Since we are travellers and pilgrims in the world, let us ever ponder on the end of the road, that is of our life, for the end of our roadway is our home (St Columban, 8th sermon).
19 May 2022
'I will ask the Father and he will send you another Paraclete, to abide with you for ever.' Sunday Reflections, 6th Sunday of Easter, Year C
Gospel, John 14:23-29 (English Standard Version
Anglicised: India)
Jesus said to his disciples:
“If
anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we
will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me
does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the
Father's who sent me.
“These
things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper,
the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach
you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace
I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give
to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. You
heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you
loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father,
for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before
it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe."
The late Bishop Bienvenido 'Benny' S. Tudtud of Marawi, Philippines, visited my Dad (below) in Dublin some time in the early 1980s. As it happened, Dad was about to leave for the wedding of a cousin of mine but he was able to entertain his unexpected guest for a while. Later on he told my brother, 'The bishop made me feel at home'. My brother laughed and said to him, 'You were the one supposed to make him feel at home!' But my Dad was always himself no matter whose company he was in and so was Bishop Tudtud, whose Christian name is the Spanish for 'Welcome'. They were both to die suddenly in 1987, Bishop Tudtod in a plane crash in the Philippines on 26 June and Dad at home on 11 August from a heart attack. He had been at Mass that morning, as he had been every day of his adult life. The photo below was taken a week before his death.
My father hadn't expected Bishop Tudtud. But he made him feel welcome. The bishop felt free to just turn up because I had worked with him and had asked him to drop by my Dad if he had time. I have found over the years that there are friends' homes to which I need no invitation. These are friends with whom I truly feel at home and who feel at home with me.
Sometimes we feel fully at home with someone whom we have just met. Sometimes that being at ease with each other comes after being together many times, maybe through working together.
In the gospel of this Sunday's Mass Jesus makes the extraordinary statement, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
The Father and Jesus are not only coming for a visit but to make their home with us. And the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, the Counselor/Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will come and will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.
Fr Anselm Moynihan OP, an Irish Dominican friar who died in 1998, wrote a short book in 1948 about the Blessed Trinity living in our hearts, The Presence of God. Here is an extract: Awareness of God, whether it come to us thus by a dazzling rending of the heavens or through the gentle whisper of his voice in our conscience, is at the beginning and end of our spiritual life, at the beginning and end of all religion. It is the root of what is truly the most radical division of mankind, one to which Holy Scripture constantly reverts, that between the 'wise' who keep God before their eyes and the 'fools' who ignore him. The first awakening of the soul to God's reality brings with it that fear of the Lord which is the 'beginning of wisdom'; the end of life should bring with it the 'wisdom of the perfect,' the fruit of charity, whereby a man will experience God's living presence within himself and be filled with longing for that full awareness of God which is the vision of his face in heaven.
The two disciples on the road to Emmaus invited Jesus to join them and they pressed him to have supper with them at the inn, as it was getting dark. It was through their welcoming him that they discovered who their unknown companion was, the Risen Lord. And, in the intimacy of the breaking of the bread when they recognised him and he disappeared from their sight, they felt his presence even more strongly, even more intimately. He was now dwelling in their hearts, just as he dwells in ours, with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
Communion Antiphon John 14:15-16
Setting by Thomas Tallis (1505 - 1585)
Sung by Cantate Boys Choir
English text used by Tallis: If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth. (John 14:15-17a, King James Version).
Text in the Roman Missal (John 14:15-16): If you love me, keep my commandments, says the Lord, and I will ask the Father and he will send you another Paraclete, to abide with you for ever, alleluia.
Traditional Latin Mass
Fifth Sunday after Easter
The Complete Mass in Latin and English is here. (Adjust the date at the top of that page to 05-22-2022 if necessary).
Dearest Seán, How special that visit by Bishop Tudtud of Marawi at your Dad's. And what a coincidence that both of them died in the same year, not far apart from each other. Your Dad was like my Grandfathers, daily Mass and they lived a sober but happy life; feeding their souls as is not often the case nowadays. While going to school, it was also daily Mass for both my husband and for me; but that is no longer a thing... Sadly, God has been taken out of school and public life; the reason we see so much problems in society as moral values have declined and often even vanished. We NEED all this, in order to find our way home to heaven. No other GPS can guide us but the Holy Spirit. Hugs, Mariette
%201606,%20WGA.jpg)
Supper at
Emmaus (detail) 1606
Dearest Seán,
ReplyDeleteHow special that visit by Bishop Tudtud of Marawi at your Dad's.
And what a coincidence that both of them died in the same year, not far apart from each other.
Your Dad was like my Grandfathers, daily Mass and they lived a sober but happy life; feeding their souls as is not often the case nowadays.
While going to school, it was also daily Mass for both my husband and for me; but that is no longer a thing...
Sadly, God has been taken out of school and public life; the reason we see so much problems in society as moral values have declined and often even vanished.
We NEED all this, in order to find our way home to heaven. No other GPS can guide us but the Holy Spirit.
Hugs,
Mariette