The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to renew our relationship with God, who is Love, by being open to the unexpected experience of Divine Presence.
Love and community
The reading from the First Letter of John proclaims that God Is Love.
[4:7–12] Love as we share in it testifies to the nature of God and to his presence in our lives. One who loves shows that one is a child of God and knows God, for God’s very being is love; one without love is without God. The revelation of the nature of God’s love is found in the free gift of his Son to us, so that we may share life with God and be delivered from our sins. The love we have for one another must be of the same sort: authentic, merciful; this unique Christian love is our proof that we know God and can “see” the invisible God.1
Psalm 72 is a prayer for guidance and support for the king.
[Psalm 72] A royal Psalm in which the Israelite king, as the representative of God, is the instrument of divine justice (Ps 72:1–4, 12–14) and blessing (Ps 72:5–7, 15–17) for the whole world. The king is human, giving only what he has received from God. Hence intercession must be made for him. The extravagant language is typical of oriental royal courts.2
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus feeds the Five Thousand.
[6:35–44] See note on Mt 14:13–21. Compare this section with Mk 8:1–9. The various accounts of the multiplication of loaves and fishes, two each in Mark and in Matthew and one each in Luke and in John, indicate the wide interest of the early church in their eucharistic gatherings; see, e.g., Mk 6:41; 8:6; 14:22; and recall also the sign of bread in Ex 16; Dt 8:3–16; Ps 78:24–25; 105:40; Wis 16:20–21.3
Larry Hopp asks if we let the hustle and bustle of our daily routines rob us of seeing God revealing Himself to us each day.
I know that I so often fail to recognize all that God is doing in my life – how He is clearly involved with all the little details. How these revelations happen is truly unfathomable – but routine for our amazing God. God’s orchestration of the details of our lives provides a constantly renewing epiphany of God revealing Himself to us – if only we open our eyes & hearts to comprehend. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the Epiphany example that we find in the wise men’s story. Help us to see your love as you reveal yourself to us each and every day. Empower us to truly embrace our own epiphany, to embrace your love as we give ourselves, wholly and completely to you. In the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.4
Don Schwager quotes “The Lord fills all things with blessing from above,” by Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD).
"So that by every means the Lord might be known to be God by nature, he multiplies what is little, and he looks up to heaven as though asking for the blessing from above. Now he does this out of the divine economy, for our sakes. For he himself is the one who fills all things, the true blessing from above and from the Father. But, so that we might learn that when we are in charge of the table and are preparing to break the loaves, we ought to bring them to God with hands upraised and bring down upon them the blessing from above, he became for us the beginning and pattern and way." (excerpt from FRAGMENT 177)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on 1 John 4:7-10 comments that the next time we encounter a Christian who doesn’t think like us or who doesn’t seem very loving, remember this truth: “Love is of God” (1 John 4:7). It does not come to us as a result of our human perfection. It does not come only to those who are like minded. And it certainly does not come in just half measures to the weak, the sinful, or the unbelieving.
Can you respond to your “enemies” in a way that reflects God’s love? It’s not easy, but every effort you make to do this—and every prayer you lift up asking for God’s grace to help you—is a powerful sign that God’s love has taken root in you. “Lord, let my love for my brothers and sisters shine as a witness to you.”6
Friar Jude Winkler identifies the core of the Letter of John as the declaration that God is Love. In the Gospel of John, the cross is the hour of glory when the Love of God is most manifest. Friar Jude reminds us that the “nature miracle” in the Gospel is connected to the verdant pastures of Psalm 23.
Cynthia Bourgeault shares that another way to look at “unveiling” is as a sort of “recognition event,” where something we thought we knew reveals itself to be radically different than our long-held assumptions. Cynthia explores how this is a gospel phenomenon, one that takes place repeatedly, especially for Jesus. When people are attuned and awake, reality is often “unveiled” for them. Cynthia suggests that this might be a necessary step for all Christians in the twenty-first century. We’ve become so used to the “story” of our faith that a veil has been pulled over our eyes and we no longer experience its power to change our lives.
We’re living in an era right now which some would call a major paradigm shift, where there’s an opportunity as perhaps there hasn’t been before to really open up the core questions again and ask, “What is it that we mean by ‘Christianity’? What is this filter [or veil] that we’re looking through? Who is this Master that we profess and confess in our life as we call ourselves Christian?” . . . When we approach the [Jesus] story with the attitude, “I’ve heard that already, I know what that means,” we fall asleep rather than allowing ourselves to be shocked awake. . . . For all such spiritual sleepwalking bypasses that crucial first step, that moment when the heart has to find its way not though external conditioning but through a raw immediacy of presence. Only there—in “the cave of the heart,” as the mystics are fond of calling it—does a person come in contact with his or her own direct knowingness. And only out of this direct knowingness is sovereignty born, one’s own inner authority.7
The experience of the Presence of God reaches into the depth of our being where Love is our origin.
References
No comments:
Post a Comment