4th Sunday after Easter
John 16:1-33 (adapted from Madsen)
“All
these words I have spoken to you so that you will not go astray. For they will exclude you from
their society, and the hour will come when those who kill you will think they
are doing God a service. They will do all this because they have recognized
neither me nor my Father. I have said this to you so that when the time comes,
you will remember that I told you about it. In
the beginning, I did not need to say such things for I was with you. But
now I go to him who sent me; and
none of you asks me, “Where are you going?”
Now that I have said these things to you, sorrow enters your hearts.
 |
| Mary Reardon |
But, I tell you the truth: it is for your salvation
and healing that I leave you, for if I did not go away, the Comforter, the
giver of spirit-courage, would not come to you. When I now go away, I will send
him to you. When he comes he
will call humankind to account for the decline into sinfulness, for the working
of Man’s higher being and for the great world separation; for the decline into
sinfulness, because they did not fill themselves with my power; for the working
of Man’s higher being, because I go to the Father and you see me no more; for
the great world-separation, because the decision has already been made about
the ruler of this world.
I have yet much more to say to you, but you cannot
bear it now. But when the Spirit of Truth comes, he will be your guide on the way to the Truth that Embraces
All. he will not speak out of himself, but what he hears he
will speak, and he will proclaim
to you what is to come.
he will reveal me, for what he
draws from my being, he will
proclaim to you. Everything that the Father has is also mine. That is why I can
say, ‘He will draw from my being
and proclaim to you.’
Yet a short time, and you will see me no more, and
again a short time, and you will see me.”
 |
| Way to Emmaus, Janet Brooks-Gerlof |
Then some of his disciples said to one another,
“What does he mean 'A short time and you will not see me, and again a short time
and you will see me,’ and ‘I am going to the Father?’ They kept asking, “What
does he mean by ‘a short time’? We do not understand his words.”
Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, and he
said, “You are wondering that I said, ‘A short time and you will see me no
more, and again a short time and you will see me.’ Yes, the truth I tell you, you will weep and
lament while other people will be happy. You will be sorrowful, but your grief
will be turned into joy. A woman giving birth must suffer pain; for her hour
has come. But when she has born the child, she no longer considers the anguish for
joy that a human being has been born into the world.
So it is with you. You have to suffer pain now. But
I will see you again, and then your hearts will be filled with joy, and no one
can take that joy from you. On that day, you will have no need to ask me
anything.
Yes, I say to you; from now on, what you ask from
the Father, He will give you in my name. Up to now, you have not prayed in my
name. Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart so that your joy
may be fulfilled.
I have said all this to you in imagery. But the
hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in pictures. Then I will speak openly and plainly to you about the
Father. On that day, you will pray in my name. I do not say that I will pray
the Father for you. For the Father himself loves you because you have loved
me and have believed that I come from the Father. I went forth from the Father
and came into the earthly world. And now I leave the sense-world again and go
to the Father.”
Then his disciples said, “See—now you are speaking plainly
and openly and not in pictures. Now we recognize that all things are revealed to
you. You do not even need anyone to question you. And so our hearts confess
that you come from the Father.”
And Jesus answered, “Do you now feel my power in
your hearts? See—the hour is coming; it
has already come, when all will be scattered, each one to his own loneliness. Then
you will then also leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with
me.
I have said these words to you so that in me, you
may find peace. In this world, you will have great fear and hardship. But take
courage. I have overcome the world.”
5th
Easter
May
13, 2020
John
16:1-33
When
the wind blows, we feel it on our skin; we see its effects on the trees. But it
may be astonishing to realize that we cannot see the wind. The wind itself is
invisible.
There
are many things we experience that are invisible. As with the wind, we perceive
their effects, but not the entities themselves: love, goodness, beauty, truth
are such things. We have felt the embracing warmth of love, the nobility of
goodness, the radiance of beauty, the impartial strength of truth. But their
real essence is invisible. Those of our loved ones who have died still exist,
but like the wind, like love, their existence is invisible to us.
Our
own souls are another of those invisible entities. In fact, there is more of
our being that is invisible than not. Most of our true being resides in the
realm across the threshold of visibility, in that realm where truth and
goodness reside, in the realm of those who have already died, in the realm into
which we will withdraw at our own death when what is visible of us falls away.
Christ
is Someone whose being also resides in the invisible. But we can still perceive
His presence—in the love that shines forth from others, in the strength of
human dedication to the truth, in the noble promptings of conscience.
 |
| Vincente Juan Masip |
Christ
calls us to enter the invisible world consciously while still on earth and to
open here the eyes of our souls, to become aware of the Invisible Ones, face to
face. Perhaps this is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a 20th-century
martyr, meant when he said, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and
die.” To ‘die’ means to awaken in the invisible realm, the realm to which we
will fully return at our own death.
On
earth, Christ takes on a visible form to help remind us of the reality of His mostly
invisible existence. He takes on the form of circles of bread to nourish our
invisible souls, the juice of the vine to strengthen our invisible spirits. His
real invisible essence keeps us alive in the realm of the Invisible.
For
[as the poet Rilke says] we are only the rind and the leaf
The
great death, that each carries inside,
Is
the fruit.
Everything
enfolds it.*
*
Rilke, Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, p. 132
