Preferring Nothing to Christ

Exodus 34:4-6,8-9
2 Corinthians 13:11-13
John 3:16-18

The mystics believed that we are all born with a capacity for God (Capax Dei).
St Augustine believed that this capacity makes it possible for the human person to be re-formed through God’s gracious gift.

It has become common place for society to be described as ‘post Christian’ or as ‘secular’. While it may appear that Christian values are all but forgotten in the way in which our ordinary lives are ordered, I think we may have lost sight of the fundamental truth that we all carry within us the capacity for God. This capacity won’t always be expressed in the traditional ways, but I do believe that in the heart of every human being is the desire to know that they are part of something much bigger than themselves. Every human being wants to be connected to someone or something that gives meaning to their life. We are made for connection.

St Augustine sees our re-forming in terms of the image of the Trinity. Just as there is unity among the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so too, there is unity in a person’s memory, understanding and will. At the core of each human being is a mystery which reflects the great mystery of the Godhead. In the ordinary run of life it’s easy to lose sight of this mystery that we carry within us. We are often more of aware of our failures than our triumphs. Maria Boulding,  expresses this so well in her book, The Coming of God, which has become for me a personal spiritual classic:

All your hopes and disappointments, your joy and suffering, your achievement and failure, your ups and downs: none of it is wasted. Provided only that you consent without qualification, the work of grace is going on in you through the whole business of living, to hollow you out, to make you Capax Dei, as the old mystics used to say, able to receive God. You yourself are the place of desire and need. All your love, your stretching out, your hope, your thirst, God is creating in you so that he may fill you.

When we celebrate the feast of the The Trinity we celebrate connection. Each of the readings for today highlights the quality of that connection:

‘Lord, Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in kindness and faithfulness.’ (Ex 34)

Be united; live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. (2 Cor 13)

God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life. (John 3)

How can you live out this Trinitarian love this coming week?

Luke 1:39-56

‘Mary set out and went as quickly as she could to a town in the hill country’.

When Mary sets out to visit Elizabeth there’s a sense of urgency and excitement. By all accounts Mary’s journey to Elizabeth won’t have been easy. Whatever we imagine the terrain to be like, the journey was long and not without danger for someone Mary’s age. Luke gives us none of these details. His focus in on the joy of two women meeting. Mary and Elizabeth have lived lives of faithfulness to God’s Word. Their faithfulness has made them so open and ready to receive: God can easily find a home in them. On this Feast we sing a hymn written by one of our Sisters. This verse always strikes me:

Virgin mother, childless wife,
Vessels of his will;
In their flesh his kingdom grows,
Secret, holy, still.

Some similar themes are at work in a sonnet for the Visitation by Malcolm Guite:

Two women on the very edge of things
Unnoticed and unknown to men of power
But in their flesh the hidden Spirit sings
And in their lives the buds of blessing flower.

This place for the kingdom to grow ‘secret, holy, still’ is within each one of us.
Each one of us has the capacity for these ‘buds of blessing’ to flower.

How can you nurture this kingdom life within you?

John 20:19-23

From the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday to the celebration of Pentecost the Church has marked out a path for us to follow. We have walked in the wilderness with Israelites, fasted in the desert with Jesus, followed him as he taught and worked miracles, we have sat at the table in the Upper Room, fallen asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane, stood in the cold in the courtyard of the High Priest’s house, we have watched from a distance as he drew his last breath on the cross, we have run early in the morning to the tomb, we have had breakfast on the beach in Tiberias and now Jesus stands before us saying:

Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.

How and where we follow Jesus is up to us now. We are promised the Spirit as a helper and comforter. We must watch and wait for the promptings of the Spirit. We must be attentive to the Spirit and prepared for anything. St Cyril of Jerusalem speaks of the gentle presence of the Spirit:

‘The Spirit comes gently and makes himself known by his fragrance. He is not felt as a burden, for he is light…The Spirit comes with the tenderness of a true friend and protector to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen, to console.’

Where will the Spirit lead you today?

Luke 10:1-9

‘Carry no purse, no haversack, no sandals. Salute no one on the road.’

These words always pull me up short. I rarely travel light as I like to be able to cover every eventuality when I am on a journey. We can quickly spiritualise this text and tell ourselves that Jesus wants us to leave behind our heavy emotional baggage and to set out on a journey where he is the guide. But when it comes down to it leaving behind emotional baggage is every bit as hard as leaving behind physical baggage. What is being asked of us it to rely completely on God.

When St Augustine lands on these shores in 597 he too is being asked to rely completely on God. After leaving his monastery in Rome, the prospect of his mission is challenging and he considers turning back. He wrote to Pope Gregory, hoping to be able to abandon his mission. St Bede records Pope Gregory’s reply:

Let not, therefore, the toil of the journey, nor the tongues of evil-speaking men, discourage you; but with all earnestness and zeal perform, by God’s guidance, that which you have set about; being assured, that great labour is followed by the greater glory of an eternal reward.

In Pope Gregory’s reply I hear resonances of the Rule of St Benedict. In his Prologue St Benedict sounds several clarion calls: Clothed then with faith and the performance of good works, let us set out on this way, with the Gospel for our guide, that we may deserve to meet him who has called us to his kingdom.

Few of us will be asked to lead a mission, but we can all answer the call to live with the Gospel as our guide. We can be Good News for others.

How is God calling you to be Good News for others?

John 21:15-19

Our Gospel texts during Eastertide have laid before us many themes. They weave in and out of each other and form a kind of fabric. Amongst the many themes, these stand out for me: Love, Glory, Life, Believe in Jesus and Truth.

Today it is Love that is to be our focus as we re-visit the scene with Jesus and Peter, on the shore at Tiberias.

‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these others do?’

For me this is one of the most profound and challenging questions that Jesus asks in the Gospels. Jesus is about to entrust Peter with the care and leadership of his followers. Every meal shared, every story told and every sign and wonder worked has led to this moment. Peter has grown in relationship with Jesus and it is from this place that he responds. Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him and each time Peter responds. Peter is commissioned to ‘feed’ and to ‘tend’ those in his care.

However we might understand Church leadership and authority today, its roots are in relationship. Henry Wansbrough osb comments on the three fold question and response:

‘Its form makes it clear that it is a demanding service of love and care, not a comfortable dominance of rank and authority.‘

How is Christ calling you to serve?

John 17:20-26

Father, I want those you have given me
to be with me where I am,
so that they may always see the glory you have given me
because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

Often in liturgy we find ourselves holding several time frames at once. We have celebrated the Ascension and now we wait for the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. But our Gospel text has us back around the table with the disciples at the Last Supper and Jesus is looking to the future. The whole text is about intimacy and connection. The disciples have experienced a close connection to Jesus while he was on earth and Jesus wants this same connection to be theirs when they are united in heaven.

It can happen in the spiritual life that all of a sudden you feel as if your connection with Jesus has gone. Suddenly what once felt secure and life-giving just evaporates. When you are in the midst of this type of experience you have difficulty imagining that things could ever go back to normal. Today’s Gospel gives us hope. It is into our darkness and confusion that Jesus speaks these words:

I have given them the glory you gave to me,
that they may be one as we are one.

Jesus’ relationship with his Father is the guarantee that out of darkness light will come.

How do you hear Jesus’ words?

John 17:11-19

‘Consecrate them in the truth;
your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
I have sent them into the world,
and for their sake I consecrate myself
so that they too may be consecrated in truth.’

In recent weeks as the various scandals have unfolded in our country I have thought a good deal about truth and what it might mean to speak the truth. Time after time we have listened to terms being defined and redefined. Getting some someone to admit that they broke a rule can take months.

The truth that Jesus speaks of has resonances for me of uprightness, faithfulness and integrity. It’s not a question of actions and attitudes that will keep you on the right side of the law, but rather it is a question of relationship. Jesus’ desire for us to be consecrated in the truth sets us apart and marks us as chosen to be in relationship with him. This relationship moulds and shapes us to become Christ-like.

There’s a line in the old translation of Lent Preface 1 that comes to mind:

As we recall the great events
that gave us new life in Christ,
you bring the image of your Son to perfection within us.

This is God’s work if we will allow it.

How is Christ calling you to deepen your relationship with him?

John 17:1-11

I have made your name known
to those you took from the world to give me.
They were yours and you gave them to me,
and they have kept your word.

Today we hear again the opening verses of Chapter 17 of John’s Gospel. Each couple of sentences presents us with an idea which builds up our understanding of the glory that is revealed in Christ. We can see this lengthy prayer as Christ articulating his relationship with his Father. Faithfulness and trust run as a thread through the whole passage.

The dynamic of the relationship between Father and Son has been made concrete in the way in which the Son has nurtured those entrusted to him. Christ can confidently say that those entrusted to him have ‘kept your word’. In this simple phrase a whole thought world is echoed. I hear in this phrase the touchstone text of the Old Testament:

You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your strength.
Let these words I urge on you today
be written on your heart.
You shall repeat them to your children
and say them over to them whether
at rest in your house or walking abroad,
at your lying down or at your rising;
you shall fasten them on your hand
as a sign and on your forehead as a circlet;
you shall write them on the doorposts
of your house and on your gates.

Keeping the word permeates every aspect of life: the word binds in love and shapes in fidelity.

How can you keep God’s word today?

John 16:29-33

I am not alone,
because the Father is with me.
I have told you all this
so that you may find peace in me.

How often have you prayed for someone that they may find peace? Perhaps someone might have to make a difficult decision or comes to terms with a difficult some difficult circumstances: we wish them peace. It’s possible to wish for others what we cannot find ourselves.

When Jesus is getting ready to leave his disciples his wish is that they may find peace. This won’t mean that they will avoid conflict or challenge. Instead they will find an inner strength in knowing that Jesus and the Father are one. Hidden in the tidy prose of John’s Gospel is the stark fact the disciples don’t know how things will turn out for them. They have been schooled in love by Jesus and promised the Spirit. Now it’s up to them to let the promises unfold.

What sense do you have of the peace that Jesus promises?

John 17:1-11

I pray for them; I am not praying for the world
but for those you have given me, because they belong to you:
all I have is yours and all you have is mine, and in them I am glorified.

As we have journeyed through Eastertide our Biblical imaginations have been fed by the rich theological world of John’s Gospel. I have come to realise that some Johannine motifs don’t yield their meaning all at once. I am always looking for interpretative keys.

Jesuit, Victor Cancino, speaks of John’s Gospel inviting the believer to ‘enter into the mystery of trinitarian love and experience its results.’

He sees this encounter as having the characteristics of a dance:

‘There is a circular movement of love between Father and Son, and this has the power to draw the disciples in as well. As they participate in the dance, they discover that the life of Christ is already at work in them.’

In today’s Gospel the intimacy of the love between Christ and the Father underpins all that is said. Christ prepares to go willing and freely to his death and therein lies one meaning of ‘glory’. He has fulfilled his earthly mission. His will and his Father’s will are closely intertwined: ‘all I have is yours and all you have is mine’. The disciples are very much part of that dynamic too: ‘and in them I am glorified.’

In our broken lives, Christ is at work in us too. In our triumphs of love and our falls from grace, we too are drawn deeper into the mystery of Trinitarian love.

Look back over your week.
Where have you been drawn deeper into the mystery of God’s love?

Photo by Keren Fedida on Unsplash