My priest is an amazing
speaker. He usually works with three
points during the homily. This focuses
me, giving something a little more concrete to walk out of the church with to
hold onto during the week. I don’t
always leave with a great desire to write about the points. In fact, with all the writing and editing I
have been doing with my fiction work, I have neglected my blog. But this weekend, I walked away wanting to share. From the gospel reading, Father talked about
the three promises we receive from Jesus.
Jesus tells us in John 14:23 that
“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will
come to him and make a dwelling with him.”
Jesus and God dwell within me because I love them. Now, I don’t always keep their word, but I
try. And when I go for communion, I draw
closer to them which helps me through my week.
I love this relationship we have that does take work, but I know they
are always in my corner.
The next promise made me want to
jump from my seat and ask Father some questions. “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all
that I told you,” verse 26. How is the
Spirit teaching me? How do I hear the
Spirit? Of course, sitting here writing
all of that, I think I have some of the answers. The Holy Spirit comes to us through the
written words of the Bible. I also
believe the Spirit can touch our hearts and teach us through the writings of
other people, art, history, music, and discussion. We have to be aware of Satan also using these
vehicles, so we must discern all we take into our hearts. Basically, we have to be open to the Spirit
and He will teach us.
Father reflected on the third
promise through most of his homily. I
appreciated this because this week I thought of this idea a bit. Verse 27 states, “Peace I leave with you; my
peace I give you. Not as the world gives
do I give it to you, Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” The world talks of peace from war, the peace
of health, and the peace of wealth.
Jesus doesn’t promise this type of peace. Humankind will always have their agenda which
many times is influenced by Satan. Thus,
I truly believe we will never see a peace in the world’s terms.
Jesus’ peace is completely
different. He gives the peace of
serenity. While the world is spinning
out of control, we can have the peace of our Father in heaven bringing tranquility
into our souls. He gives us the peace of
endurance. We will always have problems
of health and finances. Difficult people
will try to invade our lives bringing drama and chaos. However, the Trinity (God, Jesus, and the
Holy Spirit) will reside by our side giving us stamina to walk through the
tough times. We can remain at peace,
Jesus’ peace.
A friend reached out to me this
past week. She is going through a
nightmare of physical pain. She believes
she may have fibromyalgia and asked me to share my experience with her. She commented that she had a very hard time
“wrapping her head” around living a life of pain. Like me in the old days, she lives a very
active life. Due to her health, she may
no longer be able to be that active. She
may have lost the world’s peace of a healthy lifestyle. However, I know if she is open to God’s peace
she will have endurance and serenity, maybe not daily because poor health in
the form of autoimmune diseases is a hard journey. Yet, yesterday, I hiked up a mountain and
prayed for her. I have great confidence
she will be a successful in the days to come.
Without loving God and listening
for the Holy Spirit, we will not obtain God’s gifts. But if we love Him, follow His word, and
listen, we will find the peace of Jesus.
Blessings to you all.
