Have you ever had someone tell you: “I love you.”? Are you convinced that the person was telling you the truth? How did you know that? Did you use a lie detector to verify that? You took it on faith, didn’t you? It means you are people of faith, and I haven’t even started talking about God yet. As believers we apply faith to God but actually faith is deeply woven into our daily dealings. Even those who claim to be unbelievers they do practice faith they place in other people.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Have you ever thought how many times Jesus himself said: “I love you”? In the Bible we don’t have a single occurrence of Jesus say that but we don’t doubt his love, do we?
I would like you now to close your eyes and to focus on your breathing...
Once you are comfortable with the rhythm of your breathing pay attention to that brief moment after breathing out and before breathing in. It is a short pause…
As you realise that short pause, think about that moment of Jesus on the cross when he breathed out and didn’t take another breath. He died…
In the Gospel of John we have Jesus’ words: It is accomplished” then “gave up his spirit.” Jesus donated his spirit to us. His last exhale was our first inhale. So in your meditation add now this: as you breathe out say under your breath the words Christ uttered on his last breath: “It is accomplished.” As you inhale say as your own thank you prayer: “I am now alive.” Keep doing it. As Jesus is giving up his spirit you receive it from him:
It is accomplished (…) I am now alive…
It is accomplished (…) I am now alive…
It is accomplished (…) I am now alive…
It is accomplished (…) I am now alive…
Please open your eyes now.
The Scriptures tell us that in God we “live and move and have our being.” God upon fashioning the physical body of the first human being “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” In the fullness of time when people were suffocating because of their sins Jesus, the Son of God “gave up the spirit.” If today we live and move and have our being it is because God didn’t give up on us but he gave up his spirit for us.
Last week I was reading Herald Sun. There was a letter written by a grandfather to his two-year-old grandson. The boy shouldn’t live. Before he was born his tiny heart was out of control. Doctors had to slide a needle into the mother then into a vein in his little liver to inject a drug to slow down his galloping heart. He survived that procedure and many others he had, before and after he was born. What saved him was the love of his mum and dad. From the moment they discovered they were pregnant they loved that little battler. They loved him to life. It was because of that love that all those resources were used to save him. Why did the grandpa write the letter? Because there maybe the time when the fifteen-year-old boy hears from mum and dad: “No, you are not going on a two-week-holiday with your girlfriend.” Like many other teenagers the boy may want to say: “You don’t love me. You are ruining my life.” Take the letter of your grandpa, my friend, and read what your parents did to you then, so hopefully you can understand what they are doing now. Or he may hear from his parents: “No, you are not going to do a pub-tour at midnight with you mates. You are home by 10pm.” Like many other teenagers the boy may want to say: “You hate me. You are alienating me from my best friends.” Take the letter of your grandpa, my friend, and read what your parents did to you then, so hopefully you can understand what they are doing now.
My Dear fellow believers! That long Gospel we heard fifteen minutes ago is like the letter of the grandfather to his grandson. It is to remind us, when we doubt or question God that he has loved us to the moon and back or better to say he has loved us to the earth and back. If we dismiss that letter of our ancestors in faith: prophets and Apostles, we end up with simplistic answers to what happens to us and to the world we live in. Simplistic answers reflect only what happens in this head of ours, they don’t engage the others or God. Life and death are more complex. That’s why the question: where was God when people suffered requires the enlightenment of the Scriptures and meditation like we did at the beginning of this homily. So the answer we get is not our anger, fear or disappointment, but rather love, hope and faith.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Have you ever thought how many times Jesus himself said: “I love you”? In the Bible we don’t have a single occurrence of Jesus say that but we don’t doubt his love, do we?
I would like you now to close your eyes and to focus on your breathing...
Once you are comfortable with the rhythm of your breathing pay attention to that brief moment after breathing out and before breathing in. It is a short pause…
As you realise that short pause, think about that moment of Jesus on the cross when he breathed out and didn’t take another breath. He died…
In the Gospel of John we have Jesus’ words: It is accomplished” then “gave up his spirit.” Jesus donated his spirit to us. His last exhale was our first inhale. So in your meditation add now this: as you breathe out say under your breath the words Christ uttered on his last breath: “It is accomplished.” As you inhale say as your own thank you prayer: “I am now alive.” Keep doing it. As Jesus is giving up his spirit you receive it from him:
It is accomplished (…) I am now alive…
It is accomplished (…) I am now alive…
It is accomplished (…) I am now alive…
It is accomplished (…) I am now alive…
Please open your eyes now.
The Scriptures tell us that in God we “live and move and have our being.” God upon fashioning the physical body of the first human being “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.” In the fullness of time when people were suffocating because of their sins Jesus, the Son of God “gave up the spirit.” If today we live and move and have our being it is because God didn’t give up on us but he gave up his spirit for us.
Last week I was reading Herald Sun. There was a letter written by a grandfather to his two-year-old grandson. The boy shouldn’t live. Before he was born his tiny heart was out of control. Doctors had to slide a needle into the mother then into a vein in his little liver to inject a drug to slow down his galloping heart. He survived that procedure and many others he had, before and after he was born. What saved him was the love of his mum and dad. From the moment they discovered they were pregnant they loved that little battler. They loved him to life. It was because of that love that all those resources were used to save him. Why did the grandpa write the letter? Because there maybe the time when the fifteen-year-old boy hears from mum and dad: “No, you are not going on a two-week-holiday with your girlfriend.” Like many other teenagers the boy may want to say: “You don’t love me. You are ruining my life.” Take the letter of your grandpa, my friend, and read what your parents did to you then, so hopefully you can understand what they are doing now. Or he may hear from his parents: “No, you are not going to do a pub-tour at midnight with you mates. You are home by 10pm.” Like many other teenagers the boy may want to say: “You hate me. You are alienating me from my best friends.” Take the letter of your grandpa, my friend, and read what your parents did to you then, so hopefully you can understand what they are doing now.
My Dear fellow believers! That long Gospel we heard fifteen minutes ago is like the letter of the grandfather to his grandson. It is to remind us, when we doubt or question God that he has loved us to the moon and back or better to say he has loved us to the earth and back. If we dismiss that letter of our ancestors in faith: prophets and Apostles, we end up with simplistic answers to what happens to us and to the world we live in. Simplistic answers reflect only what happens in this head of ours, they don’t engage the others or God. Life and death are more complex. That’s why the question: where was God when people suffered requires the enlightenment of the Scriptures and meditation like we did at the beginning of this homily. So the answer we get is not our anger, fear or disappointment, but rather love, hope and faith.
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