Easter 6th S,May 29,11

Easter 6thS,May 29,11

Easter 6^th S,.May 29,11

(Jn.17:21-26)

Cardinal Bernardin in an essay on “How can I find God” speaks about his habits of prayer. He has often, he says, given talks on prayer but never spent much time in personal prayer. When he shared this dilemma with some of his priest-friends, they advised him to act on his desire and set apart an hour in the morning for prayer. With their encouragement and support, he resolved to devote an hour each day to prayer. He says: “During the early days of this new habit of prayer, I began to realize how often I had looked elsewhere for God rather than right in the midst of each day’s journey.” He adds further that he has constantly “tried to enter into closer communion with God through prayer. This search for union, he says, has been “an exciting, life-giving, sustaining experience.”

In today’s Gospel, which is the third part of the Priestly Prayer of Jesus, we hear the deep yearning of Jesus for the bond of unity that should exist among all those who believe in Him. Jesus exhorts his disciples to remain united with one another as well as with Him and with His Father in Heaven. In this prayer, Jesus brings out all the various implications of this bond of unity. This unity is the outward expression of God’s love for Jesus and of the mission entrusted to Him.

This bond of unity does not just remain on the plane of believers but goes beyond the terrestrial dimension to the very gates of heaven. It reaches through Jesus to the Heavenly Father. The Father lives in the Son and the Son lives among those who believe in Him. The disciples are united with Jesus and the Heavenly Father in a great and abiding intimacy, similar to the unity between the Father and the Son.

The unity between the Father and the Son is brought about by the perfect love between them. It is the love between them that causes, promotes and sustains the unity between them. It means that love should be causal factor of the unity that should exist among the believers. Love which would involve forgiveness and care for each other should become the basis of unity.

These words of Jesus in his Prayer to the Heavenly Father are undoubtedly the strongest call to unity uttered by Jesus. Our faith in Jesus is not just a vertical phenomenon. It has a horizontal dimension too. It involves unity with our brothers in faith. There is no way the believers in Jesus can remain divided.

Often what we find in our lives is the glaring absence of unity. Even in the heart of families which should be a model of love and unity, we find rancor and vengeance. Selfishness, arrogance, and pride gnaw at the vitals of a healthy family life. More than a million children live every year in broken families. People who share the same faith and have committed themselves to irrevocable unity are unfaithful to each other. Divorces become so rampant and the number of divorces is outpacing the number of marriages taking place every year.

It is in this background of broken families and broken promises that we should listen carefully to the words of Jesus asking us to commit ourselves to unity. Real unity can be experienced only where there is love. There should be a willingness to reach out to the other person, whoever he may be. He can be a member of the family or a stranger. It has been said that it is possible for man to reach the moon but has become difficult to reach out to the neighbor. We have to cross the street of our selfishness and offer our neigbor love and forgiveness. “The neighbor is the one who steps on my toes in the subway, or who makes a left turn from the outside lane in Sunday traffic, or who sneaks ahead of me on the bus for a seat…the neighbor is not some one we like.: “(Sheen).We have to start loving and by loving we shorten the distance among ourselves. Shortening the distance makes us come together and to experience the bond of unity that Jesus has asked us to have in today’s Gospel.

Christian families have to learn once the more the lesson of love, the lesson of the forgiving love and remain united because of their faith in Jesus. Christians have to come together, knowing that this togetherness coming from the bond of unity is what Jesus wants from each one of us. “Doing kind acts to people make us find all people lovable.”(Sheen)

Today is the day for us to avoid everything that creates divisions among us and think of the factors that promote unity in faith and love.

Easter 3rd S,May8,11

Easter 3rd S,May8,11

Easter 3^rd S,May8,11

(Jn. 14:7-14)

Tony Hendra, a British born, Cambridge educated American writer and TV producer who had a very riotous life as a young man wrote a book called “Fr.Joe Joe who saved my life.” In this book, he details his contacts with Fr. Joe and how the priest saved his life. He was introduced to this Benedictine priest called Father Joe while he was in England. Through the ups and downs of his life he kept in touch with Fr. Joe. When he realized that he was a total failure as a family man as well as a writer, he asked Joe permission to join the monastery to lead a life dedicated to the ideals of monasticism. Fr. Joe told him to go back to his family and be a good husband a good father.

To be a father involves a lot of qualities and qualifications. It exemplifies all that is beautiful, noble, sacrificial, dependable, and reverential in life. For a child, the Father is everything that is ideal and noble in life.

Once a young mother, speaking at a public function honoring her father’s 6oth birth day, remarked that it was through the love shown to her by her father that she came to a greater understanding of the love of God the Father.

Very rarely are such statements heard now from the children about their parents. The exemplary lives of the parents do elicit powerful reflections on the goodness, generosity and mercy of God the Father.

In today’s Gospel, in response to Philip’s question, Jesus tells him that those who have seen Him have seen God the Father.

Many of us in our reflective moments have wondered about the life in heaven and how the Father in heaven would treat us. But in today’s Gospel, we have a very candid statement from Jesus on how the Father would appear to each one of us. Jesus asked them to look at His life in order to know more about God the Father,

How was Jesus to them in his works and teachings? He was all mercy and kindness. He was available to everyone who approached him asking for healing. He gave life back to the dead. He comforted the suffering. He presented the image of a loving Father in heaven using the parable of the prodigal son. He forgave the sins of the woman caught in adultery and reinstated in society those who were ostracized like the tax collectors and lepers. In hundreds and thousands of ways he showed the different aspects of a loving and merciful Father in his interactions with the people. He tells Philip that one who has seen him has seen the Father.

Jesus also points out that anything that is asked in His name will be granted. Philip’s question is an occasion for Jesus to reveal who He is, His identity with the Father in heaven and His boundless mercy and compassion. Thus, in today’s Gospel, we find someone who will always be a Father to us. We don’t have to go anywhere looking for comfort and support, healing and renewal, mercy and love except in Jesus Christ, our Savior.

In our society, as so many concerted attacks are being orchestrated against the unity and cohesion of the family, it is appropriate to reflect on the responsibilities and tasks of parents. Tim Russert, the late NBC TV commentator has written a book, “The Big Russ and Me” on his father who did two jobs to put him through private schools and college. He waxes eloquent describing the strong influence his father has had on his life. The motto of the book is that “children stand on the shoulders of their parents”, meaning that all the accomplishments of the children are due to the love, hard work and exemplary Christian faith of their parents.

Today as we reflect on the Fatherhood of God, it is very proper to ask each one of us how we are fulfilling the duties entrusted to us in our roles as leaders, parents and teachers. Can the people who are entrusted to us say that it is because of us as parents, teachers or leaders that they have been blessed with such a good Christian life? Can we offer ourselves as models of good Christian life to those who are entrusted to our care?

It is sad to say that we don’t have many in our midst who exemplify through their lives the qualities of a true Father, one who will never forsake us, who will come to our help in the dire moments of helplessness, and who will comfort us in the heart-broken moments of great tragic experiences.

May the words of Jesus that we heard in today’s Gospel help us to experience more warmly the love of our heavenly Father and make us committed to a way of life that offers love, forgiveness and compassion.