May 4, 2022
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Gospel gives us the sense of Jesus claiming his inheritance from the Father.
He makes it clear that the Father’s Will is the Redemption of all Creation. This is the divine charge given to Jesus. This is his mission.
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
John 6:37-38
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
Jesus continues to use the symbol of bread to teach the forming community.
Bread sustains life.
God’s Word is eternal life.
Sharing bread is an act of community.
In the Body of Christ, we are made One with God
and with one another.
Bread can stale and disintegrate.
Within the Body of Christ, we become eternal
and will be raised up unto the Last Day.
These are such BIG thoughts, amazing teachings! I always wonder how simple shepherds, milk maidens, fishermen and housekeepers were supposed to understand! I wonder how we, in our human limitations, could begin to comprehend the infinitely loving design of God revealed in Jesus Christ!
And I think that’s just the thing — we will never comprehend the Mystery of Jesus’s Presence with us. And we don’t have to!
We will never comprehend a lot of things: love, suffering, time, death, kindness, beauty. Yet we live within and savor these mysteries when we open our hearts in vulnerability to them. They are the dynamisms that can sanctify us!
So it is with the mysteries of our faith. While we can use our minds to explore them, our minds will never comprehend them. Only our hearts and souls can fully receive these mysteries in trust and faith.
For this is the will of my Father,
John 6:40
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.
Prose: The Legend of St. Augustine – from augnet.org
The scene is the seashore, where there is a small pool, a little boy with a seashell, and a sandy beach on which St. Augustine, clad in his religious robes, is walking, pondering with difficulty the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. “Father, Son, Holy Spirit; three in one!” he muttered, shaking his head.
As he approached the little boy who was running back and forth between the sea and the pool with a seashell of water, Augustine craned his neck and asked him: “Son, what are you doing?” “Can’t you see?” said the boy. “I’m emptying the sea into this pool!” “Son, you can’t do that!” Augustine countered.
“I will sooner empty the sea into this pool than you will manage to get the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity into your head!” Upon saying that, the boy, who was an angel according to legend, quickly disappeared, leaving Augustine alone with the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity.
Music: Tim Janis
Lavish Mercy 