2nd Easter 2014, Peace with You

2^nd Easter

John 20: 19-29

On the evening of the first day after the Sabbath, the disciples were together with the doors locked for fear of the authorities. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said,

“Peace be with you!”

And while he said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Full of joy the disciples recognized the Lord. And again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

And when he said this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive Holy Spirit through which the world will receive healing. From now on you shall work in human destinies with spiritual power, so that they shall have the strength to wrest themselves free from the load of sin, and at the same time to bear the consequences of their offences.”

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not there with them when Jesus came. Later the disciples said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

Luca Signorelli

But he replied, “If I do not see in his hand the marks of the nails, and do not put my finger in the place where the nails were, and place my hand in his side, I cannot believe it.”

Eight days later, the disciples were again gathered in the inner room and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”

Then he said to Thomas, “Stretch out your finger and see my hands, and stretch out your hand and put it into my side. Be not rigid in your heart, but rather feel and trust in my power in your heart.”

Then Thomas said to him, “You are the Lord of my soul; you are the God whom I serve.”

And Jesus said to him, “Have you found my power in yourself because you have seen me? Blessed are those who find my power in their hearts, even when their eye does not yet see me.”

2^nd Easter

April 27, 2014

John 20: 19 – 29

The disciples had locked themselves in out of fear. We could imagine their souls in a state of agitation. Even though some have reported seeing Christ Risen, the shock waves of the previous week are still reverberating. Everything that happened, the physical earthquakes, the torture and execution of their Beloved, his rising from the dead, it is all so stupefying.

Then He appears. He brings them the gift of Himself; and with that gift he brings them another, the gift of calm. He brings tranquility, serenity. The creative Word of God speaks peace into their hearts. He breathes the love of His healing Spirit into them. Look, He says, here are my wounds. I even died, but I am still radiantly and joyfully alive.

Our emotions can signal important information to us. Danger may be near; we may need to take action. But by His own actions, Christ indicates that we are nonetheless to move fairly quickly into a state of peace, of balance, of equanimity. As He says, lingering in agitation will not help us

to work in human destinies with spiritual power, so that they shall have the strength to wrest themselves free from the load of sin, and at the same time to bear the consequences of their offences.[1]

Christ would have us work calmly, in peace and in love, from the center of our being. And whether we see Christ or not, we can hear Him say to us, in every Act of Consecration of Man: ‘My Peace can be with you because I give it to you.’ The healing breath of His spirit of peace is available for us to inhale always. We can always ask Him: make me a channel of Your peace. For as
Fra Giovanni said in the 16^th century:

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today.  Take heaven!

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant.

Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow.  Behind it, yet within

our reach, is joy. [2]


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[1] John 20:23

[2] ~ Fra Giovanni ~ Written on Christmas Eve, 1513

Holy Nights 2013-14, Inner Sunlight

Holy Nights

John 15: 9-17

[Jesus said:]

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you – abide in my love. If you take my aims into your will, then you will abide in my love, just as I have taken the aims of my Father into my will and abide in His love. These words I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

This is the task I put before you, that you love one another as I have loved you. No man can have greater love than this, that he offer up his life for his friends. You are my friends if you follow the task that I give to you. No longer can I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I call you friends because I have made known to you all that I have heard from my Father. You did not choose me, but I have chosen you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should live on after you, so that what you ask the Father in my name He should give it to you. This I say to you out of the fullness of my power – love one another.

Holy Nights

January 5, 2014

John 15: 9-17

We are fortunate here in this part of the world to have a strong winter sun. Even when the air is cold, we can get warm by stepping out of the shade.

The heavenly Father continuously showers His love upon us. Outer sunlight is a physical manifestation of the light of His love. Jesus asks us to stand and stay with Him within the spiritual sunlight of His own and Our Father’s love. For He want to warm us and bring us joy.

The sunlight is also a manifestation of the Father’s Life; for with the sunlight, rays of life pour down and cause all things to live.

And He sets us a task—that we transmit that inner sunlight to others; that we be warm and objectively loving; that we give of our life forces. Standing in the light of the Son’s love, we will never run out of life to give; for we will have connected ourselves to the Source of Life, the Source of Love Himself.

Fra Giovanni said in 1513:  Life is so generous a giver, but we, judging its gifts by their covering, cast them away as ugly or heavy or hard. Remove the covering, and you will find beneath it a living splendour, woven of love, by wisdom, with power. Welcome it, grasp it, and you touch the Angel’s hand that brings it to you. Everything we call a trial, a sorrow, or a duty: believe me, that angel’s hand is there; the gift is there, and the wonder of an overshadowing Presence. Our joys, too: be not content with them as joys, they too conceal diviner gifts.

  Life is so full of meaning and of purpose, so full of beauty—beneath its covering—that you will find that earth but cloaks your heaven. Courage, then to claim it: that is all! But courage you have; and the knowledge that we are pilgrims together, wending through unknown country, home.

  And so, at this Christmas time, I greet you; not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem, and with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.[1]


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[1] FRA GIOVANNI, A Letter to the Most Illustrious the Contessina Allagia Dela Aldobrandeschi, Written Christmas Eve Anno Domini 1513 

Christmas I, Midnight December 25, 2013, Take Peace!

Christmas I, Midnight

Matthew 1: 1-25

The beginning of the whole Gospel, according to Matthew in the first chapter.

Tamar, Chagall 

This is the book of the new creation, which has happened through Jesus Christ [or, the generation of Jesus Christ], a son of David, who is a son of Abraham.

 Abraham was the father of Isaac,

   Isaac the father of Jacob,

   Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,

 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,

   Perez the father of Hezron,

   Hezron the father of Ram,

  Ram the father of Amminadab,

   Amminadab the father of Nahshon,

   Nahshon the father of Salmon,

Ruth and Boaz, Chagall

  Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,

   Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth,

   Obed the father of Jesse,

  and Jesse the father of King David.

   David was the father of Solomon, whose mother

David and Bathsheba, Chagall

had been Uriah’s wife,

  Solomon the father of Rehoboam,

   Rehoboam the father of Abijah,

   Abijah the father of Asa,

  Asa the father of Jehoshaphat,

   Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,

   Jehoram the father of Uzziah,

  Uzziah the father of Jotham,

   Jotham the father of Ahaz,

   Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,

  Hezekiah the father of Manasseh,

   Manasseh the father of Amon,

   Amon the father of Josiah,

  and Josiah the father of Jeconiah[c] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.

  After the exile to Babylon:

   Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,

   Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

  Zerubbabel the father of Abihud,

   Abihud the father of Eliakim,

Maternity, Chagall

   Eliakim the father of Azor,

  Azor the father of Zadok,

   Zadok the father of Akim,

   Akim the father of Elihud,

  Elihud the father of Eleazar,

   Eleazar the father of Matthan,

   Matthan the father of Jacob,

  and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.

From Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David to the deportation to Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the exile in Babylon to Christ are fourteen generations.

The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way: Mary, his mother, was betrothed to Joseph. But before they were aware of having come together, she conceived a child by the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph however, her husband, who was an upright man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, was considering whether he should quietly set her free [or, decided to consider all this a mystery.] As he was pondering this, behold the angel of the Lord appeared before him in a dream and said to him:

 “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because that which is to be born of her is conceived out of the power of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall give him the name Jesus, that is, the Bringer of Healing, for he it will be who will heal his own of their error and guilt. “

All this took place so that the word of the Lord, spoken by the mouth of the prophet, might be fulfilled:

“A virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and they will call his name Immanuel, that is, God in our midst.”

           

Now when Joseph rose from his sleep he did as the angel of the Lord directed him, and he took Mary to himself as his wife, and he knew her not until she bore her son, and he gave him the name Jesus. 

Christmas I, Midnight

Angel Speaks to Joseph, Rembrandt

December 25, 2013

Matthew 1: 1-25

In tonight’s Gospel reading, we hear of a virgin who conceives through the power of the Holy Spirit. Something, or rather Someone, descends out of the heights; the pure virginal being can receive this Someone because she is willing to be the one to fulfill the cosmic and objective needs of humanity, the need for God to be born as a human being on earth.

Joseph, too, hesitates because he knows that this conception is beyond the usual order of things, literally beyond conception. He knows that when great souls are born into a folk, the parents usually surrender them to the temple. In his quandary, he too ‘conceives from above;’ from the angel he conceives the thoughts that will guide his actions. For this child is one who will need more protection than the temple can offer.

We too are capable of these two kinds of conception. Into the virginal part of our soul we can receive Someone from above.  And like Joseph we can conceive divinely guided concepts in our thoughts.  A very early hymn celebrates this day in which because of both kinds of conception, heaven begins to work on earth:  Fra Giovanni wrote on this day in 1513:

  

No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today.  Take heaven! 

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant. Take peace!

The gloom of the world is but a shadow.  Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in darkness, could we but see.   And to see, we have only to look. [1]

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[1]  Fra Giovanni,  Written on Christmas Eve, 1513.