“Yahweh planted a garden in Eden, which is in the east, and there he put the man he had fashioned. From the soil, Yahweh God caused to grow every kind of tree, enticing to look at and good to eat, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
“We are not just human beings but human becomings… For us to be is to have a lifetime, a development… our lifetime is a life story.”#1
“When we seek what is truly good, then we are seeking God who is the source of all good”#2
We come, by way of Easter to the Cross, which is for all of us the Cross Roads of life, we come together with Christ, the Living Way …. there are many junctions, joining points from the world and all are called repentance …. but those who truly come to Christ …. never seek to leave the Living Way, nor to turn back even though that way (the past) seems easier, since it is a gentle descent and the way straight ahead (to the New Jerusalem) is a steep uphill climb.
Soon after joining the Way we come to Pentecost, and just in case, we are thinking of taking the next Junction off, the Wind is at our back and sweeps us forward, upward, Pentecost is where the Holy Spirit joins us, just as Christ said, He would …
And then we come to Trinity Sunday, and then we find, that God, The Father whom we seek is not so very far from us at all, that He is truly in Christ as Christ is in Him that Christ is in us and the Father in Christ.. that is the revelation of the Holy Spirit … and why none of us should treat His presence with us lightly, the Way continues upwards but we do not walk it alone…
“Nothing is so distant that love cannot reach it”#a
#1 Herbert McCabe O.P – God Still Matters (Continuum 2002)
#2 Jean Marie Dwyer O.P,
#a Sonnleithner
“And look I am with you always; yes to the end of time”
(Matthew 28: 20)
“You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know the master’s business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father. You did not choose me, no I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and bear fruit, fruit that will last; so that the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name. My command to you is to love one another” (John 15.14-17)
The bookmark reads;
“A friend is one who knows you as you are, understands where you’ve been. Accepts who you’ve become, and still gently invites you to grow.”
The friend who gave it to me, many years ago, has long been called home to be with her friend Jesus… but I keep the little card… not to remind me of Frances… friends are never forgotten… but to remind me of some of the qualities of the friend I should be.
Just such a friend is the Lord Jesús, he knows exactly who we are, the hidden person of our heart is not hidden from our God, he knows exactly where we have been, understands the ways we trod before we knew the Way, accepts fully the person we have become, he knows the son or daughter tugging on his sleeve and heart strings and yes, he still invites us to grow.
He was just such a friend to Peter, James and John, to Andrew, lovely Andrew with the happy knack of bringing him others to befriend.
Oh such a friend, who said, pitying the sorrows of his friends, “I shall not leave you orphans; I shall come to you.”
Soon, very soon, their friend and Saviour would suffer a degrading, humiliating, horrific death, soon he would be wrapped in grave cloths, and sealed in the dark prison of the tomb.
And then they saw him again, but could not keep him; they watched as he was taken up into heaven, hidden from their sight… and then, then came
Pentecost!
May the blessings of the Spirit of Joy, be with us all, and lead us in the dance of the Fisher men and friends. Never to be parted!
Fresh Whispers 