What would I love to spend my life doing?

We can never rest on our laurels! Where there is life there is growth! The main question in today’s gospel is not whether we will grow but how will we grow. What will our life be like? The essential question today is how will my life display God’s glory and beauty to the world? Will my life become fully alive with God’s dream for me?

We live in an age of self-made people. You can do anything if you set your mind to it! However, while there is a truth to this will it actually be the one thing that displays God’s life for you. Will it allow you to be truly free or a prisoner to experience? There is always a belief that we will have finally made it when we have achieved a certain goal or completed a certain project. But at the end of each goal there is a sense of achievement and disappointment. There is a satisfaction that something has been completed but also a wondering about whether this is all that life has to offer. When we invest our lives in a project we would want to make sure that it is one which still keeps giving life to us and to others on an ongoing basis. What would I love to spend my life doing? What will bring hope to others and to myself? What helps me most easily to see God’s beauty in the life I live?

Laying my life down for my friends!

Laying down my life for my friends! This Gospel talks about how we are called to present to others with the love of God. In a society which actually shapes the world in our own image and likeness we are called to delve deeper to find how God wishes to shape of world in his image and likeness. There is a need to discover the bedrock that can sustain others with life and hope. God does not call us to be superhuman but fully human. This is the call which is placed on each human heart to be present to to each other as we can. Often we can think or feel that God's call is beyond us or demands too much off us. In fact it is far simpler and more direct than we can imagine. It calls us to be our best self in relationship with God and with each other. It calls us to offer the whole of ourselves and hold nothing back. Our lives are called to be given away for the good of others. The paradox is that as we give our lives away we have more life to give. We become the person we can be. We can become saints. May we discover this day what it is that will bring life and hope to the another person. 

Am I just imagining this?

How do we meet Jesus in these days of the resurrection? Often there can be a sense in which these days have a sense of unreality. After all the build up to Easter Sunday there can be a natural sense of asking what is next? The disciples had a similar view. They knew Jesus during his life and ministry and had witnessed the passion. What did they need to do now? Easter is a time in which we are called to allow Jesus to find us and reveal himself to us so that we may bear witness to his presence to the world. How can we do this?

I think there are four simple ways. The first is to become silent in our prayer. We need to spend as much time listening and waiting as we do talking. The conversation has to be two way. The second is to become people who reflect and meditate upon scripture. We need to allow the word to find a home in us. The third way is to become conscious of those graced moments in which God does become present to us in our daily lives. The moments where we can give thanks for the action of God in our lives. Lastly, we need to encourage each other to witness how we see God at work in each other’s lives and how they help us to build up a vibrant faith filled community. 

Seeing is believing

Seeing is believing. We live in a very visual world. Our access to situations around the world can both strengthen and challenge our humanity. It allows us a medium in which we can connect almost instantly with people all around the world. This instant communication challenges us to respond to situations with the same speed. However, what we view can help determine the world we live in. There are so many choices that we can find ourselves connected solely with people as the same interest as us. We become selective in what we view and who we connect with. There is also an element in which the visual reality can determine what we consider to be true. If we have not seen it we may believe it has not happened or that it does not have an immediate effect upon us.

Thomas has the same dilemma he wants to see and experience what other people have told him about. There is a desire to believe but he wants concrete proof. When he sees and experiences the presence of Jesus his life is transformed. The same can be said of our own life when we see people who help us to encounter the person of Jesus by what they say and do. They help us to engage in a reality greater than ourselves. The challenge of Easter is to help us encounter the person of Jesus in our daily live. This encounter will always transform us and help us believe that he is truly risen!