John 14: 23-31
Jesus replied, “He who truly
loves me reveals my Spirit, and my Father will love him and we will come to him
and prepare with him a dwelling in the everlasting [an eternal dwelling]. He
who does not love me cannot reveal my Spirit. And the spirit power of the word
that you hear is not from me; it is the speaking of the Father who sent me.
I have said this to you while I am still with you.
But he who is called down, the health-bringing Spirit, whom the Father will
send in my name, he will teach you everything and will awaken within you all
that I have said to you.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do
not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do
not be afraid [have no fear].
You have heard how I said to you, ‘I am going away,
and yet I am coming to you’. If you loved me you would rejoice because I am
going to the Father[ly Ground of the World], for the Father is mightier than I
am.
I have told you now, before it happens, so that
when it happens you may find trust. I no longer have much to say to you, for
soon the prince of this world is coming. Yet over me he has no power.
But the world shall see in this how I love the
Father [Ground of the World] and how I act in accordance with the Father’s
purpose, as it was entrusted to me. Arise, let us go on from here. [let us be
on our way.]
…. it's being held prisoner by your skin
Whit-Tuesday
May 21, 2013
John 14: 23 – 31
At the end of the day children often have a meltdown over
something relatively minor. The parent knows that the child is experiencing
this because he is tired and hungry, or maybe even getting ill. The light of
the parents’ awareness reaches higher and more broadly than the child’s. The
parent knows that the child needs comfort, nourishment, and rest, not whatever
it is that sparked the tantrum.
The divine Father’s Spirit also has this quality of
higher and broader awareness. He knows that we are experiencing disasters
because we are tired and overwhelmed. He knows that we suffer under the
sickness of sin.
And so the Father sends His healing spirit, the active
messenger of His love, to help heal us. He comes to comfort us, to nourish us,
to give us the solace of his love.
The spirit of Love that operates behind the evolving
situations in our lives knows what we need; it sees and operates out of a
broader and higher level of awareness. It comes to heal the evils we face.
The poet imagines a bird asking a human being a question:
What's it like to be a human
the bird asked
while reaching infinity
being a captive of your scrap of
time
while touching eternity
being hopelessly uncertain
and helplessly hopeful
….
it's being on fire
with a nest made of ashes
eating bread
while filling up on hunger
it's dying without love
it's loving through death
That's funny said the bird
and flew effortlessly up into
the air.[1]
[1]
Anna Kamienska, “Funny”, in Astonishments:
Selected Poems of Anna Kamienska,
ed. and trans. by
D. Curzon and G. Drabik