No one asked Jesus where he was going after he told them he was leaving to go to the one who sent him. It shook them up when Jesus needed to explain it. Filled with grief in their hearts, for their lack of understanding. We are like that too. How many times we are deeply sorry for not understanding something that was explained after it was told to us.

Lord, Where are you going? I am going to the Father where I will send you an Advocate. This is his dialogue with the apostles, in my words. I ask it of my family, Where are you going? It is my concern for their safety and well being. Just as it is theirs when they ask it of me. It is not to be nosy it is out of love.

How often families fail this today, because they lack unity within their own family. How it should be a matter of one's love for another when we ask Where are you going? Not in a way that we abuse our relationship with them by seeking to harm them by knowing their every movement. It is in the trust of love in a relationship that gives us the ability to ask out of love for our spouses and our children Where are you going?

Next time I'm asked Where am I going, I will be happy to reply, I'm off to see Jesus in the people I meet today.

For us we do not need to be filled with grief because we know Jesus is with us always, in the Eucharist, in our hearts, in those we see.

When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning." John 15:26-27

And testify they did. In a few days we will be witnessing what Jesus told them about the Advocate. And in the course of the New Testament we have many accounts of what has been witnessed by those who have been with him since the beginning. What a rich source of testimony to the truth. Can we do this, too. Yes. Have any gone to a Parish Retreat, with a guest speaker. How many have gone away feeling enlightened, and told others of the experience. Or did we keep it to ourselves, afraid of what others might think, because we happened to have felt good listening to God's word and letting the Spirit of Truth in. Those are the times when giving witness is for the greater glory of God.

It's the same with any powerful experience we have that bears retelling. Only difference, we tend to tell stories of our exploits rather than spiritual ones. We receive these in order for us to speak of them just as the apostles have done. It's quite awesome when we think about it, being part of the apostles too, after all they did what Jesus asked and witnessed, and we have this opportunity too. To be just as the apostles have, to give testimony

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Jesus said to his disciples: "If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me." John 15:18-19, 21

As Jesus was telling his disciples these things, he was also telling us. We have seen through the years, the many who suffered for the sake of following Jesus. How they are hated all because they chose to follow Jesus than follow the world. It seems when people hate it's because they lack that particular quality they need.

It seems so very true too, that the world loves it's own. When we have many material things and let the world take over our desires then the world has won our hearts. It is then, those who follow the way of the Lord are despised, for their strength to leave the world's desires, and live in the way of God. It's is sad when those who follow the Lord find joy in the desires of the world, and not in him. It's a comfort to know that we do not belong to the world, for then we are truly chosen ones. Against all the hatred, and all the persecution for the sake of Jesus name. They do not know the one who sent Him. Can anyone say they do not belong to the world then?

It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you. This I command you: love one another. John 15:16-17

When Jesus was talking to the apostles about him choosing them, and how he appointed them to go out and bear fruit that will remain. They did as he asked! We have all that we know by the one's Jesus chose to bring forth fruit. And to this day he continues to chose the men and women that are called to the religious life, to continually bring forth abundant fruit. It's true too, we do not choose him, but he chooses us. Too often we are too busy living our lives to pay attention to God and his call. But we are never too busy to answer the phone when our friends or family call. Or to hurry up to go out when an invitation comes. But from what I read we seem to seek the supernatural, from sources that we should not be going. I think we tend to be more the one's who are a contradiction.

I'm not immune to this either, I did my fair share of doing my own thing and not listening to God. We tend to be a product of the environment around us. It's when we learn to dissolve the environment that is unhealthy, that we understand God's reasoning. No matter what we have done, or where we have erred, when God chooses us, it's an honor. It's like the most important person in the world has called. We can't make others call us so we may be followers, yet when God calls, it truly is an honor of the highest degree. And one that is abused the most. Because when he chose he also commanded, not asked, to love one another.

When we are chosen to live out a vocation as married, he commands that we love each other. Not in the physical sense that we are to go and have sexual relations with every one we meet. But to love genuinely from our hearts. This is his command, and this is one command we all have trouble doing.