“Know Christ, Know the Father, Know Brother and Sister” by Beth DeCristofaro
I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the Gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it, you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.(1 Corinthians 15:1-2)
Jesus said to Thomas, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him." … Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me (John 14:6-7, 10-11)
Piety
Jesus my Lord and Brother, help me to know you in the face of my brother, my sister. Help me walk with you as I go among your people. Help me, in good times and bad, be yours with serenity and songs of praise in my heart.
Study
What do you value in a friend or family member? I appreciate a good belly laugh, the phone call answered and help arriving in the middle of the night, those encircling arms when tears just won’t stop, the honest stop-me-in-my-tracks word of critique that I most need to hear. I also value comrades who aren’t nearby but are available and able to “listen” to the hardest of news without dispensing trite, fix-it advice. I value the sister with whom I can share photos of the season’s first hummingbird and the brother who will again answer a computer question for the umpteenth time. I honor friends who reciprocate and are willing to ask me for help too.
However, when these loved ones don’t meet my expectations which, I confess, is all too often – canceled visits, brusque responses, disagreements over politics, missed family obligations or fill-in-the-blank disappointments do happen. Or my selfishness, my neglect damage the bonds between us. These moments cut to the bone.
We are made to be in a relationship by a God who is Relationship. Jesus’s conversation with Philip, Thomas, and the others explains how essential to him is the Father and how central to the Father is the Son. While they are not diminished as separate, Father and Son are unified in that blazing, unimaginable dance of love which created heaven and earth and which Jesus brings directly to the upper room and the greater world. He alone will not disappoint my expectations. His promise from Bethlehem, from Golgotha and from the empty tomb is that he is one with the Father, The Father who dwells in me is doing his works. He will fulfill my incomplete expectations beyond my me-centric ability to comprehend. He asks me as he asked his disciples that I repent, listen, understand to the best of my ability, accept him each day I live and allow the Spirit to motivate and fire me to be his beloved.
Each of my healthy, life-giving relationships is as reflected in a glass darkly compared to what Jesus offers Philip, James and me. And if my best friends and family are any indication, I – we - are truly blessed with what Jesus has for us.
Action
Pope Francis says in GAUDETE ET EXSULTATE: (21.) The Father’s plan is Christ, and ourselves in him. In the end, it is Christ who loves us, for “holiness is nothing other than charity lived to the full”. As a result, “the measure of our holiness stems from the stature that Christ achieves in us, to the extent that, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we model our whole life on his”. Every saint is a message which the Holy Spirit takes from the riches of Jesus Christ and gives to his people.[i]
What message is the Holy Spirit sending through your life?
[i] APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION, GAUDETE ET EXSULTATE, OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS, ON THE CALL TO HOLINESS IN TODAY’S WORLD
No comments:
Post a Comment