. We are bound by our limits and daily tasks, but we still hope to sing a new song to the Lord by remaining in his love. In the spirit of discernment and listening, when we dare to cross boundaries and to embrace the strange or the unfamiliar, we can remain in the love of Jesus. And we can make a new song to the Lord. 

--Jung Eun Sophia Park, SNJM 

Image source: https://www.newwaysministry.org/2020/11/29/lessons-from-the-fig-tree/fig-tree-new-leaves-f-2/
Quotation source

The seed took root in her (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   We are told that Mary pondered the Word of God until she became pregnant with it. What an extraordinary notion! This doesn’t just mean that Christ had no human father and that, physically, Mary got pregnant from the Holy Spirit, it also means that Mary so immersed herself in the Holy Spirit (in charity, joy, peace, patience, goodness, long-suffering faith, mildness, fidelity, and chastity) that she became pregnant with them; their seed took root in her.

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI

Facebook, December 2, 2019

In May we honor the Virgin Mary…

Image source: https://mycarmel.blog/2018/12/19/advent/