Reflection from your Co-Pastors
Monday, May 10, 2021
This reflection is recorded by Pastor Jane. Listen to the recording here.
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We are in the Easter Season with a beautifully long wet spring. How like this long cool/hot spring is our spiritual journey! Breathe it in, savor it like the daffodils. Breathe in the Risen Holy One who beckons us closer.
A line from yesterday’s Gospel that I’m savoring is line 15, “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what the slave owner is doing. I call you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from the Beloved.” CCL
I am struck by Jesus telling us everything
by he heard from the Beloved.
And I am struck by We are friends.
Jesus tells us everything still today. We can hear that sacred voice, that ‘everything’ maybe in our heads or our gut or our hearts; maybe in a book, a lecture, or casual conversation. We know when we are struck and we know what we are supposed to do. The catch is that we can only hear it if we are open to hearing the sacred voice. If our hearts are hardened by anger, or closed by depression, or blocked by obsession or self-will or jealousy, we cannot hear. Then, we pray for openness; we dig within ourselves for authenticity and honest humility. We remember our brokenness and we surrender to the One who calls.
Jesus heard from the Beloved and what message was heard? God is love and love one another. Oh, right, sometimes it seems so easy and sometimes it seems so hard. This radical message of Jesus, continually re-sent by Christ through grace, charisms, virtues, talents and skills. In our cosmic, swirling circle of life, we have the Being who reflects us, who we reflect, at our Core. Personal and Collective gathering in and into, carrying the love out. How does this happen?
“Nothing is more practical than finding God,
than
falling in love in a quite absolute, final way.
What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination,
will affect everything.
It will decide what will get you out of bed in
the morning,
what you do with your evenings,
how you spend your weekends,
what you read, whom you know,
what breaks your heart, and
what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love,
and it will decide everything.”
Pedro Arrupe, SJ
We are friends. The Holy Sacred One and you and us and all of Creation.
Amen
