Fourth Sunday Of Easter Reflection: Life to the Full
Franciscan Reflections from The Hermitage – Fourth Sunday Of Easter – Life To The Full – (John 10:1-10)
Listen to this reflection: https://www.spreaker.com/episode/53626650
Jesus is speaking to us today as clearly as he did to those disciples two millennia ago… what is true, is true for all times and everywhere. Jesus, the Christ, is the one who brings us life to the full, obviously, something we don’t have, maybe never had, or something we have lost. Perhaps this is the same reflection that inspired the writers of Genesis 1,500 years before the Christ event.
We move through cycles of silence and unknowing, replacing the brutish human chain of productivity and profit for a new opportunity. In the silence of our monster machines to listen and to observe… to use our creativity to seek a different way of being a human within creation.
In this time of upheaval and war that covers the face of the earth, many of us listen obsessively to the news of disasters and of people suffering and dying. We are perhaps especially curious about those affected who are the influential, the rich, the famous, the stars, and all those glitzy idols of our time. There is a new understanding emerging, a realisation that we ourselves by our desire for diversions, have supported and enabled our idols in their lavish and outlandish excess.
Yes, to turn away from all those diversions, to turn away from all that is false and illusion. This is also the central call of the gospel to turn towards Truth and repentance, to metanoia, to turn away from all our projections, fear, illusions and distractions, and to recognise our paranoia and all that is false. Jesus asserts that this is the gift of God with us, Truth, the very Jesus who brings us ‘Life to the Full’.
If something is true, it is true always and everywhere, universally, or it is not true at all… this is the nature of reality, of truth. Jesus tells us that he is THE Truth, the model, the template… the exemplar… the Way to be both truly human and divine… The Life offered to us in the Beatitudes.
As in every age, this must also be our reflection today: “What is keeping me from having life to the full”… not just life as a masquerade of truth, but a life that is authentic and meaningful. To recognise and acknowledge that our lives are often a charade requires courage. As Winston Churchill also agonised, “If I am not the fighting man, who am I? … Who am I?” There are many, who, because of doubt and fear will scoff at this question; but even in this sarcasm we can discover the mask hiding our fear… for to see myself in the eyes of the beloved is to discover the truth that I am.
When Truth speaks within my heart, my entire body resonates with the allure of the melody… ‘come to join the dance, this is your part in the Great Composition’. I have been spoken into Truth, even when I do not see the road ahead or even the next step of this great adventure… ‘from the beginning… things live, and things die, and things live again’.
There is solidarity and similitude among all creation… all have the same artist, all evolve from that same potentiality and are all ordered to God’s glory. We are brothers and sisters not only of each other but with all of creation. The words of Francis from Canticle of the Creatures incarnate this idea and are central to our spirituality as Franciscans.
We are called to a spirituality of exuberant joy in the artist made evident through the artwork… the dialogue of lived experience through which we deepen our spiritual life within the vibrant colours of God’s spiritual Love.
This requires full involvement and participation in the creative process of becoming that which is most “authentic”, that which is true. To live within this union with Christ is to involve myself in the Christ project of ongoing creation… the hope that builds bridges, bringing together that which is separated, splintered or excluded by our many illusions.
This is a dark time of unknowing, a time of uncertainty and a time of destruction, yet if we grasp this moment in Christ as a new opportunity to create another way to live, the promise of Life to the Full is within the grasp of us all.
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