Thursday, May 20, 2021

 Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter

(Acts 22:30.23:6-11; John 17:20-26)

Indwelling names how the Father inhabits the Son and how the Son inhabits his disciples.  Indwelling enables Jesus to inculcate the Father’s love in his disciples.  By indwelling we can inculcate, at least to a degree, the same love in the world.  We can think of indwelling as forming us.  Like a bowl is formed from clay to hold water, we are formed to hold God’s love. 

In today’s gospel Jesus prays that we may be so formed.  It is possible to reject God’s grace because it will require sacrifices.  We can think of these rejecters as those who no longer correspond with loved ones when the loved one become hard of hearing or deficient in memory. 

God’s indwelling will make us more sensitive to people when their needs grow.  Formed as receptacles of God’s love, we find treasure in helping the needy.  It may give us the peace of remembering past blessings or the satisfaction of treading the moral high ground.  In any case, when we help the needy, we are united with the Father and the Son.

No comments: