Forgotten ?

I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,

because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours

and everything of yours is mine,

and I have been glorified in them.

The prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper, for me, is one of the most powerful passages in scripture. In reality, we are made privy to an intimate conversation between Jesus and The Father.  Jesus in this prayer is reporting on His mission to God's people.  He prays in that moment for the assembled Apostles, but he is also praying for you and I as well.  

On the day we were Baptised there was imprinted on our soul the mark that forever makes us the property of God our heavenly Father.  His ownership of us is real and he has the right to compel us to obey He instead gives us the choice to love Him as Father and to obey Him and accept our role as His adopted children and to become his ambassador or if we choose, we can go our own way.  The choice is ours. 

The right to choose is fraught with danger.  When we go our own way we are like ships whose rudder is not connected to the wheel and is subject to the whims of the current and wind.  The current and wind may take us in pleasant directions, at least for awhile. But, eventually, we will be cast upon a reef, our keel will be broken and our ship, as sturdy as it was, will fall victim to the ravages and perils of the sea and as for us, we will taste the saltiness of the sea as it closes in over our head.  As we founder, we still have the ability to cry our for help to the Father that loves us, and He will respond.  But, by this time, our stubborn pride that got us into this mess in the first place, may still our voice as our accumulated errors cause us to continue to depend only on ourselves. 

It is God's will that all of us be saved.  But it is also God's will that we come to Him, not as slaves compelled by law, but more like a young girl who is delighted to see her daddie come home from work.  She immediately drops what she is doing and runs to him and lets him know she loves him.  

God does not expect too much of us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He loves us as we are right now and He will love us as we mature and grow into spiritual adulthood. God knows that not everyone can be a St. Francis of Assisi, forsaking the stuff of earth completely and living a life totally dedicated to poverty, chastity, and obedience.  But he does now we can treat everyone we meet as if we do possess those virtues.  He realizes that Mother Teresa was a special being who was open one-hundred percent to taking care of the poorest of the poor and that not everyone can do that.  But he does know it is possible for each of us to care for those less fortunate and to share the bounty and riches He has placed into our care.  

In short, we are all, repeat all, called to be saints.  We should not aim to arrive at  Purgatory at life's end, no, we should aim for heaven, aim as high as we can by sharing the Love we have received with those who need it most.  There is no one that is poorer than one who lives without God.  We may not be erudite enough to preach to the masses but we can certainly preach to one person, silently, by showing them the joy we have in serving them tenderly because it is the will of our Father and we live to do His will. 

Head in the Clouds

They said, "Men of Galilee,

why are you standing there looking at the sky?

This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven 

will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.

The apostles, now down to eleven because one of them betrayed the Lord and had committed suicide were once again confused, scared, and not sure what was going to happen next.  They had been instructed to return to Jerusalem and to wait.  They could not get back to that upper room fast enough. Their Lord and Savior had once again left them, they felt alone and afraid. 

They had seen Jesus ascend upwards towards heaven and they watched until they could see Him no more.  They stared into the sky and then He was gone.  They watched a bit longer and then two men dressed in snow-white garments appeared and told them to get a move on, that Jesus would return in the same way as they had seen Him leave.  

They were in the same room where not long ago, the Lord washed their feet and told them that to be a leader, one had to be willing to be a servant to all. He gave them a great example of His love that night. He took the form of a slave and washed their feet. Then He gave them for all-time His most Sacred Body, Blood,  Soul, and Divinity in the Eucharist.  He followed this up the very next day by completing the Passover feast by drinking the fourth cup of wine on the Cross, taking upon his soul the sins of all. 

Now, the apostles were doing what they did best, they were waiting and praying.  They did not know what was going to happen next but they followed instructions and were waiting in that upper room. 

We too sometimes find ourselves locked away in our rooms waiting. We pray and wait for the Lord to answer our prayer, to give us our marching orders. It is okay to wait and listen.  But we must be ready to throw open the door to our upper room and be ready to advance once those orders have been received.  We know what happened to the Apostles, Pentecost happened.  When the time came, with the help of the Holy Spirit they threw off the shackles of fear and boldly proclaimed the Word of God.

Next week is Pentecost Sunday.  Let us spend the seven days between now and then, praying and getting ready to give to the world what it needs, Jesus.  The two men in white were sent to stir up the apostles and set them on the path that the Lord wanted them to follow.   They speak to us today as well.  Prepare ye the way of the Lord!