Preferring Nothing to Christ

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

John 15:9-11

‘If you keep my commandments
you will remain in my love,
just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and remain in his love.
I have told you this
so that my own joy may be in you
and your joy be complete.’

By this stage in Eastertide we have heard a good deal of John’s Gospel. There are some overlaps and repetitions between the weekday and Sunday liturgies. We’ve heard parts of today’s Gospel already. The themes of keeping Christ’s commandments and remaining in his love weave in and out of each other. Today the element of ‘joy’ is added.

I associate pure joy with small children and this in turn reminds me of this passage from the Tales of the Hasidim:

Said the maggid to Rabbi Zusya, his disciple: “I cannot teach you the principles of service. But a little child and a thief can show you what they are:

From the child you can learn three things:

— He is merry for no particular reason;
— Never for a moment he is idle;
— When he needs something, he demands it vigorously.

Being merry for no particular reason is one of the special gifts of childhood. The joy of one young child spreads so easily to others and to adults too. I remember as a child feeling that I might burst with joy and excitement. When you reach adulthood that joy takes on a different shape. It isn’t nearly as frequent and there might be some foreboding mixed in too.

The idea Jesus might find his joy in us is something that I don’t spend nearly enough time thinking about. That Jesus wants our ‘joy to be complete’ speaks to me of the depths of the Paschal mystery: every joy and every sorrow that we experience unites us ever closer to Christ.

How can you live in Christ’s joy today?

Image: Senjuti Kundu, Unsplash

You can read the full extract from The Tales of the Hasidim here: https://www.jhom.com/topics/thieves/hasidic.htm

John 15:1-8

Every branch in me that bears no fruit
he cuts away,
and every branch that does bear fruit
he prunes to make it bear even more.
You are pruned already,
by means of the word that I have spoken to you.

It took me a while as a novice to learn the difference between cutting away and pruning. I’m not a natural gardener and could never really see the bigger picture of what was needed. I felt safest with weeding. I realise that for many things I need to physically see an outcome before I can really understand what is needed to get there.

The time of monastic formation is an experience of pruning like you would never imagine. Everything that gave you identity before you entered is stripped away. It takes a good deal of trust to even imagine that what remains of you will bear fruit. But it does.

When Jesus speaks of us having been ‘pruned’ by the word I am reminded of those times when suddenly a very familiar text has spoken directly to my situation and pretty much demanded a course of action. There’s no turning back when this happens.

How have you been pruned by the Word?

John 14:27-31

‘Peace I bequeath to you,
my own peace I give you,
a peace the world cannot give,
this is my gift to you.

‘Oh, sister, it’s so peaceful here in the monastery.’ We hear this very often and, of course, there is a good deal of truth in this. We are a low stimulus environment with things ordered as well as they can be. The rhythm of the liturgy plays a very important part in creating the peace that people feel when they visit. Hail, rain our shine we gather to pray the psalmody. Monastics have this remarkable ability to carry on with the liturgy even if there has been some ‘outside’ disturbance; loud rain, a low flying aircraft or even a power cut won’t put us off. It’s almost as if we have a collective inner equilibrium.

St Benedict puts a great deal of store by the peace and good order of the monastery. In his Chapter On the Cellarer he urges his monks to make their requests to the cellarer reasonable and at the proper times. The job can be demanding and touches all areas of monastery life. St Benedict makes wise provision:

If the community is rather large, he should be given helpers, that with their assistance he may calmly perform the duties of his office. Necessary items or to be requested and given at the proper times, so that no one may be disquieted or distressed in the house of God.

What Benedict seems to be saying is that everyone has a part to play in creating a peaceful environment.

When Jesus speaks of peace he speaks of it as a gift. This gift is to be internalised. You can’t force someone to receive a gift. A person needs to pick it up and make it their own in some way. Jesus waits for us each to do this. Much like Benedict’s monks, we can help each other ‘so that no one may be disquieted or distressed in the house of God.’

How can you bring Christ’s peace to others today?

John 14:21-26

One of my favourite Psalms is 118/9. It’s very long and arranged as an acrostic. Some people find it a bit tedious as it is very repetitious and turns around a small list of words: law, word, will, statutes, commands, decrees and precepts. Every four lines uses at least one of these words. It’s a Psalm in praise of the Torah.

I’ve prayed this psalm for nearly 30 yrs and one of the things that I have noticed is that when I meet the words ‘commands’ and ‘word’ in the New Testament I hear them now with Old Testament resonances.

‘If anyone loves me he will keep my word,
and my Father will love him,
and we shall come to him and make our home with him.’

The ‘word’ I am being invited to keep will ‘give me life’ (Ps 118/19. 37), ‘stands firm in the heavens’ (v.89), ‘is a lamp for my steps and a light for my path’ (v.105). The great promise in John’s Gospel is that openness to God’s word prepares a place for the Father and Son to come and make their home within us.

The place we each prepare is unique. It’s crafted from our life experiences; our joys, our sorrows, our hopes and our dreams. Each time you hear or read the Word of God that place within you changes.

Use your Bible today. Find your favourite quotations.

What is God saying to you today?

John 13:31-33a, 34-35

Today’s Gospel is just five verses. Those five verses hold within them the essence of our life in Christ: love.

I give you a new commandment:
love one another;
just as I have loved you,
you also must love one another.

Love comes in all shapes and sizes. St Benedict knew this so well. In Ch 72 of his Rule he lays out for his monks just some of the ways that they can practice love in the monastery:

No one is to pursue what he judges better for himself, but instead, what he judges better for someone else. To their fellow monks they show the pure love of brothers, to God loving fear; to their abbot, unfeigned and humble love. Let them prefer nothing whatever to Christ, and may he bring us all together to everlasting life.

The above takes a monastic life-time. You learn it very, very gradually. And when everything feels a bit uphill, you can find solace in knowing that however feeble your attempts to love, the desire is that Christ may ‘bring us all together to everlasting life.’

Reflect on the love you have been shown throughout your life.

How do you show your love in the varied circumstances of your life?