May 31, 2015

Feast of the Most Holy Trinity

Deuteronomy 4: 32-34, 39-40; Romans 8: 14-17; Matthew 28: 16-20

The Trinity is a mystery; what is a mystery? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives its definition: “1: a religious truth known by revelation alone 2: something not understood or beyond understand…”

So why am I trying to ‘figure God out’? Why do I try to make sense of God in my human mind when I can’t even understand the universe? A while ago on PBS I watched an amazing program on the Hubble Telescope and what it has brought to light in this amazing universe. A few questions were answered; thousands more were created: when will we discover the answers…maybe they will just come up with more questions. More importantly, it’s not about me discovering the answer to God but it’s knowing that God actually loves ‘little old me’; I am known and important.

The mystery of God is always bigger than our answers. I’m trying to get in touch with a God who always loves and I have a problem loving people in my life; especially those who are closest to me who just get me upset at times. I’m trying to understand God who always forgives me…understands me and loves me…and I have a very hard time in understanding, forgiving and loving. It comes down to the fact that I have a hard time understanding God because I can’t even begin to understand myself. Who am I…why was I born…why was I born in this time and in this place? I remember an old children’s tale that God created each person so that they can do the mission that God had chosen for them…and it’s about loving someone special…and when we love that person as best we can then our job is done and we go to God so that God can love us for loving. A nice little tale and I think there is a lot more truth in this than I can see. Fr. Karl Rahner said that God draws near, shares God’s very own life with us and makes us one with God and with each other…through love. So if and when I love, I am sharing God…which initially I would say, ‘I can’t do that.’ But the person who was touched by ‘my love’ says, ‘Thank You...I could feel God’s love in you…through you.’

On this special feast of God, I think it is important to see how I have been loved. God is constantly touching me…so that I can go and touch others.

I would like to share a story of love. I read this in the book Green Bananas…the Wisdom of Father Bill Atkinson. Fr. Bill died on September 15, 2006. He was an Augustinian priest and in the 2000 year history of the Catholic Church he was the first quadriplegic ordained to the priesthood. While in the seminary he was tobogganing in New York State. Bill was the front rider. Four young men were enjoying a fantastic ride when suddenly, they careened into a tree…the horrible collision broke Bill’s neck. For the next 40 years he was confined to a wheelchair and totally dependent on friends and family. He taught for many years at Monsignor Bonner High School in Upper Darby, Pa, the suburbs of Philadelphia. He was an inspiration. The book touched me deeply. NOW each of us is called to TOUCH OTHERS DEEPLY. We do this ONLY through GOD’s grace AND so often we don’t even know we have that much effect on others…but each person does…and when we love…we are bringing God WHICH is the MYSTERY of the Trinity. Some thoughts from Fr. Bill on different topics:

Be Real…”Know yourself and love that person. Not in an egotistical way but know that in God’s eyes you’re worthy and then bring love to others.”

Real Love…”It’s the only thing you get when you come into life and it’s the only thing you take out of it, and I’ve had a lot of it,’…”Without the love of my family and friends, I wouldn’t have survived my accident I would have died many times if I didn’t have them to live for.”…”I knew that I was rich because I had family and friends who loved me”…”I had to learn that I was dependent on the kindness of others and that took me a long time to accept and I couldn’t pay anyone back.”

“It’s hard to admit those unpleasant things about ourselves, but it’s good to be honest about it. “ (Fr. Bill is talking with the author of this book, Steve McWilliams who cared for him once a week for 18 years): “We resolved that discussion by agreeing that the only thing you could give me back was your time with me, and that was what we gave to each other over the years.”

Speaking about a co-worker who Steve was furious with, Fr. Bill said, “Love him no matter what he did and you’ll find peace; that’s God’s way. All of your anger is just going to make you sick. Give in to God’s love, you’ll be surprised what appears in your life.”…”“Love God by loving your neighbor, give and receive love is the big Christian message…the rest is just buildings and ceremonies. Love is our pipeline to the divine and God’s waiting for us to get that one of these days and in the meantime, He’s being very patient with us.”

Broken Pots…”We often get rid of friends rather than examine ourselves.” …”Don’t blame, accept…fix yourself before setting off to fix everyone else.” … Let God work through others…listen…let Him work His magic.

Waiting…”I’m God’s poster boy for teaching you don’t get what you want, but God sends what you need.” … “Even in my wheelchair, with this paralyzed body, I’ve learned that it still works out. Things work out in God’s time, not yours and don’t forget, God only gives you what HE thinks you can handle. I had to learn to practice patience.” … “It’s one of the jobs we have to do, and if you pay attention to developing patience you’ll survive the really difficult times as well as helping others around you to do the same.”

Watch for the Illusion of Power…”I’ll never understand even my own Augustinian brothers who seem to chase power though ambition or position.”…”Your inner strength and your integrity, that’s what counts in the eyes of God. He made you, He knows you, and He’s not impressed with your bank account either but only the love with which you live by.”

Letting God “We’re all losing something all the time.”…I lost my independence, but people like yourself showed up. I can bemoan the loss or I can be grateful for the assistance. What happened to the dreams of my youth? It’s all just temporary and my dreams just had to change.”

These are wonderful words of wisdom. Yet each person who believes in God’s love for them is a person who shares that love in so many ways. Often the sharing seems to be insignificant in kind or helpful words, a smile, a look; yet to the person receiving them, they know they are loved in a deeper way. This ‘mystery’ is God’s loving.

Fr. Richard Viladesau in The Word In and Out of Season describes the Trinity in this way: “God is and always remains the absolute mystery of being, the creator, the One who is ever beyond, but who reveals God’s self as the mystery of love, and whom we dare to call ‘Father.’ But God is also the One whom we encounter in Jesus – not simply alongside Jesus’ humanity, but revealed in and through that humanity as its deepest ground and meaning, so that Jesus is truly God’s ‘Word,’ God’s self-expression, in person. And we know God also as the dynamism in our own being which allows us to believe, gives us joy, joins us as one – in short, as the Spirit of God, the breath of God’s own life animating us.” John constantly shares in his gospel and letters that ‘God is love’; He loves me; He loves every person. That itself is a mystery and it is a mystery that I need so much…I just need to be loved and to love. I reflect on love on this day of mystery.

May 24, 2015

Pentecost Sunday B

Acts 2: 1-11; 1 Corinthians 12: 3-7, 12-13; (or) Galatians 5: 16-25; John 20: 19-23 (or) John 15: 26-27; 16: 12-15

The Holy Spirit down through the ages certainly is the ‘lost’ person of the Trinity. Even when we look at the history of art we have representations of the Father as ‘The Ancient of Days’, as an old man with that long white beard. Jesus is depicted as youngest, with a medium length beard and hair down to the shoulders. Depending on where the artist is from, we see Jesus with blue eyes, brownish hair; very few of the artists depict Jesus as Jewish with Middle East features. We see Jesus as an infant in Mary’s arms, as a boy with Joseph helping in the carpenter shop, we see him preaching, touching and healing people, we see the tortured sorrowful face on the cross and we see the glorious risen Jesus with the imprint of his tortures. And the Spirit is depicted as a dove at best, maybe as a little flame over the heads of the disciples at Pentecost. That’s about it. I think that this has led to so little attention to the Spirit.

Now Jesus constantly said that He would not leave us orphans. John states in the Last Supper Discourses 15: 26-27 “When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, He will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with Me from the beginning?”… And a few verses later John 16, 4-11, “I did not tell you this from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to the One who sent Me, and not one of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts. But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He comes He will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in Me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.”

It is good for each of us to reflect on the Spirit in our lives…to see how the Spirit has been present…to see how the Spirit has gifted us…to see how the Spirit has led people to us so that we could be conduits of God’s love…to realize that it is not us who are doing the work but God who is working through us. Paul helps us tremendously in this in his letter to the Galatians.

What comes from me…what comes from inside of me that hurts and is non-caring…Paul says this is “…obvious: immorality, impurity, lust, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, factions, occasions of envy, drinking bouts, orgies and the like. I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” When these come in whatever degree, it’s like they take over my body and I just react and I really don’t like this but I take some sort of inner rotten pleasure in what I am doing or thinking. Sin corrupts…is a good way to put it. These can so absorb me that I am just turning myself over to the pleasures of the devil. These temptations will remain with us until the day we die…the devil never wants to give up on us…but wants to claim us as his own. His subtlety is good in this because we beat ourselves up and sometimes tend to give up and not realize that the Spirit is with us always leading us closer to God’s love and mercy. The devil never wants us to hear this, let alone believe it.

Then Paul tells us what the Spirit does: the Spirit gifts us and we can see these gifts: wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear (awe) of the Lord. We see them most clearly in their fruits that blossom in us because of the constant interacting of the Spirit in each of us. So what are these fruits…where do I see that the Spirit is working in me? When I react in or show love; when I let this love shine out in me and joy is all around me and people see that I am a joyful person; when that happens there is an inner peace about me that only comes from the Spirit; my overall demeanor is one of patience, I just don’t seem to get riled up and disturbed as I used to. These fruits continue and I not only notice kindness in my treatment and interactions with others but also a spirit of generosity which helps me to realize that everything I have is a gift and gifts are not to be hoarded or kept to myself but are to be shared and when I do so I can feel the Spirit alive within me. Then I am faithful in believing in this God of love who cares for me and has so much confidence in me to share His love that the Spirit imbues me with gentleness which always brings out a calmness and a self-control in myself and how I react and how I live. Living in the Spirit is living in God’s love. Living with the gifts of the Spirit is sharing God’s love through me as His conduit. Living in love shows me that it is all because of the gifts of the Spirit which I can see through the fruits of the Spirit…the actual concrete ways that God is working in and through me each day to be Him. This is always present. I have to take time and reflect and see that this is God’s plan: God working through each person to let them know they are loved and are needed to be love…so that those they are in contact with can see that they are loved and needed to love others.

Connections, a newsletter of ideas, resources and information for homilists and preachers share this today, “…the Spirit of God is a lens in which we recognize the presence of God’s love in the midst of our homes and hearths, our communities and villages. The presence of that Spirit which we celebrate today enables us to recognize what is good, what is right, what is ethical, what is of true and of lasting worth that guides us on our lives’ journeys to God. The Spirit of God calls us to recognize and celebrate our connectedness to God and to one another; it gives voice to the things we believe but hesitate to articulate; it gives us the courage and grace to work for the dreams we are sometimes too cynical or fearful to hope for. May the Spirit of God, the creative ’breath’ of the Holy One, always blow within our heats to enliven us with His love, transforming us in constant hoe and illuminating for us the possibilities of bringing the promise of Jesus’ resurrection into our homes and hearts.”

So I reflect on:

• What evidence do I see of the Holy Spirit working in my life and those I meet today?
• What does it mean for me to be open to the Spirit?
• Grace is the Holy Spirit working and helping me each and every day. Do I want help or do I think I can do it on my own? This is the temptation of the devil!
• How can I better cooperate with the operation of the Spirit?

The great theologian and scholar, Fr. Hans Kung, who wrote a book called Why I Am Still a Christian, suggests that “an occasional or annual plea ‘Come, Holy Spirit’ is not sufficient. Tending the fire and grasping the wind of the Spirit requires daily effort, struggle, and commitment. Before the power of the Spirit can truly take hold, all contrary spirits must be exorcised. God out, you unholy spirit. God out, you who separate, divide, and delay. Go out of our hearts, and make room for the Holy Spirit, who is both tender and strong, who reconciles and unites.”

May 17, 2015

Feast of the Ascension of the Lord

Acts 1: 1-11; Ephesians 4: 1-13; Mark 16: 15-20

The internet is changing the way we do things, how we search for answers, redirecting our reading from newspapers, magazines and books to the ‘pages’ of computer apparatuses. A magazine I really enjoy, Spiritual Life Magazine, published by the Carmelites, is now totally on-line. Soon newspapers, magazines, etc. will follow this same trend. It’s hard for me to get used to this ‘new way’.

Well ‘before it’s too late’, I would like to recommend a book to you that has excitement galore. Jim Auer reviewed the book in this way: “It has three prison breaks, a perilous sea voyage, shipwreck, intrigue, plots, betrayal, an earthquake, strange visions, midnight escapes from hit squads, people running naked through the street, mobs, riots, murders, a viper attack, a lovable but slightly ditzy maid, and an unfortunate death brought on by a very long homily.” And there is a lot more in this book…really exciting things…do you have an idea of what the book is?

Actually it’s the second volume of a book authored by person by the name of Luke…actually it’s St. Luke. He wrote what is known as the third gospel and the above mentioned book, The Acts of the Apostles. Have you read it?...Have you read it recently?...As followers of Jesus who are trying as best as we can to live as Christians, it is a book that can help us so much because it is a book about the early Church and its development. It begins at the Resurrection of Jesus and concludes with Pauls’ first imprisonment. Why is it important?

(Acts 12 tells of Rhoda, the ditzy maid; Acts 20 tells of Eutychus who died and then Paul revived.)

Jesus predicted His suffering, death and Resurrection many times. And the Apostles were just not ready for it…I wonder how many even believed that it would happen. They were totally unprepared…they hid behind locked doors in the Upper Room where they had shared their last Passover meal with Jesus. Then Jesus appeared to them and they received the Spirit and began to believe. Then came the point of today’s feast, the Ascension and they watched Jesus going up in the sky and then He was gone. They were left alone…AGAIN…what are they to do? Luke tells how “suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen Him going into heaven. Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away. When they entered the city they went to the upper room where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James, son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas, son of James. All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer, together with some women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and His brothers.”

This feast is the feast of each and every Christian. It’s a graphic reminder that Jesus left us so that we could be Jesus to our world. Jesus came to tell us that each person was created in love and each of us is needed to bring God’s love to our world. And that’s the tension that exists in each person’s life. We live in the world and the values of God are not a part of the world. Our world tells us to be concerned with ourselves. Our world tells us that the poor, the struggling and the lost are on their own. Our world tells us that being concerned with the needy whether this need is financial, physical, emotional or spiritual is not our concern. Take care of Numero Uno…me. Our world is not about God and God’s love. Yet each person, each Christian is called to build up God’s kingdom of love and peace and good works. I have to continually ask myself if I am being open to the Holy Spirit who is constantly moving me not only closer to Jesus but also moving me to be closer to being Jesus each day of my life.

The early Church faced so many obstacles and were filled with the Holy Spirit. Page after page of the Acts of the Apostles shows people who struggled with their faith, struggled with being Jesus. I can learn from their faith and their struggles in spite of overwhelming odds. They believed...I am challenged each day to live my belief.

We know that after His Resurrection, Jesus stayed with His disciples for forty days. I’m sure they were so glad to be with Him and to continue to learn from Him, but things had changed. In Mark’s gospel there is no mention that Jesus performed any miracle during those days. What did He do...He spent time with them saying that He would give them the power to forgive one another and to chase away evil. They would be able to pick up snakes with their bare hands (snakes were a symbol for sin in the early Church) and drink the ‘deadly poison’ of their evil world and not be harmed. And Jesus would send the Holy Spirit.

Now they wanted to know, “WAS THIS THE TIME”…was this the time that Jesus would change everything: kick Rome out of Israel…get all people to believe in Him…do away with all evil, killing and anger? Would this be the time? He said NO…you are the ones who will preach ME and live ME in your world. THE HOLY SPIRIT will be with you. Now it is up to each of you…it is up to those who are reading this blog today and it’s up to me. He is placing everything in my hands…am I up to it? AND He us waiting for each of His followers to complete His mission.

During the recent pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi on the second last day we celebrated the Eucharist in the Chapel of Peace in the Basilica of St Francis of Assisi. At the end of mass, we attempted to sing St. Francis’ Peace Song’…I had sung this so many times and felt I knew it by heart. I didn’t…all of us stumbled. But it reminded me of how much work I still have to do daily to be Jesus. St. Francis wrote: “Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console, to be understood as to understand to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

So I reflect on:

• Jesus is waiting—waiting for me to fulfill His mission in the world. Can I reflect on this each morning and at the end of each day?
• Do I reflect at the end of each day on what signs I see of Jesus’ ongoing presence in my world?
• John 15:16, “It was not you who chose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain…” So how am I doing?

Sacred Space 2015 shares:

“Jesus commissions His disciples to bring the good news that God is on the side of the poor, the sick, the outcasts, and all those who suffer injustice. Those who cannot bear to have beggars, former prostitutes, servants, women, and children as their equals would simply not be at home in God’s kingdom.

Jesus help me to inclusive in my love. Open my narrow heart to include those who injure me or differ from me in so many ways.”

May 10, 2015

Acts 10: 25-26, 34-35, 44-48;

1 John 4: 7-10; John 15: 9-17

I am to love! That is the command of Jesus today to all who follow Him. This is a very easy word to say, but it is a lot harder to love. Why? Well I am filled with emotions that travel in and out of me throughout each day. Researchers say that we have 90 different emotions but that there are eight basic ones: joy, trust, fear surprise, sadness, disgust, anger and anticipation. Then when looking at facial muscles there is research that says there are really four: anger, fear, happiness and sadness. The point is that Jesus is speaking about me loving in all of my emotional states.

The readings today summarize His commands: “Beloved let us love one another, because love is of God” and “This I command you: love one another.” Living the Word, Scripture Reflections and Commentaries for Sundays and Holy Days says “St. Thomas Aquinas, at the end of his commentary on John’s Gospel, recounts the medieval legend that John the Evangelist, as an old man, was carried to the church by his followers to teach the faithful. John told them only one thing: ‘Little children, love one another.’ Aquinas adds that in this we find the perfection of the Christian life.” Again this is very easy to say and to read but here I am today, reflecting on how exactly do I do this?

When I wake up I do my prayers and spend time with the Lord. This is a very comfortable time and a very precious time. Then come people into my life: the phone rings, I have spiritual direction sessions, I go shopping, go to a meeting and basically interact with a bunch of people each day. My feelings about those I come into contact with can be very complicated. A whole bunch of emotions and passions come into play like: anger, jealousy, lust, pride…etc…all of which make it very difficult to separate a giving, serving love from rationalizations and darker impulses. Am I loving…or is my love masqueraded as love; am I fooling myself that I am loving or am I feeling that I’m a good person and if I’m loving then I am really loving. We see that love today is used to support all sorts of causes; even killing is used in the name of love and being sincere to one’s beliefs. In reality, I’m doing what I want to do and since I want to do it and I’m basically a good person and a Christian, it must be the right thing to do and I know that Jesus would agree. I’m the master of manipulation and rationalization when I do this. The point is, I have to get back to Jesus since He is the one that commanded that I love.

Today’s gospel passage from John begins with a reiteration of the joint love shared between the Father and the Son, “As the Father loves Me…” Just reflect on that statement…knowing that I am loved is so important. To be loved is to be appreciated, valued, trusted, affirmed, precious, treasured, respected, important and all sorts of other wonderful adjectives. Walking out the door and beginning my day with this feeling is really special. BUT THAT IS WHAT IS HAPPENING…I AM LOVED BY GOD, JUST THE WAY I AM, EACH MOMENT OF EACH DAY. How do I know this? Jesus said so in the rest of the above sentence: “As the Father loves Me, So I also love you. Remain in my love.” I am to take this love with me each moment. Do I, of course not…I let too many other emotions, disturbances and things disrupt me.

How did Jesus love? Every page of the Gospels are filled with examples. I like the ones where Jesus touched people: those He healed, those who came for comfort, those with deep trials or with evil possessions. Touch is a sign of care, concern, friendliness and support. Touch also makes a person feel better and important. Today is also the celebration of Mother’s Day. I look back at the countless ‘love touches’ of my mom. They speak volumes, each and every one, and I am grateful. Jesus showed the disciples this love at this same Last Supper by washing their feet, showing them He was equal to them. And His ultimate love was in dying. AND Jesus spells out how we are to love by saying, “This is my commandment, love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for ones friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you.” It is so interesting to listen to people when they speak and so very often the conversation other people are brought up and often the caption is this one is my friend. We want others to know that I have friends and that this one is special because only those who are special do I label as ‘friend’. AND Jesus calls me and each person My Friend.

Most importantly is that Jesus, God has taken the initiative in all this…God has loved me and each person FIRST. There is nothing that I did to merit this or anyone did. “It was not you who chose Me, but I who chose you.” This is the most important… the most valued treasure to know that I am loved…period, from the very beginning and through each moment no matter how I feel or what I have done. It is not about deserving, it is about being loved.

Sunday Homily Helps concludes with this Exegesis of the Gospel, “This special relationship with Jesus is ultimately a result of God’s grace. The disciples’ commission is to go and bear fruit that will remain. Bearing fruit implies doing acts of love as Jesus Himself did while on earth. It means revealing God’s love through word and deed. This is the kind of fruit that will remain. It indicates the kind of love that must be at the heart of the Church as it carries out Jesus’ commandment. The passage ends fittingly with a repetition of the new commandment Jesus gives His followers: ‘This I command you: love one another.’”

I reflect on:

• What are the different way in which I use the term ‘love’? What are the ways I misuse it?
• Jesus commands me to love, whom do I see as the most significant examples of this Christian love?
• When I have the heart and the will, which are God’s gifts, God does the rest. Do I allow God to do this?
• When talking about how I am loving do I notice that I am filled with gratitude or with myself?
• In what way is the love I show my family different from the love I share with friends? Strangers? How are these forms of love the same?

Sacred Space 2015 states:

“My love for others must not be conditioned by how they respond. Jesus loves me totally, whether I am good or bad or indifferent. My love must have that quality too. This is costly love—it could demand my very life!

This costly love will bear rich fruit, whether I see it or not. Just so, Jesus’ love bears fruit only after His death. I must not be discouraged when my love seems wasted. True love never comes to an end (see 1 Cor 13:8). Loving actions are the building blocks of eternal life.”

May 3, 2015

5^th Sunday of Easter B

Acts 9:26-31; 1 John 3: 18-24; John 15: 1-8

What does it mean to be Easter people? One response certainly is to be joyful people. Those who see us must come away realizing that we are imbued with what Jesus’ love is all about. We have the Good News…that God loves us all the time…and we should be eager to share it. So I ask myself how I am doing. Am I more concerned with ‘me’ being the center of my world or am I sharing God’s love?

The first reading from Acts of the Apostles gives us the account of the fireball Paul. In this ninth chapter of Acts Paul is working against the Church: Luke starts out, “Now Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.” Then the Lord steps in, changes his name to Paul and calls him to be His disciple. After two weeks of ‘retreat’ Paul arrives at Jerusalem and the disciples are naturally afraid. “Isn’t this the one who was persecuting Christians?” Yes. The Lord entered His life and He is now speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. How bold am I in admitting the presence of God in my life? How am I being a witness to Jesus’ teachings? What am I to do?

John responds in the second reading so succinctly: “Children, let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth.” He tells us that keeping the commandments of God is actually twofold: Each person must believe which means surrendering to Jesus as Son of God in the flesh and second, love one another just as He commanded us.

Is this easy, absolutely not…is it optional, absolutely not…does God help me in this, absolutely. Jesus spells this out in the Gospel. He uses the image of the vine and the branches. He presented the image on the night before He died, at a time when He wanted to impress upon the apostles and each person the most fundamental aspects of His teachings.

After Jesus declared that
“I am the vine, you are the branches,” He practically applied this image to each follower, “Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me…Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without Me you can do nothing.” God does not ask anyone to do anything without supplying help needed for ‘task at hand.’ So to be fruitful, I need to remain on the vine. I need to continue to be connected to the Lord each day. As Sunday Homily Helps from St. Anthony Messenger Press says, “The image of Jesus as the vine and ourselves as branches reminds us that salvation and wholeness—and indeed all good things that we experience and produce—come not because of what we do, but because of what we are and where we are. There is so much grace in these words for people who are tired out from all their work or discouraged by the fact that they do not feel they are good enough for God or that they have not done enough for him. Perhaps there is no better image of the Christian faith than this.”

Sometimes I feel that I have to come up with the plan…I’m the one that has to solve this problem…I’m the one who has to convince that family member or friend who no longer goes to Sunday mass? Well this poses another question, ‘What am I allowing God to do? How can I continue to be connected to Him, the vine? Am I getting all the nutrients and moisture that I need? Am I remaining connected with God?

So often it is very easy to say something, but not necessarily live it. John said this in the second reading … “let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.” Am I living what I say? God will give me and each person exactly what they need in every situation IF… there is an IF there and it’s the second last sentence in the Gospel, If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.” What do I do when the storm winds come, I cry out for God’s help me…I beg God for a cure…I say, ‘God this is the way that You have to act.’ AND I get angry with God when He doesn’t act accordingly. Then it’s all about me and not about this loving God who is always present.

Msgr. Eugene Lauer in Sunday Morning Insights says it in this way, “We get angry with God when a trusted friend suddenly betrays a confidence. We are incensed with God when a dishonest person succeeds where we have failed. We are bitter when a loved one dies whom we desperately wanted to have with us a little while longer. And, we forget the if-clause.

It seems to me that the practical application of the if-clause would go something like this. If we ‘live in Christ,’ we will know how to ask and what to ask for. We will not presume that our goals and our carefully figured out conclusions are exactly what should happen.

If ‘Christ’s words stay part of us,’ then we will gradually come to know that the primary thing that we pray for is God’s presence in our trials, in our present need, and not for this specific cure, this specific solution, getting this particular job. We will pray that our relationship with God will be so intensified as we go through the trying situation that we will be able to face it and deal with it, no matter what happens.

The if-clause is far more important in authentic Christian spiritualty that the declarative statement that follows: ‘If you live in me, and my words stay part of you, you may ask what you will—it will be done for you.”

It seems to me that in every instance I must challenge myself with the question, ‘Am I thinking and acting as Christ would? Or have I allowed myself to be taken in by the values and slogans of the materialistic world. Is my thinking and way of acting any different from that of those who have no religion or a ‘convenient’ religion?

So I reflect on:

• How am I developing my own relationship with Christ?
• What important practices are important for me in doing this?
• Jesus said I must have love for all others, how does my relationship to others play in my relationship with God?
• What three sayings of Jesus are especially important to me? How do I depend on them?
• How often am I tempted to observe rather than live a Christian life? Why or why not?
• How does following Jesus give me the chance to really be who I am?

Sacred Space 2015 asks,

“I picture a grapevine with its branches, large and small. Which branch mirrors me? Is my branch healthy or a bit withered and tired? Can I accept the attention of the vine-grower as he prunes this branch? Can I trust that my branch can then bear much fruit at harvest time?”