Preferring Nothing to Christ

Ezekiel 34:11-16
Romans 5:5-11
Luke 15:3-7

Recently I have been revisiting Greg Boyle sj’s book, Tattoos on the Heart. Fr Greg works with gangs in Los Angeles and his book tells the most moving story of how God’s love triumphs through every form of adversity.

Fr Greg tells the story of a plane journey he took with three gang members. They had been to an event at the White House and on the return journey one of the homies shares his story with a stewardess. It takes 45 mins and by the end of it she is crying. He returns to his seat a little non plussed. Fr Greg says to him;

‘She saw that you are somebody. She recognized you . . . as the shape of God’s heart. Sometimes people cry when they see that.’

All of our readings today tell us something about the shape of God’s heart. The prophet Ezekiel offers the image of the Good Shepherd. While few of us will have direct experience of tending sheep, the image is accessible. There’s one detail that I love. This shepherd doesn’t just look out for those those who have been scattered and need rescuing. He promises to keep and eye on the ‘fat and healthy’ too. This shepherd has a heart big enough for everyone.

In Paul’s Letter to the Romans we hear that ‘God’s love has been poured into our hearts’. This is a heart that overflows with love. This is not the careful pouring where there is just enough to go round. This is God’s infinite pouring.

In Luke’s story of the Lost Sheep we see the shape of the heart of God again. This time it is a wreckless heart. By all accounts leaving your ninety nine sheep to go in search of one is a risky strategy. This shepherd is a risk taker.

There are so many ways for us to be the shape of God’s heart.

Look out today for the shape of God’s heart in all those you meet today.

Luke 1:57-66,80

What will this child turn out to be?

I have always loved this line from Luke’s account of the Birth of John the Baptist. The reader knows just who he will turn out to be. And yet, I am always caught up in a feeling of expectancy and possibilities. An earlier line in the account kindles a similar feeling of expectancy for me:

The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son; and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy.

This longed-for child is already surrounded by a network of love and joy. I’d like to think that it is from this implicit place of security that John was able to make his radical choices and follow a path that would eventually lead to martyrdom. No parent would wish this for their child, and yet, there Elizabeth and Zechariah stand as models of righteousness and faith. Their trust in the power of God’s promises was truly tested.

I have to confess to being a little unnerved by many of the portrayals of John the Baptist that I have seen on films etc. There is always an element of the ‘wild man’ about him. And the puzzling detail of surviving on locusts and wild honey can make it very hard to identify with him on a human level. (Now the leather belt and sandals are a different matter, as they are part of my everyday wardrobe!) I can however identify with the clarity of his preaching. That one word, REPENT, change of heart, is the essence of the Benedictine vow of Conversio Morum. It’s a daily call to reorientation and to making space for God. It’s through this vow that I have the opportunity to grow a little more each day. In truth, we never stop growing and never stop asking of ourselves: ‘What will this child turn out to be?’ And, thankfully, what’s not always clear to us, is always clear to God.

How has the Lord shown you great kindness? How can you share your joy?

Matthew 24:4-13

In the Collect for today’s feast we hear these words;

‘graciously grant that, strengthened through the intercession of Saints John Fisher and Thomas More, we may confirm by the witness of our life the faith we profess with our lips.’

This encapsulates the basic truth that the faith into which we were baptised is something which permeates every aspect of our lives. Our baptism into Christ’s death and resurrection will mean that suffering will never be far away. But by the same token, joy and new life will be within our grasp too.

When Matthew writes his Gospel and warns of persecution and danger, his hearers have already experienced the fragility of belonging to a minority group. They face hostility on all sides. Every story where Jesus meets opposition is a paradigm for the resolve that they will need as the Christian community grows. Matthew’s urges them not to be ‘alarmed’. To be followers of the Way necessarily involves suffering.

When we celebrate Sts John Fisher and Thomas More we celebrate the potential of every human being to be single-hearted and to choose what is noble and true.

Where in your life is Christ calling you to be single hearted?

Genesis 14:18-20
1 Corinthians 11:23-26
Luke 9:11-17

As I looked at the readings for today I noticed that there was one word which appeared in all three texts: bread (loaf).

In the first reading from Genesis we meet the enigmatic figure of Melchizedek. He is a ‘walk on’ biblical character, disappearing as quickly as he comes. Of note on today’s feast is that Melchizedek comes bearing bread and wine, staples of Middle Eastern life.

In 1 Corinthians we have the earliest account of the celebration of the Eucharist;

‘…the Lord Jesus took some bread (a loaf), and thanked God for it and broke it’

The Gospel is Luke’s account of the feeding of the 5,000 where ‘five loaves and two fish’ are enough to satisfy the crowds.

In each text God uses the ordinary food of bread to communicate the sacred. In our complex and varied food culture today we have perhaps lost the sense of bread being the ‘staff of life’. Many other food stuffs compete. Making the link between the meals we share and the Eucharist we celebrate has become harder. The small, ready-made wafer we receive when we celebrate the Eucharist bears scarcely any resemblance to bread.

What we celebrate today is the mystery of our redemption. God sends his Son in flesh and blood and through his broken body he gives life to the world. The key for me is in the breaking. Through what is broken and shared in the Eucharist, we too share in the Paschal mystery.

Each time we celebrate the Eucharist we give thanks to the Father that in the life and death of his Son we are promised new life.

Take time today before you eat each meal to give thanks to God.

I’ll be taking a break from posting for the next couple of weeks. I hope to start posting again on Sundays, Feasts and Solemnities. Daily postings will return in Advent.

Thanks for your companionship on the journey this Lent/Eastertide.

If you have enjoyed exploring John’s Gospel in Eastertide you might find these talks by Malcolm Guite helpful:

Light, Life, Love, Glory; my series on St. John

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?

John 21:20-25

This disciple is the one who vouches for these things and has written them down, and we know that his testimony is true.  There were many other things that Jesus did; if all were written down, the world itself, I suppose, would not hold all the books that would have to be written.

For me John’s Gospel ends on a slightly intriguing note. What were the many other things that Jesus did? Who held these memories? Did they shape their lives as much as the four Gospels do ours?

The truth is that we spend the whole of our lives trying to understand Jesus and his teaching in the four Gospels. We can learn about the historical context and the literary form. These can help us discover the world behind the text. But just as important is what we bring to the text, the world in front of the text. What do I bring to the text as daughter, sister, teacher and monastic? Where the world behind the text overlaps with the world in front the text this is where God speaks to me directly. God’s word is ever unfolding. It’s riches are never exhausted.

As the cycle of the liturgical year unfolds, God has new opportunities to speak to us. When we listen to the Scriptures we open ourselves to the possibility of encounter.

How has God spoken to you through the Scriptures this Eastertide?

John 21:15-19

Our Gospel texts during Eastertide have laid before us many themes. They weave in an 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 beach 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?