Of heaven and earth

The theme of transformation is in the texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary. Diane Jorgensen uses our experience of human love to point out that we change in our behaviour as a consequence of living in the love of others. The communal life of the disciples which Friar Jude Winkler notes is one of two such description in the Acts of the Apostles is understandable when we see those with whom we share all our possessions as family. We know that personal ownership of material goods in families takes second place to the welfare of family members. Perhaps our hearts are in need of the transformation which allows us to see more of the people we encounter daily as brother, sister, mother, father, child or grandchild. The dialogue between Jesus and Nicodemus in the Gospel from John probes the reluctance of the self declared teacher of Israel, Nicodemus, to be opened to the lessons in Scripture which shows Jesus as the fulfillment of the Law and the One, Friar Jude comments, who is the Son of Man from the Book of Daniel. We too are reluctant to allow the contemplation of our own experience of Love, human and Divine, to be the sign to us that we have been transformed by the wind, breath and Spirit and healed by the Presence of God, who the Evangelist John proclaims is exalted on the throne of the Cross where the depth of Divine Love is visible to human eyes. Our imagination gazes at the Cross and sees those in our lives who have been Christ to us.