Meeting Jesus through the Gospel
1. Sit quietly, recollect yourself. Concentrate on Jesus. Call on the Holy Spirit. Take your time. There is no rush and there is no fixed rule to follow. Be free in the Spirit.
2. Be aware that Jesus is with you. Use a mantra if you like, e.g. ‘Jesus, Jesus, Jesus ..’
3. Read the passage with Jesus who was there and in the Holy Spirit who inspired it.
4. Note the words and sentences that strike you.
5. Pray about these and ask the Lord to speak to you through his Spirit.
6. Keep a journal of the inspirations you are given for your life. Jesus is present to you and he is speaking to you.
7. If the passage is a ‘dramatic’ one try and live the passage in your imagination. Remember it is not just imagination because Jesus is present now with you. Put yourself in the scene. It is the Holy Spirit who makes Jesus real.
Weekdays of the 4th week of Easter 2010
Monday 26th April 2010
Sheep pen in the Judean wilderness today John 10:1-10
”Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber; 2 but he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 To him the gatekeeper opens; the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” 6 This figure Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. 7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not heed them. 9 I am the door; if any one enters by me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.
Jesus alone is the key to human life. Without him we cannot enter into life. We live but not fully. If want abundant life, we can only get it from Jesus. Of ourselves we are like sheep wandering around here and there. But Jesus is ever present and calls us by name. We need to listen and answer. We have to listen to something in life – the cravings of our hearts for things or persons, the call of the world to seek the ‘good life’, the invitations of other spiritual teachers, but Jesus alone is the Way. It is through him alone that we will find the happiness that our soul longs for. But how are we to find him? We must believe his word, that he alone gives abundant life. Then we must search for him daily in the Gospel and in prayer. Jesus responds to our earnestness. How earnest are you to find him?
Tuesday 27th April 2010
Flock of sheep in the Judean wilderness John 10:22-30
It was the time of the feast of Dedication in Jesus is the Saviour. We do not and cannot save ourselves. We cannot keep ourselves from the influence of Satan and evil. We cannot keep ourselves free from sin, much as we cannot keep ourselves free from bodily sickness. Only Jesus can save us. What must we do? We must be his sheep. We must allow Jesus to save us. We need then to surrender to him. We need to stay close to him and listen to his Word and allow him to lead us through his teaching and strengthen us through his Holy Spirit. If we do that then no one can pluck us from his hand and we are safe. If we want to stay close to Jesus we must spend time with him every day and we must have him in our hearts throughout the day and night. He must become our every present companion through prayer. Because it is through faith, then it takes effort. Are you willing to make the effort to be his sheep?
Wednesday 28th April 2010
John 12:44-50
Jesus cried out and said, He who believes in me, believes not in me, but in him who sent me.45 And he who sees me sees the one who sent me.46 I have come as a light into the world, so that whosoever believes in me will not live in darkness.47 If any man hears my words, and does not believe, I will not judge him: because I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.48 The one who rejects me, and does not accept my word, is judged already: the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day.49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment, telling me what I should say, and what I should speak.50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.
No one has seen God as he is ‘in unapproachable light’ but we have seen God because ‘the Word became a human being’ Jesus is the visible likeness in human form of the God no mere human can see. So now there is only one way to know God, we must look at Jesus. No one is without fault who deliberately refuses to look at Jesus and to study his Words. We find the image and words of Jesus in the Gospels. By looking at Jesus we can see what God does and how he acts. We can see his likes and dislikes. We can discover his attitudes towards the problems of daily life. Jesus in his words and actions is the perfect manifestation of God. If I refuse to study him, how can I be without blame? Do you want to make the effort to know the human Jesus through the Gospels and so know God?
Thursday 29th April 2010
John 13:16-20
16 Amen, amen, I say to you: The servant is not greater than his lord: neither is the apostle greater than he that sent him. 17 If you know these things, you shall be blessed if you do them. 18 I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen. But that the scripture may be fulfilled: He that eats bread with me shall lift up his heel against me, 19 at present I tell you, before it come to pass: that when it shall come to pass, you may believe that I am he. 20 Amen, amen, I say to you, he that receives whomsoever I send receives me: and he that receives me receives him that sent me.
Jesus has just washed the feet of his disciples. He has taught them that though he is Lord and Master he has humbled himself to wash their feet. He is to be their model. As he has done so must they do. He did it out of love for them. Jesus is our model too. We are not greater than he is. We too must wash one another’s feet. Are we slaves of each other out of love? This is what Jesus expects of us. Each day I must do this in a figurative but real way. Until we each do this and the Church has an institution does this we will all lack credibility. Mother Teresa did this in reality all her life and the world acclaimed her as a saint. We cannot live under the shadow of the saints; we have to do it ourselves. Do you see your religion as the washing of the feet of others?
Friday 30 April 2010
John 14:1-6
1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. You trust in God, trust also in me. 2 In my Father's house there are many places to live in; otherwise I would have told you. I am going now to prepare a place for you, 3 and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you to myself, so that you may be with me where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going. 5 Thomas said, 'Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way?' 6 Jesus said: I am the Way; I am Truth and Life. No one can come to the Father except through me
“Do not let your hearts be troubled”. Whether we are troubled or not depends on our real faith in the presence of Jesus in our life. Are we like the apostles on the boat when Jesus was asleep? Without trust they were very troubled. Jesus was there but they didn’t realize he was God. He had to rebuke them: “O men of little faith, why did you fear?” May be he needs to rebuke us. Is Jesus real for you? Only the Spirit can make him real.
“There are many rooms in my Father’s house.” Jesus is ‘from above”. He doesn’t have the words to describe his Father’s house to us who are “from below.” But that is our true home. We have been chosen from before the foundation of the world to be holy and perfect in Christ Jesus in order to live with God he Father. We are now on the way home. “We don’t know the way” says Thomas. “I am the Way”. Once again, to live in intimacy with Jesus now is to live with God. In as far as we live with Jesus now, we have reached home. Do you want to cultivate intimacy with Jesus now? “Now” is so important. It is all we have.
Saturday 4th Week of Easter1.
John 14:7-14
If you know me, you will know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen him. 8 Philip said, 'Lord, show us the Father and then we shall be satisfied.' Jesus said to him, 9 'Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? 'Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father, so how can you say, "Show us the Father"? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? What I say to you I do not speak of my own accord: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his works. 11 You must believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe it on the evidence of these works. 12 In all truth I tell you, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, and will perform even greater works, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
‘Nothing grows under the banyan tree’. So many leaders do not allow others to grow for fear that they will surpass them and take the lime light. Jesus is not like that. As the Father is Love so Jesus as the human expression of the Father is Love in human form. He wants us to grow. He wants us to surpass him in doing mighty works for his Father. The works we do and which are greater than those of Jesus are for the glory of the Father and not for our name and fame. We are not to go on an ego trip. Our work must be according to the mind of the Father and done with the pure intention of bringing people to him. He must increase and we must decrease. Who are you working for? Can you forget your ego and surrender yourself to him and so only do what he wants you to do?
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