“If anyone loves me he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14: 23)
In these days the daily Gospel in the liturgy is from the Last Supper discourse of Jesus. We see the community of disciples (the Early Church) being prepared for life without the physical earthly presence of Jesus. The community is being trained to recognize the presence of God in many different ways.
Today’s Gospel (John 14:21-26) plunges us into the dynamics of Trinitarian love by putting us into relationship with the Holy Spirit. If we love God, then God will make a home of our lives.
St. Eugene wanted his life to be God’s home:
The only way, I believe, is to act always in a perfect dependence on God’s will, in perfect liberty of spirit, in union with God by an interior movement of connection to what it pleases him at that moment, with the conviction that that is what he wants me to do, and absolutely nothing else.
The pandemic we are living through has shaken our foundations and invites us to re-examine our life choices:
to begin by loving,
to listen to the Loved One’s Word,
to allow ourselves to be loved, and
to transform our life into the home of Love.
…we shall come to him and make our home with him.” The words seem to leap out from the screen. That “we” – each of us and Jesus, and then Frank’s interpretation that “God will make a home of our lives”. God will make a home of our lives! I simply sit with that thought, allowing to seep through my being. God lavishing us with love and life.
Eugene writes: “that is what he wants me to do, and absolutely nothing else.” Could life be any sweeter? I find myself wanting to let go of the fears and struggles that come when there is ongoing change and our foundations seem shake in the darkness brought on by the pandemic.
This past weekend my parish shared our liturgy with music, with our prayer and the readings from Scripture, a reflection and then moving to the Lord’s Prayer and a blessing. Finally after 2 months I was able to let go of what I wanted (a gathering of everyone in the church with the Eucharist). Somehow in a new way of celebrating the Word of God I was able to enter with a new spirit and deep within me I found myself opening up to a new way. I listened with new ears to the Word of God and gave thanks that I heard them. And I listened with a new heart to my friend who shared her Reflection on those readings and I was touched again, seduced by my Beloved whose embrace transforms my life into a home of Love.