EACH ACT IN LIFE IS AN OCCASION FOR PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH THE LORD

But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. (John 16:7)

At the Last Supper the disciples were sad at the announcement of the impending departure of Jesus. In today’s Gospel (John 16:5-11) Jesus tells them that it is important that he leaves them physically, because now the Holy Spirit will dwell in them. He stretches their minds to understand that they cannot cling to a fixed idea of him, but must be open to understanding that God can be present in many ways.

The ever-changing world in which Eugene lived (he lived through 7 radical changes of political rule in 79 years) forced him to adapt, while keeping his vision anchored on the Savior. His spirit is beautifully captured in the Oblate Rule of Life:

We achieve unity in our life only in and through Jesus Christ. Our ministry involves us in a variety of tasks, yet each act in life is an occasion for personal encounter with the Lord, who through us gives himself to others and through others gives himself to us. (C 31)

 

 

The events of these months are challenging us to stop clinging to unchanging ideas but to allow the Holy Spirit to open our minds to discover the presence of God in different ways as a different world unfolds around us.

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1 Response to EACH ACT IN LIFE IS AN OCCASION FOR PERSONAL ENCOUNTER WITH THE LORD

  1. Eleanor Rabnett, Oblate Associate says:

    One of the things that this pandemic seems to have done quite well is to ‘level the playing field’ for it seems to touch all of us one way or another. This is what life in God looks like for each of us. I have always thought that it has been more about how I run towards God – not about how God runs to me. God is. Life itself is not the aim, life in God is the aim. Perhaps the greatest secret of all of life is that God is.

    I think of how we go to the ocean and throw ourselves in or more slowly, one step at a time, but still we enter into it. We do not stand on the shore and have others run to the edge to fill a cup and then have them bring that back to us. No, we run to the water, easing our way in, throwing ourselves in. It is only once we become a part of it that we are then able to swim and float and be with the others who are there. Keeping ourselves separate and standing on the shore dabbling our toes in the edges of the waves is not the same at all. We need to fully enter into it and become a part of it.

    I look at the expression used in this Constitution which is about “Unity of Life”. This is not about an action done to us for to others. It is about a flow “through us” love being a part of others, and “through others” love being a part of us. We are not the originator, we simply “enter into” and become a part of.

    This is how our vision remains anchored on the Saviour. This indeed is how we see through the eyes of perfect love, the eyes of our crucified Saviour.

    Entering into, becoming one with…

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