Category: Gospel

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Divine Office Eastertide Good Shepherd Gospel Lectio Divina Resurrection Rule of St Benedict Scripture Uncategorized

Shaped by and for Love.

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Today is both Good Shepherd Sunday and vocations Sunday. The Gospel with it’s call to listen makes the link between the two very clear:

“Jesus said “the sheep that belong to me listen to my voice; I know them and the follow me…They will never be lost and no one will ever steal them from me.’”

It takes me back to the heart of Benedictine spirituality and so of my vocation, the call to

“Listen with the ear of your heart”.

There’s no shortage of voices trying to attract our attention in today’s world. We’re exposed to a constant cacophony of voices drawing us in opposing directions. It can be confusing, unnerving and debilitating.

In the midst of all those voices there’s another one, gentle and persistent that calls to us. It’s the voice of the Good Shepherd reminding us that we are made for love, and are held in being by love. It’s a voice that calls us back to our true selves.

It tells us that however uncertain or chaotic our times the love of Christ will never let us go. The Good Shepherd calls us to allow his voice to silence the confusion of the myriad voices around us and to focus on the one really matters, the one that can lead us to a life shaped by and for love.

Where is the Good Shepherd calling you to respond to his love today?

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Staying with Christ.

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We can easily forget or brush aside the real challenge at the heart of the gospel. Centuries of familiarity and tradition have removed most of the shock that Jesus’ first followers would have felt when they heard his words. Today’s gospel brings us back to just how shocking his teaching was, and still is if we allow ourselves to really hear it. In today’s gospel Jesus has challenged his listeners so much that they say to themselves:

“This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?”

At that point many of them left and stopped following him. Faced with their departure Jesus does nothing to tone his message down. In his conversation with his disciples he even seems to increase the challenge asking them:

“What about you, do you want to go away too?”

He gives the Twelve complete freedom to walk away like the others. Having learned something of his teaching, each of them has to face and answer his question for themselves. It’s the same question that each of us has to face and answer.

Simon Peter’s answer sums up the situation for all of us. Turning the question round he says:

“Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe, we know you are the Holy One of God.”

His response brings us to the heart of our faith. Once we’ve recognised Jesus as the “holy one of God” however challenging it is to walk with him it becomes inconceivable to walk away from him.

What helps you to stay with Christ in this challenging Eastertide?

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The Bread of Life.

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Today’s gospel, following on from the feeding of the 5000, focuses on the reality of our physical needs and points us beyond them. It seems to me that this speaks to the heart of our reality. As humans we have real, physical needs that can’t be pushed aside if we are to flourish. Jesus, moved by their plight, has met the physical needs of the tired and hungry crowd in the feeding of the 5000.

After he has moved on and they continue to follow him he challenges them to examine their motivation. He reminds them that they are more than physical beings, and that simply meeting their physical needs will never satisfy them completely. Tempting as that path is, it will always leave them unsatisfied. He says to them:

‘I am the bread of life. Those who comes to me will never be hungry; those who believes in me will never thirst.’

In offering them himself, the Bread of Life, he reminds them, and us, of a bigger reality and invites them to embrace it. He makes it clear that these spiritual needs, which we can be inclined to ignore, are as real and as essential as any physical need. He encourages us, to acknowledge the reality of our spiritual needs and desires, and to take them as seriously.

This calls for a balance that we don’t find easy. Having a natural tendency to over overbalance in one direction or the other Jesus calls us back to a life giving balance that we can only achieve by focussing on him.

Where is Christ offering to nourish you this Eastertide?

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Motivation and invitation

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Today I’m reflecting on the aftermath of the feeding of the five thousand. It’s hardly surprising that after the miracle people feel compelled to find out more about Jesus, and the crowds went looking for him and, not finding him:

“They got into those boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus.”

As becomes clear when they eventually catch up with him, they don’t really know who or what they are looking for. But already something is drawing them to him. Maybe it’s curiosity, like the curiosity that drew Moses to the Burning Bush.

Maybe, as Jesus later challenges them, it’s because he fed them. It’s easy to be judgemental about that, but in times when people are struggling to feed themselves and their families it’s understandable, and we’d all do it.

Jesus’ response to them is very direct. He says to them:

“I tell you most solemnly, you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.”

He recognises that their motives are mixed and challenges them to reflect on that. Then he accepts where they are and invites them to move beyond that to a new understanding:

“Do not work for food that cannot last, but work for food that endures to eternal life, the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you, for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.”

His words are an invitation to them, and us, to recognise our mixed motives and then move beyond them to a deeper understand of who Jesus is. His invitation offers us the opportunity to enter into a deeper & more meaningful relationship with him.

In challenging us to examine our motives he invites us to embrace the new life of resurrection and the hope it offers for our challenging times.

How is Christ inviting you to a deeper relationship this Eastertide?

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Renewed in love.

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I find it really helpful that we hear the Easter gospels repeatedly during Eastertide. They all hold too much wisdom for just one reflection. Today we’re revisiting Jesus’ appearance to the disciples on the beach and I’m reflecting on Jesus’s conversation with Peter.

It’s the first time they’ve spoken since Peter’s denial of Jesus in Holy Week. I can imagine that Peter felt the full weight of that as he walked along the beach with Jesus after the meal. Jesus doesn’t revisit Peter’s betrayal. He offers him a way forward into renewed and healed relationship. He says to Peter:

“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others do?”

When Peter replies “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Jesus accepts that with no questioning or recrimination based on his earlier betrayal. Instead he offers them a commission:

‘Feed my lambs.’

Yet he repeats the question twice more until Peter, getting upset, repeats his affirmation again:

“Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”

We have no idea why Jesus repeats his question, but I assume that it’s to reassure Peter. I can’t imagine that the risen Christ needed the reassurance. Jesus allows Peter the opportunity to reaffirm his love for Jesus three times and then to be commissioned by him three times.

This doesn’t undo his denial, but it balances it it in a way that I imagine Peter will find helpful to remember in his darker moments. We too need the opportunity to reset & renew our relationship with Christ from time to time.

As we move through Eastertide where is the risen Christ inviting you to a renewed relationship?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Resurrection Saints Scripture

Discovering Christ

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Today we’re celebrating the feast of Sts Philip & James. Philip is looking for certainty and security. He has his expectations of the coming of the Messiah, and is looking for them to be fulfilled. Jesus’ comment to Thomas, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life … If you know me, you know my Father too.” isn’t quite enough for Philip. It doesn’t answer his uncertainties and he has the courage to step up and ask for what he needs:

“Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied.”

I have a lot of sympathy with Philip, following Jesus led the disciples on a bumpy and uncertain path that was never what they expected. In response Jesus offers him a challenge:

“Have I been with you all this time Philip, and still you do not know me? To have seen me is to have seen the Father.”

His reply doesn’t dismiss Philip’s longing, instead he calls him to a deeper level of awareness and attentiveness. Jesus challenges Philip to pay attention with his whole being, to give himself completely to being in Jesus’ presence.

It’s a challenge for us too. Like Philip we can be so distracted by our expectations that we feel to notice that what we are seeking is already in front of us. We also have to turn away from our image of how we think things should be to focus on the present moment, where we will discover Christ is with us.

Where is Christ calling you to discover his presence in your life today?

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Working with Christ

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Reflecting on John’s account of the miracle of the loaves and fishes I’m struck by how Jesus involves the disciples in what he plans to do. I’m sure Philip thought it was crazy to be expected to feed such a large crowd.

Andrew was uncomfortably aware that the five loaves and two fish were not going to go very far with such a crowd. Yet, having trusted Jesus and followed his instructions they witnessed the miracle of everyone getting what they needed:

“Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks and gave them out to all who were sitting ready; he then did the same with the fish, giving out as much as was wanted.”

Jesus didn’t need to involve his disciples in this. As is so often the case in John’s Gospel Jesus knows exactly what he’s going to do. Instead he chooses to invite them to work with him to meet the needs of the people, regardless of their lack of understanding.

He shows them, and us, a model of discipleship based on collaboration and sharing. He wants his kingdom to be a collaborative one where people share their gifts and talents freely with others. He wants no one to be without, and no one to be overburdened by having to meet every need by themselves.

In our own challenging and often brutal times he invites us to work with him and with those around us to continue building his kingdom today. He challenges us to use our limited and often meagre resources so that no one is left without the basic necessities of life.

Where is the risen Christ calling you to work collaboratively with him today?

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Into a land unknown

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Today is the feast of St Joseph the worker. On the surface he seems a shadowy figure. A background figure in the gospel who supports Mary and the child Jesus and brings stability and respectability to an otherwise difficult situation. Yet, if we look beyond that image we find a different story. I’m reflecting on these words from a hymn for his feast :

“His love was humble, flame of God’s own fire,
A light to guide the path he trod alone;
Like Abraham, like Moses he believed,
And went in faith to find a land unknown.”

They speak not of a shadowy figure, but of a man of great faith, courage, humility and trust. He follows in the line of Abraham and Moses who left everything to follow God into the unknown.

Drawing on the faith of his ancestors when his life and expectations are completely turned upside down St Joseph is able to put himself in God’s hands, trusting that God will lead and guide him. It can’t have been an easy choice, it will have required both humility and courage.

It’s impossible to think of this without reflecting on the seemingly insurmountable challenges our world faces today, both at home and abroad. As we see lives disrupted and communities destroyed by war St Joseph becomes a valuable role model.

He reminds us that however dark and uncertain our lives, we are called to put ourselves into the hands of God who will lead us through the darkness into the light of his love.

What gives you the courage to trust yourself to God today?

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Out of the shadows.

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Nicodemus a shadowy but persistent figure in the gospels. A respected member of the Jewish community he is also dream to Jesus and his teaching, visiting him under the cover of darkness to learn more. Today’s gospel is part of the lengthy conversation John reports him having with Jesus.

There’s a great deal to ponder in both his relationship with Jesus and their conversation, I find him both challenging and intriguing. Today I’m reflecting on these words from the gospel:

“Those who live by the truth come out into the light so that it may be plainly seen that what they do is done in God.”

It’s easy to hear this as simply as Jesus’ challenge to Nicodemus, a call to reflect on why he feels unable to be more open about his interest in Jesus and his teaching. While that is probably true, his words have a challenge for us too. We live in times when transparency is much valued, but, at least in public life, seems to be rarely practised. Truth has become so relative that it’s often hard to discern where it exists.

In such times we are called to hear Jesus’ challenge to Nicodemus as applying equally to ourselves. In times when truth and transparency often seem absent, he calls us to reflect on the things we prefer to keep hidden in our lives and to bring them into the open so that they can be clearly seen in the light of his love.

What is Christ calling you to bring into the light of his love?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Eastertide Gospel Holy Spirit Lectio Divina Resurrection Scripture

Transformation

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I’m struck by what the contrast there is between the Acts of the Apostles and the Easter gospels. In the Easter Gospels, even as the resurrection is proclaimed to them the disciples are afraid and traumatised. They hide away, fearing for their lives and struggling to belief the accounts of the resurrection appearances that they’re hearing.

What feels like a short time later they present a very different reality. After Peter and John are released from prison they join the rest of the community and we hear that:

“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to proclaim the word of God boldly.”

It’s a startling change that speaks to the power of the risen Christ to shape and change lives. After all their struggles and uncertainties their encounter with the Risen Christ and his Holy Spirit has brought them to a new place. I’m guessing that’s something they could never have imagined or hoped for. Certainly in the days after the crucifixion it must have seemed an impossibility.

They have been created anew. Having encountered the risen Christ, they are able to find the courage and passion to share their stories. They are able to speak out boldly in their challenging times, sharing the word of God and proclaiming the resurrection.

We too live in challenging and uncertain times. The risen Christ invites us to allow him to transform our lives so that we, like the disciples can find ways of sharing the good news of resurrection in ways that touch hearts and minds today.

Where is the risen Christ calling you to proclaim his word this Eastertide?