29-Apr-2013
Dear Friend, While we yearn for the presence and company of loved ones and friends, we are sorrowful and do not like partings and goodbyes! We don't easily cope with loss especially when we get used to having people near us. Yet we mature and grow only when we can handle separations and losses in our lives. God is present even when He appears to be absent! Discern His peace-giving presence this weekend! Fr. Jude Sunday Reflections: 6th Sunday of Easter "Peace is a gift of the Lord, our task, working for it! 5-May-2013 Readings: Acts 15: 1-2, 22-29Rev. 21: 10-14, 22-23John 14: 23-29 The first reading from the Acts reminds us of the conflict that arose in the early Christian community precisely because it had so many people joining it. To a Jew, circumcision was most sacred. Other recent converts did not see the need to undergo it. For these converts Jesus alone mattered and accepting Him. This conflict divided the early Christian community and disturbed the peace needed for its growth. How does the Christian community manage this conflict? They decide to meet together and discern what God was saying. In keeping our peace in changing times and changing situations in the Church today, we need discernment and an openness to the Spirit. I give you my peace A retired couple was alarmed by the threat of nuclear war, so they undertook a serious study of all the inhabited places on the globe. Their goal was to determine where in the world would be a place to be least likely affected by a nuclear war. -A place of ultimate security. They studied and travelled, travelled and studied. Finally they found the place and at Christmas they sent their friend a card from their new home - in the Falkland Islands. However, their 'paradise' was soon turned into a war zone by Great Britain and Argentina. -Jesus said, "Peace I leave you, my peace I give you. Not as the world gives do I give you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Jesus before departing from this earth, He gave his disciples the best and the most needed gift: His peace. John Rose in 'John's Sunday Homilies' In the Gospel we have yet another source of conflict that disturbs the apostles and disciples of the Lord. They know that Jesus is going to leave them as he has accomplished his mission on earth and is about to return to his Father. His imminent departure makes them fearful. How will they manage without him? How will the Community grow? Will they succeed in the mission he has entrusted to them? Jesus has to reassure his disciples that it is good for Him to go so that He might send the Spirit to be with them always. All this while He was physically present to them. He wants to be more intimately present to them and for this to happen He has to leave them. But he is leaving behind His Word and those who keep his word will experience His presence in their lives. "Those who love me will keep my word and my Father will love them and will come to them and make our home with them." Jesus reassures his disciples that the Father is always very near to them. Our faith has to be a response to God's love. Jesus came to tell us this good news. The whole of the Gospel has just this message: The Father loves you and is watching over you. In order to experience the loving Spirit of the Father at work in our lives it was necessary that Jesus should leave his disciples. It is necessary that we walk through this world, at times seemingly alone. It is necessary that we be tested by trials and face conflicts but we need not be afraid, the Father is standing guard always! The gift of the Spirit that Jesus promises us is the gift of peace. "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give it as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, do not let them be afraid." Peace in the midst of conflict In his book 'Go down to the Potter's House,' Donagh O'Shea has a story about a king who had two artists in his court who were bitter rivals. One day the king said, "I want to decide once and for all who is the better artist. You must paint the same theme so I can judge between you. And let the theme be peace." The two artists agreed and a week later came back with their paintings. The first presented his painting. It showed a dreamy landscape with rolling hills and a lake with not a ripple on the surface. The whole scene spoke of contentment, peace and stillness. However, the king said to the artist: "Your picture is very pretty, but it puts me to sleep." The second artist presented his work. It showed a thundering waterfall. It was so realistic that one could almost hear the roar of the water as it crashed onto the rocks, hundreds of feet below. "But this is not the scene of peace that I ordered," said the king angrily. The artist made no reply but motioned to continue looking. Then the king spotted a detail that hitherto had escaped him: among the rocks at the base of the waterfall a small shrub was growing with a bird's nest in its branches. On looking closely at it the king noticed a sparrow sitting on its eggs, her eyes closed. She was waiting for her chicks to be born, a perfect picture of peace. On seeing this, the king was delighted. "I like your picture very much," he said. "You have conveyed a very important thing about peace. It is possible to be at peace even in the middle of the hurly-burly of life. John Pichappilly in 'The Table of the Word' Lord, I do have faith! Help my faith! The author Charles Allen suggests a very simple technique that he found effective in learning how to believe. He suggests that, starting on Monday morning, we keep a careful record of the number of times we think or say that something is impossible. At the end of the day, Allen recommends that we note down that number. On Tuesday morning, he continues, we focus on reducing the number of times we think, feel or say that something is impossible and we note the number at the end of the day. Keep that pattern up everyday, he insists, and by the weekend, we will have succeeded not only in eliminating those negatives impossibles from our mind, but will slowly and hesitatingly find ourselves saying: "Lord I do have faith. Help the little faith I have!" Soon, Charles Allen assures us, we will find that the patterns of our thoughts become patterns of faith. James Valladares in 'Your Words are Spirit, and they are Life' The Light within "I have read somewhere about an old sculptor who had, among many other pieces of work in his workshop, the model of a beautiful cathedral. It was covered with the dust of years, and nobody admired it, although it was an exact model, inside and out, of a fine cathedral. One day the old attendant placed a light inside the model, and its gleams shone through the beautiful stained glass windows. Then all stopped to admire its beauty. The change wrought by the light within was marvelous. It is so with us all. We must have the light within. Anthony Castle in 'More Quotes and Anecdotes' Had I known you were watching… There was a lad, a member of an Indian tribe, who was taken out to a jungle, on the eve of his thirteenth birthday. The idea was that he should spend the night there alone, as a test of his courage, and his suitability for acceptance into young manhood in the tribe. The night was very long. This was his first experience of being alone in such an unfriendly environment. Every sound seemed amplified and every movement in the surrounding forest sent a shiver down his spine. There was no way he could sleep, there was no way to escape as it was dark all around and he did not want to risk going further into the dense jungle. He often despaired whether he could make it through the night; he never knew that a night could be so long. After what seemed ages the dawn began to filter through the trees. Soon he was able to look around and distinguish the trees from the bushes and the briars from the grass. As he looked around he caught sight of some movement behind one of the trees and approached very carefully. He was amazed to see his father standing there with a hunting rifle in his hand. Apparently, he had been standing there the whole night, watching over his son, lest any of the wild creatures of the jungle attack him. The son's reaction was immediate, as he thought to himself. "If I had known that my dad was watching over me like that, I would have slept soundly all night." Jack McArdle in 'And that's the Gospel Truth!' The Spirit of Encouragement When Nathaniel Hawthorne went home heart-broken to tell his wife that he was a failure and had been fired from his job in a custom house, she surprised him with an exclamation of joy. "Now," she said triumphantly, "you can write your book!" "Yes", replied Nathaniel, "and what shall we live on while I am writing it?" To his amazement, she opened a drawer and pulled out a substantial amount of money. "Where on earth did you get that?" he exclaimed. "I have always known you were a man of genius," she told him. "I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece. So every week, out of the housekeeping money you gave me, I saved a little. So here is enough to last us for a whole year!" From her confidence and encouragement came one of the greatest novels of United States literature, The Scarlet Letter. The Paraclete works on the divine as well as human level. Harold Buetow in 'God Still Speaks: Listen!' May we yearn for His presence, when He is absent in our lives! Fr. Jude Botelho [email protected] PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in these reflections. These reflections are also available on my web site www.netforlife.net Thank you.
