Union

Union with God is what religion is about.  God could not possibly be closer to us than God already is.  So the lack is on our side.  When in prayer we say that we love God we are telling God that we want to be more aware of God's union with us and better able to respond to God's love.
Jesus prays for all of his followers, "I pray that they all may be one as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us (John 17:21.)"

For love by Love

We long for transcendence, something beyond what we see, someone who loves us unconditionally and everlastingly.  "We love because he first loved us."(1 John 4:19)  Love makes love possible.  We are made for love by Love.  God is drawing us and all the universe into complete loving union.

Glorified in God

Glory involves a visible manifestation of God's majesty in acts of power.  In John 13:31-32 Jesus uses the word "glorify" five times.  He says that God will glorify him in Godself.  The crucified body of Jesus is transformed into Divine glory.  The glorified Christ enables us to begin here in this world his life of glory with the Father.

How to recognize Christians

"This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:35)  When we followers of Jesus love one another the way Jesus has loved us, everyone will recognize that we are his disciples.

Violence Building

Hawaii: in the distance steam from hot lava plunging into the ocean where it will harden, middle distance is black lava hardened over the years, close up is vegetation growing on even older lava. (click on picture for clearer view)  The island continues to be built in the violence of the volcano.  Violence and rupture are part of the evolution of the universe and of humankind.  Somehow our suffering is part of this evolving.

Apocalypse

The second readings for the Sundays of Easter are from the Book of Revelation, the last book in the Bible.  It is not a prophecy of what's happening now.  The author created this book to assure us that, no matter how terrible things may look, God has already defeated evil. The Lamb that appears at various interludes has the wounds of sacrifice, but is still alive, a hope filled vision of the Risen Christ.

Business as Usual?

Taken from a replica of the disciples' fishing boat, looking back on the shore of Galilee.
We are all at a wide variety of levels in our relationship with the Risen Christ and of how much we let it influence our business and our lives.  Like the disciples on the seashore, our faith in the Risen Christ may still be an an infant stage, but like theirs it can grow and have a profound influence on our lives.  Once we have encountered the Risen Christ there can be no more business as usual.

Fisher Faith

A boat on  the Sea of Tiberius, maybe as far from shore as the boat that Peter and the other disciples were in when they saw the Risen Christ on the seashore (21:1-29.)  I don't think there is another scene in the Gospels which makes it so abundantly clear that these men had a fishing business.  They have seen the Risen Christ twice in Jerusalem, but here they are in Galilee back to business as usual.  When they drag their catch ashore they leave their risen Lord waiting over the fire with the breakfast he has prepared for them, while they count their catch "153 large fish."  Through the centuries Scripture scholars have tried to guess the symbolism of 153.  Maybe as businessmen they just wanted to see how much money the catch was worth.