Verbum Dei Missionary Family

Sixth Sunday of Easter: Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48. 1 Jn 4:7-10. Jn 15:9-17.

This Sunday brings a simple outline of the fundamentals of our faith: that God our Father is Love and Christ is Love and all of us can be united in them if only we would love like them.

In the first reading, the Holy Spirit enters Cornelius and company and that's a prologue to the feast of Pentecost which is coming in two Sundays time.

The Trinity don't want an obedience that is external, but rather to dwell within us. That in us refers to every single one of us - those near and far - good friends and those that maybe don't seem so good at times! Look at how Peter goes out of his way to link up with Cornelius in the first reading (Cornelius was a centurion in the Roman army). It's an example of how we should all open the door to each other. Paul himself had deserved severe rejection by the Christians at first. But he became one of their leaders!

The call to respect the potential presence of Christ in each human being makes me think of the time one of our priests bowed before a baptised child just as we genuflect before a tabernacle in a church. Do we have that respect for each human life?

This is an indwelling which God desires in each of us, but once a man or woman is mature, they're free every day to open or close, and God won't impose. He simply sends his Word. Think of the prayer of Jesus about his apostles: "I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us..." (Jn 17:20).

Do we have that respect for our own lives? We say the words at mass before communion: "Lord, I'm not worthy to recieve you, but only say the word and I shall be healed" ...and I suppose the priest should reply "He's been knocking for a long time!". To quote St Ambrose: 'God wants a temple built and you are that temple.'. Christ is coming to his temple, so open your doors - the doors of your mind. He won't force his way in.

Christ knocks at our hearts even to the point of getting nails stuck in his hands and feet. I remember a young man in London (Covent Garden) who was passing a pub and saw his girlfriend kissing another guy inside. He stopped and put his fist through one of the door windows and got cuts which bled. That seems ridiculous (and unlawful), but at least it showed the girl how he felt about her. It makes me think of the guy with nails in his hands and feet on a cross for us. One book in the Bible actualy has a young man punching a hole in the door to reach his loved one who wasn't answering to him (Songs 5:4). It's an Old-Testament expression of how God feels about us. He longs for us to open up. We all answer in the community prayers at mass on Sunday, but we should also be answering God with our lives outside mass!

I like the way that Peter tells Cornelius not to bother kneeling before him himself. That's an expression of the respect which God deserves, but no-one and nothing else should detract from it. If the Pope of Rome came to visit your house some day, then you'd probably ask him in with a great welcome, but if the Son of God came? Well, He's at the door of our hearts... knocking humbly.

If we let Christ in, then we can be 'living Christs'. Do people who meet you at work, home and play, feel like they've met something of Christ's love? It could be! God is ambitious in this. To quote Jesus: '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.' (John 1:16). Christ backs that up with His life on the cross and 'No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends.' (Jn 1:13).

The clear sign that it's in our simple humanity that God longs to become flesh is Mary. But we're all called to be like her. St Agustine spent many years searching for happiness in many places, philosophies and people, but in middle age it clicked: "Late have I loved you, Lord. I looked in so many places around me only to realize that you're within me!". To quote St Paul: 'Don't you realize you're temples of the Holy Spirit? You've been well bought.' (1 Cor 6:19). As we begin mass with the confetior, let's remember the centurion who said to Jesus "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof...' (Lk 7:6). But Christ enters. When you leave the church on Sunday, you don't have to cease to be with God. He's IN you - unless you shut the door to Him with your mind engrossed in superficial things! What we should do is to say “yes” like Mary... and to be faithful to that "yes".

The readings also speak a lot today of the ministry of the word (preaching). Jesus is calling us 'friends' and he wants to inspire in us the Good News that the Father inspired in him (Jn 15:15), but then he's asking us to help him pass that 'Word' on to others... not as 'slaves' but as 'friends'. In the first reading it's while Peter is preaching that the Holy Spirit comes over the people (Acts 10:44). So the call to 'love one another' in the second reading (1 Jn 4:7), may be a call to you to spread the Word... even if at times that means preaching... or even sending E-mails!

........... Dara.