So much truth lies in the readings for this feast, truth that could be used as a perfect summary of all Christian teaching. Reading it again and again I kept finding new wisdom, phrases that jumped out at me, ones I want to cut out and paste in a prominent spot to remind me through the day what truths can guide me in all circumstances of life. And yet this Mass is just the lead-in to the grand readings offered the next day - The post-resurrection fish grill on the beach, the commissioning of Peter to Feed my Lambs…..
“Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”
If I may, the first reading seems a brief but perfect summary of the death, resurrection and missioning of the Christ. Even more penetrating are Jesus’ words to (doubting) Thomas: ” I am The Way and The Truth and The Life.” A roadmap for us all to know this Christ and his union with the Father. Pointing our way to the union with the Father that Jesus lived and Christ still lives, inviting us to go through Christ to the Father in intimate union. That union is for us all.
“The Father who dwells in me is doing his works.” Why not us, too?
What is our relationship to this Christ, this resurrected Jesus? Is he someone “out there”, someone we look up to in the sky in hopes of having our prayers heard? Or is he as close as the air we breathe? The neighbor in need? The migrant, the suffering. The beggar on the street.
“And whatever you ask in my name, I will do.”
“I am The Way and the Truth and the Life.”
Let us pray for the Holy Father and fullness of grace as we elect a successor to Peter and Francis.
Suzanne Braddock
Creighton University and I are old friends, first as a medical resident in a program shared with The University of Nebraska then forty plus years as a parishioner at St John’s, the campus church. Now retired from a gratifying but busy medical practice I enjoy the quiet hours and nature.
Writing these reflections is a challenge and a grace, bringing me closer to the meaning of the Scriptures and the love God wants us to understand.
