The Presence is Joy and Direction

The texts today in the Roman Catholic Lectionary bring us to reflect on the Presence of Jesus. Father Larry Gillick SJ comments “The “womb”, the “Tomb”, and our “bodies” are blest by His presence. All three are delivery places. He was born, lived, died, was buried and rose that His body might give life and vision to this world. The womb and tomb could not hold Him. We who do hold Him, do not hold Him back, but hold Him forth, hold Him sacredly toward His sisters and brothers. We hold Him and yet He too holds us together and with a sense of having to do something good. We hold Him so that others may behold Him in how we live as His Body.” (Gillick SJ, 2011)

The Spirit which brought life to Peter’s proclamation of the mission and anointing of Jesus as the descendant of David, presented in the Scripture, as the one who would be raised by God and not know death is the Presence which the on lookers experience as they gather to investigate the commotion of Pentecost among Jesus followers. The psalmist praises God in words “In your presence there is fullness of joy; in your right hand are pleasures for evermore.” The joy of the psalmist is expressed in the letter of Peter as a knowledge of a new direction which involves both an exodus from the ways of the ancestors and a living ‘reverent fear” which is the response of the person to the revelation that Life, Truth and Way are intimately linked to the relationship to the Presence of Jesus. The Spirit is the channel through which our indwelling Spirit connects with the Presence. The disciples on the road to Emmaus have been overcome by the cares and concerns of the day when confusion, expectation, hope and despair have all been raging in their being. The walk is a very human activity which begins to sort and sift the inputs and interference in our consciousness. Could He be Present? The pursuit of this question by the inquiry of the “stranger” brings them to the living of the intimacy with Him activated and implanted by the ‘breaking of the bread’. The understanding expressed in Vatican II of the Eucharistic celebration where we ‘become what we are” is evidenced as the disciples “put on Christ” and are joyfully energized to be bring Jesus Presence to their companions.



Gillick SJ, L. (2011, May). Daily Reflection. Retrieved May 8, 2011, from online ministries creighton university: http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/050811.html