John 14: Being
Saturday, May 25, 2019
Have I been with you for so long a time and still you do not know me?
I am thinking that this is God’s reply to me when I show up every morning with my same list of thanksgivings and petitions. Of course God knows that I am grateful for the miracles he has sent to me which keep my hope burning. Of course God knows the desires of my heart for the people I love and know well, for the people I do not know so well but who come onto my horizon, and even for the people with whom I am in conflict. Of course God knows all, and yet still I persist because this is my way of showing constancy. It is my way of sustaining faith in the fact that we are already saved and have only to follow in order to enter into Christ. It is my way of maintaining the hope that all sheep will enter into the sheepfold. It is also my way of loving God in others – this perseverance in seeking intercession.
The Last Supper Discourses begin in this chapter of John and they are – for me – the most beautiful part of this story.
Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Any one of us who has worried, been anxious, angry or deeply sad will be able to turn to this verses and find consolation. Any one of us who has mourned loss, who has celebrated joy, who has spent a lifetime searching for answers will find the portal to true understanding and experiencing God’s love.
I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I go you may also be.
Any one of us who has been abandoned, betrayed, cheated or cut off from something or someone we love will find peace in these words. Any one of us who lied to another or who has intentionally deceived or hurt another, will also find forgiveness and assurance in these words.
Whoever has believed in me will do the works that I do, and will do greater ones than these.
Any one of us who has drained themselves for the sake of others will find strength in these words.
Whatever you ask in my name, I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
Any one of us who has trouble just being on any given day, just surviving any given day will find life in these words.
If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.
We ought not shrink from giving thanks to or from petitioning the one who created us. Let us go with open eyes, open minds and open hearts to the one who gives life in abundance that we may live in him. This is what God expects. It is what God asks . . . that we be in him . . . as he is in us.
Have I been with you for so long a time and still you do not know me?
A re-post from May 10, 2012.
Images from: http://ipeace.us/profiles/blogs/about-gratitude and http://benison.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/the-creation-and-the-scripture-number-5/
The Noontimes 