Asking for Presence

Gospel: John 16: 23-28

Today's Gospel portion is perplexing to us.  It is frequently offered to us as some sort of consolation that God will grant to us whatever we ask. Yet, we know that this is not true.  Even when we ask for objectively good things - healing, liberation from addictions, change in our moral and spiritual life - we often do not receive that for which we ask.  This leads to frustration and very often to spiritual crises and loss of faith entirely.  

We might well avoid such crises in our life if we come to realize the purpose of prayer.  Prayer is simply the request for God's presence.  It is not unlike our human relationships.  If we call a friend only to constantly ask them for things, then that's not much of a relationship.  It is merely transactional on our part.  But very often we just want company and companionship.  We just need the presence of another person for reassurance and calm.

So it is with God.  Our prayer ultimately is for God to be present with us no matter what we are facing.  God is always present to us; prayer is just our reminder of God's presence among us.  And that presence is enough.  We may not receive healing or deliverance or anything else, but if we have God's presence then we have everything, no matter what happens.  That is the promise Jesus provides us - I am with you always. 

A Time to Mourn

Gospel: John 16: 20-23

We are told in today's Gospel portion that the world will rejoice while followers of Jesus mourn.  There are many instances in which this takes place.  The world rejoices over the wealth and excess that is had at the exploitation and degradation of so many people.  The world rejoices over the slaughter and carnage of war and execution that creates poverty, refugees, and orphans.  It is for these things that the followers of Jesus mourn and weep.  

The world seeks grand ballrooms and arches, stadiums and areas of entertainment extravaganza - all of which hold priority over things like health care, affordable housing, education, and transportation needs for average people.  The world will get its trinkets of ostentation while neglecting the needs of the poor and marginalized.  It will rejoice over such things.  And the follower of Jesus will - should - mourn and weep over these injustices.  

We look to the heavens for help, just as the first followers of Jesus did in seeing him ascend to the heavens.  But they came to realize through the inspiration of the Spirit that now it is for us to go about and do the works of healing in the world as Jesus did: to heal those who are sick, to liberate those oppressed by the demons of the world, and to feed the starving masses.  Yes, we mourn for the injustices of the world, but we take up the towel and basin as well to be a light in the darkness. 

The Arc of Love

Gospel: John 15: 9-17

Throughout the Gospels there is an ever increasing invitation to love.  We are first invited to love our neighbor as we love ourselves, placing our neighbor's needs equal to our own.  Next, we are then urged to add the love of enemies, adding them to the category of neighbor that was unheard of in those times.  But then, Jesus identifies himself with our neighbor, telling us that whatever we do to another we do to him.  Finally in today's reading we are invited to be Christ himself, loving others as he loved us.  

This entire moral arc of love is fully expressed in the parable of the Good Samaritan which begins as an answer to the question who is my neighbor.  The first two movements of love are immediately addressed - loving neighbor and enemy.  But then if we look at the story anagogically and see Christ as the Good Samaritan we then see how Jesus has loved us.  We now have concrete example on how to do so in our lives.  In many ways this parable is the entire Gospel itself in one simple story.

If we are looking for a way to ascend with the Lord to the heavens, we have the entire program of love to which he calls and invites us to participate in ever deeper ways throughout our lives.  Each step of love is ever more challenging on the level of human nature, but each is designed to elevate us beyond our nature to be more divine.  The path of love is the path of divinization and illumination within us.  It is the way in which we ascend to heaven ourselves.