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On the risen body of Christ . . .
As a seed is unrecognizable in the mature plant into which it sprouts; as solar and astral bodies differ significantly from terrestrial bodies; as what is perishable becomes inconceivably imperishable; as a creature of dust comes to bear the image of heaven; as those who are asleep in the grave suddenly become startlingly awake (see 1 Corinthians 15), so too life in the eternal embrace of God is
unimaginable.
- Elizabeth Johnson, in Incarnation: On the Scope and Depth of Christology
( “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, · Nor have entered into the human heart · The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 1 Cor. 2: 9.)
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Acts 15:22-31; Psalm 57:8-9, 10 and 12
Jn 15:12-17
Jesus said to his disciples:
“This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.
No one has greater love than this,
to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you.
I no longer call you slaves,
because a slave does not know what his master is doing.
I have called you friends,
because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.
It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you
and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain,
so that whatever you ask the Father in my name he may give you.
This I command you: love one another.”
USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture
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“I no longer speak of you as slaves.” —John 15:15
Jesus calls us, His disciples, “slaves.” Later, He may call us “friends.” To be a friend of Jesus, we must first be His slave. To know what Jesus is doing, we must first obey without knowing what He is doing (Jn 15:15). To be aware of Jesus as Love (1 Jn 4:16), we must first know Him as Lord. God’s Word commands us to “be slaves of Christ the Lord” (Col 3:24).
To be the slave of Jesus means to no longer have a life of our own (see Gal 2:20), but to let ourselves be consumed by the living God (see Heb 12:29). To be a slave of Jesus is a privilege and the highest honor a human being can attain. Jesus, as Master, protects, provides for, and deeply loves us, His slaves. Jesus “emptied Himself and took the form of a slave” for love of us (Phil 2:7). Will you empty yourself and be His
slave for love of Him?
Prayer: Jesus, I am created to be Your slave. I will only be freed and fulfilled as Your slave. I choose You as Lord. I choose to be Your slave.
Promise: “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit, and ours too, not to lay on you any burden beyond that which is strictly necessary.” —Acts 15:28
Presentation Ministries
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Abandonment to Divine Providence
- by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
BOOK II,
CHAPTER IV. CONCERNING THE ASSISTANCE RENDERED BY THE FATHERLY PROVIDENCE OF GOD TO THOSE SOULS WHO HAVE ABANDONED THEMSELVES TO HIM
SECTION 9. Divine love, the principle of all good.
To those who follow this path, divine love is all-sufficing.
Divine love then, is to those who give themselves up to it without reserve, the principle of all good. To acquire this inestimable treasure the only thing necessary is greatly to desire it. Yes, God only asks for love, and if you seek this treasure, this kingdom in which God reigns alone, you will find it. If your heart is entirely devoted to God, it is itself, for that very reason, the treasure and the kingdom
that you seek and desire. From the time that one desires God and His holy will, one enjoys God and His will, and this enjoyment corresponds to the ardour of the desire. To desire to love God is truly to love Him, and because we love Him we wish to become instruments of His action in order that His love may be exercised in, and by us. The divine action does not correspond to the aims of a saintly and simple soul, nor to the steps it takes, nor to the projects it forms, nor to the manner in which
it reflects, nor to the means it chooses, nor to the purity of its intention. It often happens that the soul can be deceived in all this, but its good intention and uprightness can never deceive it. Provided that God perceives in it a good intention, He can dispense with all the rest, and He holds as done for Him what it will eventually do when truer ideas second its goodwill.
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