“God’s Anointing Remains” by Beth
DeCristofaro
Anyone who denies the Son does not have the
Father, but whoever confesses the Son has the Father as well. … As for you, the
anointing that you received from him remains in you, so that you do not need
anyone to teach you. But his anointing teaches you about everything and is true
and not false; just as it taught you, remain in him. (1 John 2:23, 27)
(John) said: “I am the voice of one crying
out in the desert, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet
said.”
(John 1:23)
Piety
Grant me, O Creating God, the grace to remain
in you, confident in your assurance of salvation. May your heartbeat, Jesus,
echoed within my own being, open me up to the beauty of Creation, the safeguard
of your mercy, the blessings which come from loving relationships and the sure
promise of resurrection.
Study
John the Evangelist’s Gospel and Epistles
were “written that you might believe” (John 20:31) during times when
doubters and detractors declared Jesus was not divine and not the Messiah. Later,
Basil and Gregory worked for orthodoxy and against heretical claims that Jesus
was not divine. The well of mystery, God become man, is a deep one to drink
from as modern polls show many Catholics doubt the true presence in Eucharist. Early
Christians also struggled; John and the other writers of the Gospels wrote to
witness and attest to Jesus’ divinity and humanity.
John the Beloved Disciple’s beautiful witness
is explicated in the gentle yet passionate writings of John Philip Newell. He
writes “The Celtic tradition uses the image of listening for the heartbeat of
God. It is derived from the Gospel account of John the Beloved leaning against
Jesus at the last supper. The legend is that John thus heard the heartbeat of
God. He became an image of listening within all things for the One who is the
very beat of life. It is the beat of Beauty without which nothing that is would
be.”[i]
God’s love is central to everyone’s being and we are the repository, should we
choose to confess the Son and, importantly, choose to remain in him
through our relationships to Creation and our brothers and sisters.
Action
“At the heart of our being is the image of
God, and thus the wisdom of God, the creativity of God, the passions of God,
the longings of God.”[ii]
What an awesome invitation, to meet God within. In what ways might we better
seek to cut through the clutter to find God in our inner selves? As J. Philip
Newell and so many other mystics explain – while seeking times of silence is
important, finding our own silent center in the midst of our everyday world is
a graced beauty God offers to each of us. Spend time with God within today
and each day.
[i] Echo
of the Soul: The Sacredness of the Human Body, J. Philip Newell, Moorhouse
Publishing, 2000.
[ii] Christ
of the Celts: The Healing of Creation , J. Philip Newell, Wiley, 2008
Illustration: Cross of the Scriptures https://www.needpix.com/photo/1105252/ireland-clonmacnoise-crosses
No comments:
Post a Comment