As we celebrate this Easter season, the theme of love in today’s Gospel is an invitation to reflect upon our own family life.
During these “stay at home” times, which hopefully we will get beyond soon, our regular contacts may be limited to a smaller number of people. This can be a blessing, if we have the right attitude.
Let me illustrate my point with a true story. Over a century and a half ago, “diamond fever” struck Africa. Some people struck it rich. Others made a long, arduous, disappointing search.
One man sold his farm and began trekking through Africa, searching week after week, never finding diamonds.
Meanwhile, on the land the man had sold, the new owner found a strange-looking stone. He placed it on his fireplace mantle. A visitor noticed it and shouted excitedly, “This is a diamond! It’s one of the largest I’ve ever seen.”
They discovered that the entire farm was covered with gems.
The point of the story is that some people never notice what they have in their own backyard. They never take the time to see the “gems” in their own families.
So in the midst of the coronavirus, “stop and smell the roses” in your family. Look at God’s love for your family. See the “gems” you have. Any gem, of course, may need polishing. But the gem’s there.
So what does the word of God have to say to us? In the beginnings of Christianity, a deacon named Philip is traveling to the back-water city of Samaria. And what is he doing? Despite a persecution, Philip is proclaiming the “Good News” that Jesus Christ is alive. And because he lives, we live. We are like God.
Philip had such remarkable success that the Jerusalem community dispatched Peter and John to Samaria so that they could “lay hands on them,” to breathe the Spirit upon the newly baptized and fire them up with the gifts of the Spirit: the wisdom (to recognize what truly matters in life), intelligence (to discern what's true), courage (to stand up for what’s right), empathy and compassion (for the needy), good judgment, and wonder and awe to worship the great God of this universe.
The author may be asking us whether we’re fired up with those gifts of the Spirit and reflect them in our attitudes and behaviors.
The letter of Peter urges Christians to be patient, especially in adversity, and to speak with “gentleness and reverence.” Like Jesus, if they have to suffer, he asks them to suffer for doing good rather than for doing evil. Jesus is indeed our model. In the tragedy of the cross, there is the triumph of Easter. And for the Christian, in death is life eternal.
In the Gospel Jesus announces his departure from the disciples: his close friends. Jesus is about to leave them and they feel isolated, alone. But Jesus promises that he still will be with them through the Spirit. He then alludes to the mystery of the triune God: Father, Son and Spirit. The triune God lives within us and we live within the triune God. This is called the mystery of the indwelling of God. His presence is as real to us now as it was to the disciples then.
The challenge is to find the presence of God in our daily lives.
A point in today’s Gospel is that we may tend to isolate God to “church” or “temple.” But God is in all of life: in moments of great joy, in periods of dark sadness, in the nitty-gritty of daily work, and in times of doubt and disappointment. The Gospel especially invites us to look beneath and beyond the ordinary appearances that envelop us and see the reality of God all around us.
As we plan ways to spend our day, I share some tips from the Zambian poet Martin Greyford:
Take time to think. It is the source of all power.
Take time to read. It is the foundation of wisdom.
Take time to pray. It is the greatest power on earth.
Take time to give. It is too short a day to be selfish.
I conclude with a brief inspiration from Theodore Roosevelt, a “renaissance man”: author, conservationist, historian, “Rough Rider” colonel, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and 26th President of the United States: the youngest president ever at 42.
Roosevelt stated, “A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education”
Teddy Roosevelt believed that you found yourself by being involved with institutions, people, jobs, causes, movements, and everyday life.
Yes, pray for the grace to find the presence of God everywhere—in ourselves, in other people and in our every situations--and especially in the nitty-gritty of daily life. Because in finding God, we will have found our true selves. Amen.
