Christmas Day, 2022, Holy Face

 Christmas III, Day

John 21:15-25 

Now is proclaimed the end of the entire Gospel, according to John in the 21^st chapter: 

After they had held their meal together,

Jesus said to Simon Peter: "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than the others here?” 

Peter answered, "Lord, you know that I am your friend." 

Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." And he said to him again, a second time, "Simon, son of John, do you love me?” 

Peter answered, "Yes, Lord, you know that I am devoted to you." 

Jesus said to him, "Shepherd my young sheep." He asked him a third time, "Simon, Son of John, Are you my friend?" 

Peter was heartbroken that he could say to him the third time, 'Are you my friend,' and he answered, "Lord, you know all things; therefore, you know that I am devoted to you." 

Jesus said, "Feed my sheep. Amen, the truth I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked wherever you wished. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and Another will gird you and lead you where you do not wish to go." 

He told him this to indicate the kind of death by which he would bring the divine to revelation. Then he said to him, "Follow me." 

But Peter, turning, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved, following him. He was the one who had leaned upon his breast at the supper and had asked, "Lord, who is it who betrays you?" When Peter saw him, he asked, "Lord, what of this man; what is his task?" 

Jesus said to him, "If it is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path. You follow me." 

From this day, the story spread among the brethren that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, "If it is my will that he remain until my coming, that does not affect your path." 

This is the disciple who here bears witness to these things and who has written all this. And we know that his testimony is true. There are also many other things that Jesus did. If they were to be written down one by one, I do not think that the world itself could contain the books that would have to be written.

Christmas III, Day

December 25, 2022

John 21:15–26 

Every child is born for a purpose. At midnight we heard how the Christ Child was conceived. At dawn, we held him in our hearts in amazed reverence. And now, suddenly, the tender child-bud is fully grown. The gospel reading catapults us into the Child’s future, and the whole purpose of His life flashes before us. The man that the child will become already stands before us, not merely full grown, but already born yet again as the Risen One.

Friedrich Stockli

The Rose of Love has already blossomed from the crown of thorns. 

He is asking Peter, “Do you love me? Will you turn my love toward others? Will you share it? Will you nourish, guide, and protect them as I have nourished, guided, and protected you?” 

His first birth was a gift from the angels. We glimpse his approaching second blossoming, but one that is now intimately tied to us. We hear his words, “Do you love me?” and like Peter, it breaks our hearts. For now, the Rose would multiply. The Rose would be handed as healing to those who suffer, as food and drink to those who hunger and thirst. He needs human wills, turned to the good, to distribute the roses of healing and peace. 

“Do you love me?” 

And we answer in the words of Rilke: 

We will sense you

like a fragrance from a nearby garden…* 

Only in our doing can we grasp you

Only with our hands can we illumine you….**

The day’s labor grows simple now

and like a holy face

held in [our] my dark hands.*** 

 

*Rilke, The Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, pg 122

**pg. 84

***pg. 147

www.thechristiancommunity.org

  

Christmas II, 2022, Hold You Gently

Christmas II, Dawn

Luke 2:1-20

 

(Now is proclaimed the [middle of the Gospel[s], according to Luke in the second chapter.) 

Now it came to pass in those days that a proclamation went out from Caesar Augustus that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone set out to be enrolled, each to the town of his ancestors. 

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he belonged to the house and lineage of David. He went to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed. And Mary was with child. And it came to pass that while they were there, the time was fulfilled for her to be delivered. And she bore her son, her firstborn. And she wrapped him in linen and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. 

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks in the night. And an angel of the Lord came upon them [appeared before them], and the light of the revelation of God shone about them. And great fear came upon them. 

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid, for I announce to you a great joy, which shall be for all on earth: today is born unto you the Bringer of Healing, in the city of David, Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign for you: you will find a little child wrapped in linen, lying in a manger." 

And suddenly around the angel was the fullness of the heavenly angelic hosts: their song of praise sounded forth to the highest: 

God's Spirit reveals itself in the heights

And brings peace to all on earth

         In whose hearts goodwill dwells!

 

And as the angels withdrew from them into the heavens, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go to Bethlehem to see the fulfillment of the Word that has happened here, which the Lord let be proclaimed." 

And they came hastening and found both Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in the manger. And when they had seen, they made known the Word that was spoken to them concerning this child. [or, When they saw that, they understood what had been told them concerning this child.] And all who heard it were astonished about what the shepherds said. 

But Mary treasured [or, preserved] all these words, pondering them [or, turning them over] in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God to everyone for everything they had heard and seen, which was just as it had been announced to them.

Christmas II, Dawn

December 25, 2022

Luke 2:1–20 

It has happened. He has been born into the world. After a hard journey under arduous circumstances, this original Child, the Son of God from the beginning, is at last born in the midst of humanity. And the world seems suddenly tenderly new, like the freshness of a winter dawn. Over the whole earth, light flashes up, revealing jubilation in the heavens, igniting the enthusiasm of joy in human beings. For in this newborn Child, the dawning and rising of the Sun-King himself announces itself as fresh as on the first day. In Him, the pure shining innocence of the first human being radiates like a corona of light. 

Mary, the representative of all human souls, not only cradles the Child in the warmth of her arms. She also cradles and treasures the first light of his great new Dawning in the warmth of her heart.

The shepherds are filled with astonishment and fearsome joy. They actively seek the Child, speaking warmly to all about what they have seen and heard. 

Tender cradling, wonder, and joy—all this ignites afresh in our hearts at today’s new dawning.  We see the scene with our mind’s eye. With the poet, our hearts say: 

artist unknown

I would like to rock you and sing softly

and go with you to and from sleep.

I would like to listen in and listen out

into you into the world….

I have laid my eyes upon you wide

and they hold you gently…. 

 

Rilke, Book of Images, trans. by E. Snow. p. 59.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

 

1st Michaelmas 2022, A Place for You

 

1^st Michaelmas

Matthew 22:1-14 

And Jesus continued to speak in parables to them: 

"The kingdom of the heavens [arising in human hearts]
is like a man, a king, who prepared a marriage feast for his son. And he sent out his servants to call the guests who had been invited to the marriage, but they would not come. 

"Then he again sent out other servants and said, 'Say to those who have been invited, 'Think, I have prepared my best for the banquet, the sacrificial oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered; everything is ready. Come quickly to the wedding.' 

"But they were not interested and went off, one going to his field to be his own master, another falling into the hectic pace of his own business. The rest, however, took hold of the servants, mistreated them, and killed them.

"Then the king grew angry; he sent out his army, brought the murderers to their destruction, and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, 'Although the marriage feast is prepared, the invited guests have proved themselves unworthy. Go out, therefore, to the crossroads of destiny and invite to the wedding whoever you can find.' And the servants went into the streets and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. 

"Then the king came in to see the guests, and among them, he noticed a man who was not dressed in the wedding garment [that was offered to him]. And he said to him, 'My friend, you are sharing the meal; how did you enter here not having a wedding garment?' 

"But the man was speechless. 

"Then the king said to the servants, 'Bind him hand and foot and cast him out into the darkness, where human beings wail and gnash their teeth. For the call goes out to many, yet only a few make themselves bearers of the higher life.' "

1^st Michaelmas

October 2, 2022

Matthew 22:1–14 

Burnand

We have probably at least once had a dream where
we showed up for an event and looked down at ourselves only to realize that we were not appropriately dressed. In the dream, we don’t know how we got that way. And we don’t know what to do — we are paralyzed. 

As human beings today, we find ourselves in a similar position. We find ourselves in horrifying situations and circumstances, not knowing how we got there or quite what to do about it. What we may not recognize is that, in fact, we are standing at the crossroads of destiny spoken of in the Gospel reading. We are all being called, invited to a wedding. Outer events have brought us to the place where the wedding is taking place. The Bridegroom is God’s Son. The Bride is the Soul of Humanity. 

Each of us is individually invited to be aware of the union of God and Humanity, to acknowledge and partake in the wedding. To begin with, we don’t have to “be good.” Whether we are good or bad seems to matter less than whether we are able at the right moment to hear the invitation, recognize its significance, and respond appropriately. We only have to respond by accepting the wedding garment offered to us and joining the process. 

One of the places, one of the portals to the wedding feast between the Divine and the Human is the Act of Consecration. An invitation goes out every time it is celebrated. To join in the celebration is to answer the invitation. And the appropriate dress, a wedding garment, is given to each of us at the beginning of the service. And what is the wedding garment? It is the reading of the Gospel. The Gospel reading itself is the festive garment in which to clothe our souls. 

The vestments the priest wears are an outer picture of what we all look like to the angels when we clothe our souls with the content of the Gospel, the good news from the realm of the angels. Each individual is asked to inwardly take it up, clothe themselves in it so that the wedding of God and Humanity can continue; so that the Son’s Father, the King, can come in and converse with us. Otherwise, we keep ourselves wailing and grinding our teeth in the outer darkness, when he would much rather nourish us with his comfort, strength, and purpose. For more than anything, he wants to call us friends, co-celebrants, as part of his kingdom. 

Having come, having clothed ourselves in the good news, having participated in the King’s service, we become the King’s people. We feel strengthened by our contact with Him and with his Son, by our conversation with them, by their words and deeds. And when it is time to leave the sacred hall when we have thanked them, we can say to them in the words of Rilke:* 

May both voices accompany me

when I am scattered again in city and fear.

They will serve me in the fury of our time

and help me to make a place for you

wherever you need to be.  

 

*Rilke’s Book of Hours—Love Poems to God, page 135.

www.thechristiancommunity.org

9th Trinity III 2022, Harmonious Order

 

9th Trinity III

Matthew 6:19-34 

Arya Sheffer

"Do not save up your treasures on the earth, where moths and rust destroy and thieves tunnel in and steal. Save up your treasures in heaven, where no moth nor rust destroys, and thieves do not tunnel in and steal. Because where you have gathered a treasure, there your heart will bear you. 

"The lamp of the body is the eye. So if your eye is wholesome, your whole body is lighted, whereas if your eye is bad, your whole body is in darkness. So if the light inside you is dark, what great darkness! 

"No one can serve two masters: either they will hate one and love the other, or they will put up with one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and greed's demon of riches [Mammon - spirit of hindrances or avarice]. 

"Therefore I tell you, do not trouble your heart about what you will eat and drink or with what you will clothe your body. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds in the sky: they do not plant, do not harvest, and do not fill barns, and your heavenly Father still feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Can any of you, by being vastly concerned, add one moment to the span of your life? 

Jan de Kok

"And why do you worry about clothing? Study how the lilies of the field grow.
They do not work, and they do not spin cloth. But I am telling you that not even Solomon in all his glory was ever arrayed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the wild grass of the field, here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will He not do much more for you, O small in faith? 

"So do not worry, saying, 'What will we drink? What will we wear?' The nations ask for all these things, and indeed, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Ask first for God's kingdom and its harmonious order, and these other things will be delivered to you as well. 

"So do not worry about tomorrow because tomorrow can worry about itself. Today's trouble is enough for today."

 9^th August/Sept Trinity

September 18, 2022

Matthew 6:19-24 

It seems that suddenly the days have been shortened. It gets dark so early. Everything begins to seem so pressured and insufficient. A half-conscious anxiety creeps over us—we worry whether we will get everything done today, this month, this lifetime. We sense that the light is declining. 

This gospel reading comes at a good time. It tells us to look closely at the worries and fears that darken our inner landscape. It tells us of the importance of maintaining the inner light in the face of growing outer darkness. It encourages a light generated by an undivided trust in and devotion to the divine, in whose hands we are held. 

Ultimately worries and anxieties can be traced to the greatest fear that our little ego has — the fear of annihilation. The poet Rilke* gives us an interesting view of this fear: 

I cannot believe [he says] that little death

Collot d'Herbois

whom we so busily ignore

should still trouble us so.

 

I cannot believe that he is that powerful.

I’m still alive, I have time to build.

My blood will outlast the rose. 

For, (as he points out):

My knowing is deeper than the teasing way

he [death] likes to toy with our fear.

I am the world

he stumbled out of. 

What a thought! We human beings were here first. The fact that we live comes first; death is a secondary aspect of our existence, an emanation out of us. “I AM, I grow, I know” is primary and far more powerful than death’s mocking threats of annihilation. 

Death and life are not polar opposites, like black and white. Just as the year does not end in total darkness, but gradually segues into another spring, so death is not the end of life. The moment of death, like the moment of birth,  is actually a kind of solstice, the transition to yet another phase of life. Life does not end with death, but life and death become resurrection, life in another form, on another level, another kind of life. 

To recognize this threefold aspect of our existence, to recognize the life/death/life cycle is to know and therefore experience the revelation of God, as demonstrated by his Son. Being born, growing, dying, rising, knowing — this is the pattern of all human existence, the pattern which Christ, the Human God, fleshed out for us. This pattern lives in the smaller events in our lives and in the overall pattern of life itself. 

“So be not anxious; seek first for God’s kingdom and its harmonious order.” To connect with Christ is to know the Truth and to connect with the Way, the path to another level of Life. 

*Rilke, Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, page 72

 

 

6th Trinity III, 2022, Be Opened

 6th Trinity III

Mark 7:31-37 

Julia Stankova

As he was again leaving the region around Tyre,
he went through the country around Sidon to the Sea of Galilee in the middle of the region of the ten cities of the Decapolis. They brought to him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty and asked him to lay his hands on him. 

And he led him apart from the crowds by himself, laid his finger in his ears, and moistening his finger with saliva, touched his tongue, and looking up to the heavens, sighed deeply and said to him, "Ephphata, be opened." His hearing was opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed, and he could speak properly. 

And he commanded them not to say anything to anyone. But the more he forbade it, the more widely they proclaimed it. And the people were deeply moved by this event and said, "He has changed all to the good: the deaf he makes to hear and the speechless to speak."

 6^th August Trinity

August 28, 2022

Mark 7:31-37 

Before the sun rises, the world is hushed. It is as if creation awaits in silence the making of a new day. The one in the gospel who was deaf and mute was enclosed, enwrapped in silence. And silently, Christ worked to prepare him. 

First, he drew him aside, apart from the crowds. He helped him come to himself. Then silently, Christ touched those senses in need of healing — the closed ears, the fettered tongue. Christ’s silent gesture spoke volumes. ‘Here,’ he says, ‘through your closed ears, you are self-enclosed. You can only hear your own thoughts. And thus your speech is captive.’ 

Then he looked heavenward. The deaf one, too, perhaps, raises his eyes to the heavens, to the profoundly silent world of the Father. And like a breath of fire — Ephphata! — Be Opened! — sweeps through him. The Word blazes within him. The man opens, he hears; he begins to speak, clearly, joyously. And this word of flame ignites the crowd and begins to spread. A new life begins. 

Christ burns away our dross. It is he who removes our impediments and barriers. It is he who shows us the way into our future. 

Ephphata, artist unknown

In our own moments of self-created silence, we pray to him to release our future. In the words of Rilke: 

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken

I want to free what waits within me

so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear….

May what I do flow from me like a river

no forcing, and no holding back…

Then…I will sing you as no one ever has,….*

 

* Rilke’s Book of Hours, Macy and Barrows, page 58

 www.thechristiancommunity.org

2nd Trinity III 2022, Hard to Surrender

 2^nd Trinity III

Matthew 7:1-29 

"Do not judge your fellow human beings, so that your judgment will not someday be visited upon yourself. For in the way you judge, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, you too will be measured. Why do you look to the splinter in your brother's eye but do not become aware of the beam in your own eye? And how can you say to your brother: "Wait, I will pull the splinter out of your eye" while there is a beam in your own eye. You hypocrite, first remove the log from your own eye, and then you may be able to see how to remove the splinter from your brother's eye. 

"Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor throw pearls to the swine, for these will tread them underfoot, and then turn upon you and tear you also to pieces. 

"Ask from the heart, and it will be given to your heart; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you; for whoever asks in uprightness will receive; whoever earnestly seeks will find; whoever knocks, to them will be opened. Or are there among you those who when their son asks for bread would give him a stone, or when he asks for a fish would offer him a snake? If then you who, despite wickedness, know how to give good things to your children, how much more goodness will your Father in the heavens give to those who earnestly ask him for it. 

"All that you want that someone should do for you, do first for them. This is the true content of the Law and the Prophets. 

Narrow Gate, David Hayward

"Walk through the narrow gate, for the gate is
wide, and the path is easy that leads to ruin [the abyss], and many are they who walk it. But narrow is the gate and difficult the path that leads to Life, and it is only the individual who finds it.  

"Be on your guard against false prophets of healing. They come to you in the garments of peaceful lambs but inwardly are rapacious wolves. You shall recognize them by the fruits of their deeds. Never will you harvest grapes from a thorn bush, nor figs from thistles. Every noble tree brings forth good fruit, but a wild tree only forms unusable fruit. A noble tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a wild tree cannot form good fruit. A tree that does not bring forth good fruit will be cut down and put in the fire. Therefore, recognize them by the fruits of their deeds. 

"Not everyone who addresses me with 'Lord! Lord!' can be taken up into the kingdom; only whoever accomplishes the will of my Father in the heavens. In the future, when the light of God breaks over the earthly darkness, many will call to me. They will say, 'Lord! Lord! have we not worked in advance for your revelation? Have we not driven out spirits of destruction in honor of you? Have we not gathered multiple powers for your word?' 

"Then I will freely say to them, 'I do not know you. My paths are not your paths. Depart from me, for you serve the forces of chaos [the downfall of the world].'

"Everyone who hears such words from me and acts accordingly will be like someone who wisely built their house on bedrock. The clouds burst, the waves rose, the winds blew and beat against that house. But it did not totter, for it was founded upon the rock. 

"However, whoever hears such words from me and does not act accordingly is like someone who foolishly builds their house upon sand. The rain comes down, the floods rise, the winds blow and beat upon the house, and it collapses with a great crash." 

When Jesus had finished saying this, the people were greatly moved, for he spoke to them out of spiritual authority, as if the powers of creation themselves spoke out of him, and not like their teachers of the law [or, canon-lawyers].  

2^nd August Trinity

July 31, 2022

Matthew 7:15–27 

In the spring half of its growth cycle, a fruit tree is all about manifesting. First its blossoms break forth, then its tender green leaves that broaden into summer’s crown. But the second half has to do with ripening something hidden: small living seeds, hidden in green fruit, hiding among the green leaves. They have to do with developing something that will survive autumn’s death: Seeds that will outlive the winter. 

What kind of trees are our souls? Are they cultivated, nourished, pruned, cared-for? Or like wild trees, left to fend for themselves, to eke out their existence in a hostile environment? For the important fact about our souls, and the lives they produce, is that we ourselves are both tree and gardener. We ourselves are called upon to recognize and work with our own nature. 

The fruits of noble souls are characterized by a fulsome beauty and regularity of form, by a robust generosity, flavored with a certain sweetness, nourishing others. Noble souls nourish the seeds of a life that will survive death. 

But like wild trees, untended souls create fruits that are dry and hard, measly and bitter, often corrupted from within. For such a wild tree, being turned into warming, useful firewood is an act of redemption. 

To do the will of the Father is to care for souls so that they become fruitful. So that they nourish others; so that they can offer themselves to nourish the Father’s purposes, to surrender to his greater life in the realm beyond the threshold of death. Eventually the tree will die. Its essence will be reduced to either seed or ash. 

For as Rilke says,* 

we are only the rind and the leaf.

The great death that each of us carries inside

is the fruit.

Everything enfolds it. 

For untended souls, he continues, it is 

 … hard to surrender what you never received.

Their exit has no grace or mystery

It’s a little death, hanging dry and measly

Like a fruit inside them that never ripened. 

God gives us each our own death

The dying that proceeds

from each of our lives

the way we loved

the meanings we made…. 

*Rilke, Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, pages 130-132.

 

 

Christmas Season, Dec 26, 2021, The Stoning of Stephen

   

Christmas Season

Acts of the Apostles, 6:8 – 7:1, and 7:53-60

And Stephen, filled with the touch of the spirit and with divine power, performed great deeds and signs of the spirit among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogues of the Libertines of the Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria Cilicia, and Asia began to argue with Stephen, but they could not withstand the wisdom and spirit of his words. Then they put forward men who were to say, "We heard him speak derogatory words against Moses and against God." Thus, they stirred up the people and the elders, and the scribes.

Finally, they went up to him, overpowered him, and led him before the Sanhedrin. They put up false witnesses who said, "This man never ceases to revile the holy place and the law. We have heard him say, 'Jesus, the Nazarene will destroy this place and change the customs, which Moses gave us.' "

Then all who sat in the Sanhedrin looked at him, and they saw his face shining
like the face of an angel.

Stoning of Stephen, Uccello

The high priest said, "Is this so?" and he answered, "Men, brothers, and fathers. Listen, you have received the law through the mediation of angels, but you have not kept it."…

While they were listening, their hearts swelled in great agitation. And they ground their teeth. Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the light of the revelation of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, "See, the heavens are opened to my beholding. I see the Son of Man at the right hand of God."

Then they cried out with a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him all together. They drove him out of the city and stoned him and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And as they were stoning him, Stephen said, "Jesus, Lord, receive my spirit." And he fell to his knees and called out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." And when he had said this, he breathed his last.

Christmas Season

Sunday, December 26, 2004

Acts of the Apostles 6:8-7:1, 7:53-60 

So closely are life and death intertwined! Today [Dec 26] the day after we celebrate the divine birth, we remember the first person to die in Christ’s name. 

Two days ago, December 24, was Adam and Eve Day. We remembered the apple of Paradise. Eaten before its time, it brought sickness and death to humanity. But hidden in an apple is a secret. 

A thin slice of an apple cut crosswise reveals a star, the symbol of the human
form. And this star in the apple is embedded within a white, five-petalled rose, the image of the pure blossom of the human body that emerges from thorny suffering. 

In between Adam and Eve Day, and St Stephen’s Day, the Christ-Star descended into earth existence. Christ suffered life’s thorns and its death. He produced the pure white rose-form of a new kind of human existence. 

And he offered this fruit of his to Stephen, whose face shines in gratitude like that of an angel, whose death is an example of the pure white rose of a new, forgiving humanity. 

We all carry within us, like the apple, the secret image. In Rilke’s words: 

We are only the rind and the leaf

The great death, that each of us carries inside

Is the fruit

Everything enfolds it. *

 

So in remembrance of Stephen, the first ordinary human being to die in the power of Christ, we can ask in Rilke’s words: 

God give us each our own death

The dying that proceeds

From each of our lives

The way we loved

The meanings we made….** 

May our lives and our deaths be fruitful. May we find and reveal the Rose and the Star within.

 

*Rilke, The Book of Hours, Macy and Barrows, p.132

** Rilke, The Book of Hours, Macy and Barrows, p. 131

Ascension 2021, Pull You Out of the Sky

 

Ascension

John 16:22-33

 

"So 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. Up to now, you have not prayed in my name. Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart that your joy may be fulfilled.

Stephen B. Whately

"All this I have given to your souls in imagery. But the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in pictures but will tell you openly and unveiled about my Father so that you can grasp it in full, knowing consciousness. Thus will I proclaim to you the being of the Father. On that day, you will ask out of my power and in my name. And no longer will I ask the Father on your behalf. For the Father himself will love you because you have loved me and have known in your hearts that I have come forth from the Father. I have come forth from the Father, and I have come into this world.

I leave the sense world again and return to the world of the Father, of which you say that it is the world of death."

Then Jesus' disciples said, "Now you are speaking in clear thought and without imagery. Now we know that all things are revealed to you and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God."

Jesus answered, "Do you now feel my power in your heart? Behold, the time is coming and has already come, when you will be scattered, each to his own loneliness. You will then also leave me alone. But I am not alone, for the Father is eternally united with me.

"All this I have spoken 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."

 

Ascension

Sunday, May 16, 2021

John 16:24-33

 

The petals of the blossoms begin to drop. The vision of loveliness falls away. Yet deep at the blossoms' base, fruit is forming, seeds of a new life. It will be a while before they are ripe. But they are there.

Stephen B. Whately

During the forty days of the time after His Resurrection, Christ continued to walk with His disciples. They could see Him in His otherwise transparent Resurrection body. Their deep love for Him, aided by their sorrow and suffering at His death, had opened their souls' eye. Through seeing Him after His death, they knew that the human spirit lives on after death.

But on the fortieth day, at His Ascension, He dies to them again. Their spirit sight cannot follow Him as He is elevated into yet another form, so their vision clouds over. They experience once again losing Him, this time in an indescribable depth of sorrow.

Sorrow and grief serve to deepen the soul. During the ten days after His Ascension, the disciples cocoon themselves together in the upper room. They remember that He said, "Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart (Jn. 16:24)."  So they pray. They go over all their memories of all they had experienced with Him. They remembered that He said, "The hour is coming when I will speak to you, openly and unveiled so that you can grasp it in full knowing consciousness (John 16:25)."

Although their soul's eye can no longer see Him, their prayers and sorrow, and memories are molding their souls. Their interior awareness is deepening. "Do you now feel my power in your heart?" He asks. "Take courage (Jn 16:31, 33)."

Rilke captures something of the mood of Ascension:

Laudario of Sant'Agnese

In deep nights I dig for you like treasure.

For all I have seen

that clutters the surface of my world

is poor and paltry substitute

for the beauty of you

that has not happened yet.

…Reaching, these hands would pull you out of the sky

as if you had shattered there,

…What is this I feel falling now,

falling on this parched earth,

softly,

like a spring rain?*

 

Christ's disciples are gestating. A new capacity is forming within them. It will be a little while until it makes itself known. But it is coming.

* Rilke, Rilke's Book of Hours, Barrows and Macy, p. 124.

 

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2nd Sunday after Easter 2021, Drink In the Life

 

2^nd Sunday after Easter

John 10:1-16

“Yes, I say to you: Anyone who does

not go into the sheep through the door, but breaks into the fold somewhere else, he is a thief and a robber. He who enters through the door is a shepherd of the sheep.

To him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice. He calls each one by name, according to its nature, and he leads them out.

When he has brought them out, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow; they flee from him because they do not know the stranger’s voice.”

Jesus used picture-language with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.

Sanz-Cordona

And Jesus went on.
“Yes, I say to you. I AM the door to the sheep. All who came before me were thieves and robbers. But the sheep did not listen to them. I AM the door. He who enters through me will find healing and life. He learns to cross the threshold from here to beyond, and from there to here, and he will find nourishment for his soul. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. But I—I have come that they may have life, and overflowing abundance.

I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. A hired man, and who is not a real shepherd, and does not care about the sheep, abandons the sheep, and runs away when he sees the wolf coming; and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. For he is a hireling and cares nothing for the sheep. I AM THE GOOD SHEPHERD and I know who belongs to me; and those who are mine know me, as the Father knows me and I know the Father. I offer my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must also lead them, and they will listen to my voice, and one day there will be one flock, one shepherd.

3rd Sunday after Easter

April 18, 2021

John 10:1-21

In this Gospel story, the shepherd is the one who calls, who gathers, who leads his own to food and drink. The wolf, by contrast, scatters and devours.

We all have a bit of wolfishness embedded in our nature. We are opportunists who devour what others have cared for.  We are at least occasionally snarly and divisive.

Stephen B. Whately

But at times, we are also shepherds. We may have occupations or families that we love so that we are not mere day laborers. We work so that others may eat. We gather where all are content to be together.

Christ is the ultimate shepherd. His is the voice we hear calling us, the voice of the shepherd who walks in the spirit before us. It is He who leads us to true nourishment. He leads us to the celebratory meal, sharing himself—the bread of his body, the wine of his blood, his life which He gives away voluntarily. It is He who creates this place where hearts and minds gather and are strengthened. In the words of the poet Rilke we can hear Christ calling:

         I am, you anxious one.

Don’t you sense me, ready to break

Into being at your touch?

My murmurings surround you like shadowy wings.

Can’t you see me standing before you

Cloaked in stillness? *

And we answer:

… you take pleasure in the faces

Of those who know they thirst.

You cherish those who

Grip you for survival.

…and drink in the life

that reveals itself quietly there. **

 

* Rilke, Book of Hours, Macy and Barrows, p. 66.

** Ibid, p. 61.

 

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