3rd Sunday after Easter 26.4.15 Discipleship
In the latter part of the Easter season we turn towards the Ascension as we prepare for the next phase of Our Lord’s plans.
He warns us that we are going to lose Him insofar as He will no longer be visible and tangible as He has been for His time on earth.
He promises, however, that He will be with us always, till the end of time (cf Mt 28,20).
We would like to keep Him with us, so that He is still visible. Imagine if Our Lord were still on the earth – all the miracles He could work and how people would be streaming towards Him from all sides!
Well, He often overrules us as far as what we want. It is only so He can give us something better instead.
His plan in this case is not just to keep handing out miracles but to transform us disciples so that we are capable, not only of coping with difficulties, but overcoming them. Then we help others to become disciples and the good work continues.
This is how His new-style presence is meant to work. We can change the world with Christ acting in us. We might have been happy just to watch from the sidelines, but He calls us onto the field, to participate.
Do we answer the call? Do we understand and engage with this or do we just sit back and wait on Him to do everything? Or, worse, give up in despair?
We have to do it His way if it is to work.
Salvation is a gradual process. Our Lord does not expect us to be perfect in one day, but to work on our faults and chip away at them.
Whatever life serves up we will be able to get the best results. We will get more things right and less of them wrong.
This is how He makes Himself present. He has not really gone but is present in a different way - to force us to think, to make decisions, according to His wisdom implanted in us.
The cupboard is not bare, as we might fear, but full of riches. The only thing is we have to go deeper and find the grace we need.
To our relief we find we are capable of more than we thought we were.
This works for the whole Church and for individual disciples.
It is difficult to grasp this for ourselves, and even more difficult to sell it to others. Follow Him, we say - you can't see, hear or touch Him, but you will be happy!
The sceptical demand proof. We cannot always provide immediate proof because much of the promised change is gradual and subtle.
Miracles still do happen; lots of them. But the general plan is that Our Lord will transform us and use us for His purposes.
Although He can work miracles He does not want us just to sit back and do nothing.
The greatest miracle in this case is to change the disciples themselves.
To feed five thousand is impressive. It is more impressive still to teach the five thousand and make them disciples - who will then make other disciples.
We find ourselves somewhere in this process. Some are further advanced than others, in terms of discipleship. The further we advance the more help we will be able to give to others. Everyone needs to keep moving to higher ground as far as understanding what is required and committing to it.
We ‘see’ the Lord in proportion to how fully we serve Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment