Few Feel at Home
Fifth Sunday of Easter (May 22, 2011)
Father Patrick Langan, LCJohn 14: 1-12
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father´s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going." Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ´Show us the Father´? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.
Introductory Prayer: Lord, thank you for allowing me to spend this time with you. There are things in life, Lord, that attract me, but you attract me more. I hope in you, and I love you. Maybe I don’t really understand what it means to love, and maybe I don’t love the way I should, but I do love you.
Petition: Lord, help me to be patient and to accept your timing.
1. Nostalgia: Few of us feel at home in this world. We are exiles, often homesick, waiting for news from a faraway land. We have heard of this land many times, but have never seen it. To compensate for our homesick emptiness, we work hard to fill our existence with material goods. When we have them, we suffer from boredom. When we don’t, we suffer from ambition. “Vanity of vanities and all things are vanity!” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). We long for something that can fill that emptiness.
2. Right Now: Lord Jesus, I know that you are hidden behind the veil of the Eucharist and that you are in your Father’s house. In your Father’s house there are many rooms. Right now, as I pray, you are preparing a place for me. Lord, may I tell you how I would like my room to be? (Imagine being an interior decorator and being able to make that room any way you like.)
3. One Day: One day, when I least expect it, you will come and take me home. When I get there, I will know it is the place I have been mysteriously longing for all my life. In some way it will be as I imagined, and yet, it will be different. It will be a place of no more nostalgia, no more pining. I will be able to meet many friends there again. Each day will get better and better. Yes, it is important to dream about that day and what it will be like, because that keeps me motivated in my struggle to attain eternal life.
Conversation with Christ: Meanwhile, Lord, I am here, right here, and I have work to do. Some of today’s tasks don’t excite me; however, I will do them for you. In those moments of my day when I don’t feel you, I wait. I know you are coming.
Resolution: I will be patient and accept the Lord’s timing, because those who love learn the hard lesson of waiting.
Excerpts from the DIARY of Saint Faustina Kowalska
I understand Your words, Lord, and the magnitude of the mercy that ought to shine in my soul. Jesus: I know, My daughter, that you understand it and that you do everything within your power. But write this for the many souls who are often worried because they do not have the material means with which to carry out an act of mercy. Yet spiritual mercy, which requires neither permissions nor storehouses, is much more meritorious and is within the grasp of every soul. If a soul does not exercise mercy somehow or other, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. Oh, if only souls knew how to gather eternal treasure for themselves, they would not be judged, for they would forestall My judgment with their mercy.
(Diary of Sister Faustina Kowalska Notebook-IV 1317)
http://www.saint-faustina.com/Diary/DMIMS10.shtml
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