Love

Still the same sunrise at a slightly different time.
At the Last Supper in John's Gospel there is a  section in which Jesus talks at length to his disciples about love, "This is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you." (15:9-17)  It sounds like an impossible command: to love as Jesus loves.  But all we have to do is tap into the love Jesus within us makes available to us.  Jesus says, "I am telling you  this so that my own joy may be in you and your joy may be complete."  What more could we ask! 

Belief + Love

I'm getting a lot of mileage out of this same sunrise.
John also gets a lot of mileage out of the word "remain" which shows up eight times in Sunday's Gospel and twice in the 2nd reading from John's First Letter (3:18-24) where he says that, if we believe in Jesus and love one another, we remain in God and God remains in us.  No effort is needed.  The presence of God within us enables us to believe and love.

Pruned by God

In the passage comparing our union with Jesus to that of a branch in a grapevine, John 15:1-8,  Jesus says that every branch that does bear fruit the Father will prune so that it will bear more fruit.  God "prunes" us in various ways: death of of a loved one, tragedies, emotional and physical problems.  Our faith grows stronger and our lives richer.

Remain

Using the image of a grapevine and its branches, Jesus stresses our lasting union with him, "Remain in me as I remain in you" (John 15:1-8.) The Greek verb means to remain, abide, last, endure.  Jesus and each of us are living in each other for good.

Middle Class Saints

These daffodils on this 29 degree morning down by the Lake are clinging close to the ground yet pushing their way up through last summer's waste.  Doing their best.
That's what Pope Francis asks of us in his latest "Apostolic Exhortation."  God does not want us to settle for a bland and mediocre existence.  God wants all of us to be saints.  That we may not have what it takes to be like the upper class  saints does not excuse us from being as holy as we can possibly be.

Christ in Matter

"Because of creation, and still more of incarnation, nothing is profane for those who know how to see."  --Teilhard de Chardin

From all eternity God wills to become one with the material world.

One Flock

It requires further growing in our faith to have the mind of Jesus who says "I am the good shepherd....I have other sheep that are not of this fold and I must lead them too.  They will hear my voice and there will be only one flock, one shepherd." (John 10:16)

Intimacy with Jesus

A light snow just a few days ago.
Jesus says, "I am the Good Shepherd; I know my own and my own know me as the Father knows me and I know the Father" (John 10:14-15).  Jesus draws us into the intimate knowledge and love that exists between him and his Father.

We recognize Him

Colts foot is the first sign of spring in our neighborhood.  It  grows along the side of the road.  Sunny and 62 when I went for my walk today.  Yesterday they were not blooming.
Two disciples hurried back from Emmaus to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples how they had met the Risen Jesus on the way home without recognizing him, but how later at table "they had recognized him in the breaking of the bread." (Luke 24:35)  That was one of the names the early Christians used for Mass. 
Our faith grows in a powerful way at Mass as we receive Jesus in communion.

Earliest Christian Community

The picture Luke paints of the earliest Christian community (Acts 2:42-47; 4:32-35) is an ideal to be held up for every parish even today: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread (Eucharist) and the prayers."  "There was not a needy person among them" because they shared what they had with one another. 
Community.  Worship.  Teaching.  Service.

Faith Tested

The sudden death of someone whom we love is a terrible test of our faith.  When Peter and "the disciple whom Jesus loved" ran to the tomb they found the body of Jesus gone (20:1-10.)  When Peter saw the cloths that had wrapped the dead body of Jesus, he remained unsure.  But the author tells us that when the Beloved Disciple entered the tomb, "He saw and believed."  The love between him and Jesus brought him to faith.  Through the rest of the chapter John shows us how others gradually came to faith.

The Shape of Easter

The movie, The Shape of Water, ends with these lovely words:
"Unable to perceive the shape of you,
  I find you all around me.
  Your presence fills my eyes
  with your love.
  It humbles my heart
  for you are everywhere."
I was ecstatic.  The words made me think of God who is everywhere.  I use them as prayer. The director says, "The shape of water is the shape of love."  The shape of Easter is the shape of Love.