One of the most helpful books I’ve read is “Amazing Grace, a vocabulary of faith.” By Kathleen Norris. She describes it as “an exploration and record of some of the words in the Christian lexicon that most trouble and attract me.”
The book reminded me of an important Benedictine principle, that words matter. They shape us, form us, challenge us and help us grow.
Last year I made a Lent lexicon. This year I’m aiming to make an Eastertide one. I’ve chosen words that attract and sometimes scare me. They also both shape and challenge my experience of Eastertide.
I’m including words that are particularly connected to Eastertide, and words that, though they’re connected to other seasons might have a different resonance in this Eastertide.
My final Eastertide word is ABUNDANCE. All of Eastertide expresses the overflowing abundance of God’s love for us. That’s especially true as we celebrate the ABUNDANCE of gifts the Holy Spirit showers on us at Pentecost.
This comes to mind when I reflect on our Pentecost tapestry and how it highlights the themes of the feast, listing our hopes for the coming of the Spirit into our lives:
I often find myself thinking that it seems a little bit crowded. The words seem to be jostling for space, almost overflowing the narrow hanging. This thought was in my mind as I read the first reading from St Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. He tells us:
“There is a variety of gifts but always the same Spirit; there are all sorts of service to be done, but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of them.”
In the light of his words I it seems hardly surprising that the words on the tapestry seem to burst out of the available space. Pentecost is a feast overflowing with a generosity and energy that are impossible to contain. The variety of gifts God pours out at Pentecost cannot be contained.
They overflow, just like the words on our tapestry, insisting that we use them in all sorts of different ways to help, support and nurture the people of our times.
Just as the disciples were compelled to reach out to the world by wind and fire the Spirit demands that we burst out of whatever upper room imprisons us to share her gifts generously with our needy world.
What gift of the Spirit do you want to overflow in your heart this Pentecost?
Today’s Eastertide word is ATTENTIVENESS. Today’s gospel covers the very end of Jesus’ conversation with Peter. Once again I find myself touched by Peter’s bluntness.
Even in the middle of his intense and intimate conversation with Jesus Peter is distracted enough to wonder about the fate of the beloved disciple. He asks Jesus:
“What about him, Lord?”
I too can be easily distracted even in my most prayerful moments. So Peter’s distraction and his honesty about it are consoling. They make me realise how commonplace distraction in prayer is.
His honesty in speaking to Jesus about it are a reminder that we can be open with Jesus when we too are distracted. Jesus’ response brings Peter back, firmly and lovingly from his distraction. He draws him back to the focus of their conversation, saying to him:
“If I want him to stay behind till I come, what does it matter to you? You are to follow me.”
Sometimes allowing distractions to flourish in our minds and hearts can blunt the urgency or challenge of Jesus’ call. If we feel challenged, we can shift some of our discomfort by focussing on other things or other people.
This last part of Jesus’ conversation with Peter calls us to reflect on that. It calls us to notice our distractions and to bring them to Jesus. Then he can help us to lay them aside so that we, like Peter can give ourselves wholly to our encounter with him.
As we move towards Pentecost where is Christ challenging you to give your full attention to following him?
The call to SURRENDER ourselves to Christ is the challenge and hope at the heart of today’s gospel. It revisits Peter’s conversation with Jesus after the resurrection it takes place on a beach, after Peter has had a long and frustrating night’s fishing.
An apparent stranger on the beach calls to them to try again. The result is that they end up with a record haul of fish, recognising that the stranger is in fact the risen Christ, who invites them to a breakfast that he himself has cooked.
Today’s gospel focuses on the private conversation that Peter and Jesus have after the meal. Having invited Peter to declare his love and commissioning him to “feed my sheep” Jesus takes the conversation in a new direction. He says to Peter:
“I tell you most solemnly, when you were young you put on your own belt and walked where you liked; but when you grow old you will stretch out your hands, and somebody else will put a belt round you and take you where you would rather not go.”
There is a real challenge in these words for Peter and for us. It’s a reminder that when we commit ourselves to following Christ we surrender control of our lives.
We make that commitment freely and as open heartedly as we can. We might have hopes and dreams of where that will lead us. But the reality is that we can’t know or control what it will actually mean. When Jesus invites us to:
“Follow me.”
He challenges us to step out into the unknown, trusting ourselves to his grace. Moving towards Pentecost it’s worth reflecting on what it means to surrender control to Christ in this way.
Where is the risen Christ challenging you to surrender control of your life to him this Eastertide?
The farewell discourse in John’s gospel are full of riches as Jesus prepares his disciples for his departure he seems he does everything he can to make himself known to them in the fullest possible way:
“I have made your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and so that I may be in them.”
His words remind me that we our Christian call is to an intimate relationship with Christ. We are called to get to know him as well as we would know our best friends.
To do that we have to spend time with him, listening to his teaching, watching his actions, learning what matters most to him.
It’s not only are called to come to know Christ. The call to friendship is never one way so it’s also a call to allow Christ to know as. Christ opens himself to us in the Gospels, showing himself as he truly is.
He calls us to open ourselves to him in the same way, allowing him to see us truly are. It’s a beautiful idea, one that really touches our hearts and the depth of our longing. Yet the reality is it can be quite hard to be open ourselves to the love and friendship that Christ offers.
The knocks and bumps of daily life very quickly overshadow that longing. Our relationships and their experiences leave us wounded and hurt. Often we feel frustrated, isolated and unloved. It’s so tempting to give into those feelings and then it becomes very hard to allow ourselves to be known by Christ.
How is Christ inviting you to get to know him this Eastertide?
Today’s Eastertide word is GRACE. In the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles Paul is saying goodbye to the Church at Ephesus.
It’s an emotionally highly charged occasion. Paul has told them they are unlikely to see him again, and they weep as they say their goodbyes. As he takes his leave he commends them to God’s grace saying:
“And now I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace that has power to build you up and to give you your inheritance among all the sanctified.”
He knows they are facing challenging and dangerous times. The young church is threatened by persecution from the authorities, a threat that endangers livelihoods and lives.
Paul points out another threat from within. He warns them against those within the community who would misuse the teaching of Jesus to lead them astray.
In such dangerous and challenging circumstances Paul feels the best he can do is commend them to God’s grace. His action is based on the firm conviction that grace has the power to strengthen and save us.
I can’t help feeling that we sometimes underestimate the power of that GRACE. We live in times that expect us to be in control at all times. The expectation is that whatever challenges we face we will be able to fix things without help.
Paul’s words reminds us that this is as impossible for us as it was for the early Church. There are situations where the only thing we can do is actively trust that God’s grace will fill us and enable us to deal with whatever situations arise.
Where do you need to feel God’s grace in your life this Eastertide?
Today’s Eastertide word is PRAYER. We know we are called to nurture and sustain a relationship with God through PRAYER. Our prayer might be a prayer of praise, or petition or lament.
It might be a combination of all three. It might be personal prayer that we enter into by ourselves or communal prayer that we share with others through the liturgy. Mostly we need a combination of both of these.
We put a lot of effort into our prayer. We put a lot of thought into the best and most effective way to pray. Today’s gospel presents an image that I don’t think we often think about. It shows us Jesus praying for us. It seems to me that this tells us something important about Jesus’ relationship with the Father and about his relationship to us.
We know from elsewhere in the gospel that time spent with his Father was important to Jesus. Today’s gospel prayer, focused on what he knows we will need when he has returned to the Father, tells us that he deeply cares for us and is concerned for our well-being.
He wants to ensure that we are drawn into his union of love with the Father. He prays that we may receive the gift of eternal life which he describes as knowing God and knowing Christ:
“Let him give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him. And eternal life is this: to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
His prayer is that we come to recognise God in the very depths of our hearts in ways that are life affirming and transforming.
How do you want to respond to the Christ who prays for you this Eastertide?
Today’s Eastertide word is COMPLETE. Aware of our brokenness we all long for the wholeness that comes from the completion of God’s work in us.
In his first letter St John shows us the source of the completion we seek. It’s found in the relationship of love at the heart of the gospel, and that both calls and sustains us wherever life leads us. He writes:
“My dear people, since God has loved us so much, we too should love one another. No one has ever seen God; but as long as we love one another God will live in us and God will be complete in us.”
He makes a very clear connection between God’s love for us and our love for one another. This love is life changing and challenging. It acknowledges our brokenness and offers us a path towards wholeness. It’s a love that doesn’t give up when it’s hard or painful.
As St Benedict reminds us this love calls us to consider first what is best for the other rather than for ourselves. It calls for a daily recommitment. Sometimes it’s easier in the big challenges than in the small interactions of daily life which can feel so mundane and irritating.
Such love is beyond our human capacity, and in many ways it is. It is only when we know and accept ourselves as truly and unconditionally loved by God that we can begin to offer that love to others. us.
As we move towards Pentecost it’s worth remembering that the completion that brings us to wholeness relies on us abiding in God’s love so that we can carry it with us to a world in need.
How are you being to called to allow God’s love to bring you to wholeness this Eastertide?
Today’s Eastertide word is GLORIFY. Beginning with Jesus’ prayer for his disciples the word “glorify” repeats again and again throughout this Sunday’s gospel:
“Jesus said: ‘Father, the hour has come: glorify your Son so that your son may glorify you; and, through the power over all humankind that you have given him, let him give eternal life to all those you have entrusted to him.’”
In an age that sees itself as egalitarian his words seem baffling or even downright uncomfortable. We’ve seen too many misinterpretations of glorification to be comfortable with it. But John’s Gospel is not speaking of the human glory that we’ve seen misused and abused in so many areas.
The glory of the gospel is discovering the reality of divine presence in the midst of ordinary life. We’ve seen that unfold in Jesus’ in miracles and life transforming encounters.
Now Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure and the coming of the Spirit. His prayer for them is that the presence of God will continue to break through into their lives.
That presence won’t remove the challenges, difficulties and dangers they face. Instead the presence of God with them will transform them, giving them courage to move forward in hope and trust.
In our own challenging and uncertain times that presence still has the power to break through and transform our lives. It is unlikely (though not impossible) that we will see it in grand gestures and actions.
It’s more likely to be apparent in glimpses and glimmers in the midst of the most ordinary and mundane activities of life. If we are attentive and alert it will come to us in the most unlikely of circumstances.
Where is God calling you to be attentive to the presence of God’s glory in your life?
The mood of Eastertide changes after Ascension. It becomes quieter and more reflective as the disciples come to terms with Jesus returning to the Father, and await the coming of the Holy Spirit.
It’s still a time of rejoicing in the resurrection. It’s also a time of waiting and hoping, and both of those carry a certain amount of uncertainty with them. As St Paul tells us, we only hope for what we don’t have.
As the disciples waiting this time Jesus encourages them to be bold in acknowledging their needs. He says to them:
“I tell you most solemnly, anything you ask for from the Father he will grant in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and so your joy will be complete.”
So today my Eastertide word is ASK. On one level that seems very straightforward, Jesus tells his disciples, and us, that if we ask it in his name, we will receive what we need. It becomes more challenging when we begin to think about our attitudes to asking.
We live in times that greatly value independence. We are supposed to be able to support ourselves entirely independently. There is an expectation we will be able to meet our needs ourselves without help or support from anyone else. This makes it very hard for us to be vulnerable, to admit that we have needs that we can’t meet ourselves.
Once again Jesus points us in a different direction. In this time between Ascension and Pentecost he invites and challenges us to become vulnerable and humble in admitting our neediness in God’s presence.
Where is the risen Christ inviting you to ask for what you need this Eastertide?
The Eastertide gospels are very dynamic and active as the disciples struggle to come to terms with all that has happened. The gospels are full of movement, running, traveling, fishing, hiding. With Ascension the mood changes, it’s a quieter, more reflective time.
Jesus, who has been with the disciples in a new and very concrete way since the resurrection, has returned to the Father. This means the disciples have to adjust to another leaving, another loss and another new reality. They have to take time to reflect on all they have experienced, and they have to wait for whatever the Spirit will bring.
In this time we revisit the farewell discourses, reminding ourselves of the things Jesus has promised us. Today’s gospel acknowledges the suffering of life, the sorrow and the pain we all face. But it doesn’t stop there, having acknowledged the pain Jesus reveals another level of reality. He says to them:
“I shall see you again, and your hearts will be full of joy, and that joy no one shall take from you.”
He reminds them that no amount of suffering can destroy the joy he offers or take it away. As I look around our world today, at the wars and conflicts, the poverty, inequality and exclusion that cause so much suffering it’s hard to find sources of joy.
Yet it’s in these challenging time that Jesus promises us his joy. This time allows us the opportunity to reflect, and to acknowledge our suffering, and to open our hearts to the joy he promises.
Where are you being called to take time to reflect this Eastertide?
