Preferring Nothing to Christ

John 17: 20-26

May they all be one.
Father, may they be one in us,
as you are in me and I am in you,
so that the world may believe
that it was you who sent me.

Jesus sets before his disciples a vision of their own unity with each other, in and through the Father. This unity is to be a sign for the world. It’s a grand vision. As they set out on their mission they will need the strength which comes from this vision.

In the Acts of the Apostles Luke gives us a sense of what this unity might mean in practice:

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had.

This of course is very much an ideal. Despite the desire to be one in heart and mind, as the Church grew, there were rifts and divisions. Through the centuries the Christian landscape has become vast and varied. What then of Christ’s prayer that we may all be one? Giles Fraser commented in an online article that ‘ecumenism seems to work better in practice than in theory.’ There’s a good deal of truth in this. For me, friendship plays a significant part in our path to unity. In friendship there’s a desire to ‘share what I love’ in the hope that you might love it too. In friendship we start from what connects us rather than what divides.

As you hear the Gospel today, bring to mind your friendships with people from other traditions. Thank God for those friendships.

Image: Chang Duong, Unsplash

‘Ask and you will receive’

The old Catechism definition

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?

Luke 24:46-53

‘And now I am sending down to you what the Father has promised. Stay in the city then, until you are clothed with the power from on high.’

I don’t think I ever really noticed this sentence from today’s Gospel. Usually by this stage in Eastertide the various Bible texts have washed over and over me like the waves on the seashore. Some words stay in my mind and others wash away. But today I am struck by the disciples being asked to stay in the city until they are clothed ‘with the power from on high’. Being clothed with something is a powerful image for me and speaks of strength and protection. Did they sit together in a room discussing what this might mean? Did they go about their ordinary tasks and hope they’d recognise this power when it came?

Then he took them out as far as the outskirts of Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. Now as he blessed them he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.

Jesus’ parting gift to his disciples is a blessing. Every twist and turn of their journey has led them to this moment. Though there is all the potential for sadness in this scene, the disciples are filled with joy. This joy overflows and they go back to the Temple in Jerusalem where they praise God. Luke tells us that they were ‘continually in the Temple praising God’. The disciples are now tasked with being Christ’s loving and redemptive presence in the world.

We too have been ‘clothed from on high’ and we too are commissioned to be Christ’s resurrected presence for the world. How we do this is down to each one of us.

How can you witness to the resurrection today?

John 16:12-15

When the Spirit of truth comes he will lead you to the complete truth…

When I was at Primary school I remember listening to the teacher as she sorted out a playground fight. Two 7 yr old boys were standing at the front of the class, eyes fixed on the the floor. ‘Now, who is going to be the first to tell me the complete truth?’ the teacher said. We knew what this meant. This was not to be the slightly ‘fuzzy’ truth quickly concocted to avoid punishment. What the teacher wanted was an account of events with no interpretations or excuses added. I remember a sense of relief when one boy was finally brave enough to answer.

Week after week our news is filled with situations that call for the ‘complete truth’. It’s becoming quite rare to find this. I think a part of me has even stopped expecting it. There are now elaborate rituals that must be gone through before the public can find out what really happened.

When Jesus tells us that the Spirit will lead us to the complete truth we know that this has a personal and communal dimension. Following Christ calls us to truth and integrity in all aspects of our lives. It can take courage to act from that place of inner truth. Sometimes others can model this for us and this gives us courage.

Who are the truth tellers in your life?

John 16:5-11

I must tell you the truth:
it is for your own good that I am going
because unless I go, the Advocate will not come to you.

It’s fairly easy to put ourselves in the position of the disciples: the prospect of Jesus going is sad and the promise of the Advocate coming is very much the unknown. Although the life and ministry of Jesus have prepared them for this moment, it would be quite natural for the disciples to want just a little more time with him.

Instead the promise of the Advocate now challenges the disciples to live from their shared conviction that Jesus is the Holy One of God. They’ll need each other if they are to be credible witnesses to the resurrection. It’s the Spirit who will be their guide and the power that binds them together.

We can sometimes be slow to recognise the workings of the Spirit in our own lives. It can often be easier to recognise the movement of the Spirit in others.

Where do you see the Spirit at work in those around you?

John 15:26-16:4a

You too shall be my witnesses,
because you have been with me from the beginning.

Growing up in the North East in the 70s and 80s I don’t think I ever heard the words ‘mission’ or ‘discipleship’ in relation to my own faith journey. Neither did I have any sense of having to ‘witness’ to my faith. I moved in almost entirely Catholic circles.

Choosing to enter a monastery changed things for me. In those months before entering I found myself explaining my counter cultural choice to all kinds of people. There was understandable bemusement as to why anyone would want to ‘shut themselves away.’ But the reality of monastic life was not that I was now hidden, but rather that I was saying publicly that in this place and with these people I will seek God and try to live the Gospel. This was and is my witness.

And now today I’m writing this post for my blog, Facebook and Twitter. There’s a dimension to my witness that I could never have imagined 30 yrs ago. With Twitter in particular, you never know who will scroll by and stop to read a tweet. You never know how the Spirit will move. In a world where many feel disconnected, I now have the tools to connect and, in a small way, spread the Gospel.

How can you use the tools which God has given you to spread the Gospel?

Image: antony-bec, Unsplash

John 14:23-29

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in my name,
will teach you everything
and remind you of all I have said to you.

I’ve often been asked what a novice mistress might look for in someone who wants to explore Monastic Life. My answer is always the same: someone who truly seeks God in this place, with these people and someone who is ‘teachable’. Being willing to adapt and change and to learn the ways of the monastery is crucial for any newcomer. Openness is required both on the part of the newcomer and of the community.

When Jesus promises that ‘the Holy Spirit will teach us everything’ I hear this with some of the freshness and excitement with which I began my monastic journey. Now if we are imagining a syllabus and a nice linear progression in our learning we are in for a surprise. The Holy Spirit’s teaching strategy can’t be pinned down like that. Being attentive to the Holy Spirit and ready to learn requires deep listening. It’s a listening that touches every part of our lives.

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is.
In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace. – Frederick Buechner

How can you be open to the teaching of the Holy Spirit today?

John 15:18-21

If you belonged to the world,
the world would love you as its own;
but because you do not belong to the world,
because my choice withdrew you from the world,
therefore the world hates you.

These are not easy words from today’s Gospel. We naturally draw back from the word ‘hate’, especially in a Bible text. Persecution was a growing reality for the Early Church and this is reflected in its sacred texts. The backdrop of the Roman Empire with its cult of the Emperor etc provides us with one context for John’s use of the word ‘world’. It’s God reign and not Caesar’s that will bring redemption. It is to God’s kingdom that we give our loyalty and devotion.

At baptism our parents and grandparents made a choice for us. They chose to have us welcomed into the Christian community and to share in Christ’s anointing as priest, prophet and king. It’s in this sense that we can say that we are ‘in the world and not of it.’

In Ch 4 of his Rule St Benedict urges his monks ‘Your way of acting should be different from the world’s way; the love of Christ must come before all else.’ The invitation here is to base your everyday choices on the Gospel. Commenting on this section of the Rule, Michael Casey, a Cistercian monk, says;

‘If I invest my energies in living a life characterised by humility, altruism, non violence, charity, forgiveness, truthfulness, indifference and detachment, it is unlikely that I will become rich or famous.’

It’s about choosing Christ at every turn.

How can you choose Christ today?

John 15:12-17

No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends
if you do what I command you.

Few of us will be called upon to lay down our lives for our friends. Though we probably all hope that if a big sacrifice of some sort is asked of us we will have the courage to respond.

Since the beginning of the pandemic we have witnessed the love that is prepared to put others first. Some will have had little choice over their working conditions and others were prepared to take the risk. Many lost their lives. I hope that we will always remember this sacrifice.

At the heart of our Christian story we have not a philosophy or a set of principles, but a human being who embodied selfless service and self-emptying love. Christ is our pattern for every part of our lives. Often on the feast of a martyr we sing ‘The Martyrs Living now with Christ’, a hymn written by Stanbrook Abbey. This verse always stands out for me:

No one has ever measured love
Or weighed it in their hand,
But God knows the inmost heart
Gives them the promised land.

It’s God who knows the depth of our love and our willingness to give. It’s God who sees the bigger picture of our lives and how we try to image Christ.

Let us always remember the people in our lives who quietly and unobstrusively have shown us this self-emptying love.

Image: sj obijo, Unsplash