Orphans No More

The Gospel for the 6th Sunday of Easter reminded me of this verse from the song "So the Love of God".

Once we were lost
orphans of night
left but to wander
longing for the light
found by a love
that would not let us go
we are God's children
family forever.

Jesus promises His disciples that He will not leave them orphans.
The Holy Spirit will be their defender (the traditional task of the father of the family) and their teacher (the traditional task of the mother in the family).

At times when we feel orphaned, left alone, literally or figuratively by our biological or surrogate parents, or by those who are supposed to be our defenders and teachers, we can draw strength from the words of Jesus in today's Gospel, and of these lines from this song: "we are God's children, family forever."

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A Place For Us

SOMEWHERE

There's a place for us,
Somewhere a place for us.
Peace and quiet and open air
Wait for us
Somewhere.

There's a time for us,
Some day a time for us,
Time together with time spare,
Time to learn, time to care,
Some day!

Somewhere.
We'll find a new way of living,
We'll find a way of forgiving
Somewhere . . .

There's a place for us,
A time and place for us.
Hold my hand and we're halfway there.
Hold my hand and I'll take you there
Somehow,
Some day,
Somewhere!

music by Leonard Bernstein; lyrics by Stephen Sondheim


This song just came to my mind as I was reading the Gospel for this Sunday,
the fifth of Easter: Taking the office of consoler, as Ignatius says of the Risen Lord in the 4th week of the Spiritual Exercises, Jesus assures us of a place, not just somewhere or anywhere, but in the house of his Father, who is our Father, too.

May these words of Jesus truly console us, that even if we find no place in this world, or in the hearts of the people of this world, even in those we love, there is always a place for us, especially made and prepared for us, in the house of the Father, in the Heart of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, our only Hope.

Shepherd of Hope

The theme of this Sunday's Gospel (Good Shepherd) continues last Sunday's theme (Walk to Emmaus). Picking up again from Pope Benedict's Spe Salvi, we get to know more deeply the source of our hope, Jesus, our Good Shepherd. And understand why He is our only hope:

“The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want ... Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, because you are with me ...” (Ps 23 [22]:1, 4). The true shepherd is one who knows even the path that passes through the valley of death; one who walks with me even on the path of final solitude, where no one can accompany me, guiding me through: he himself has walked this path, he has descended into the kingdom of death, he has conquered death, and he has returned to accompany us now and to give us the certainty that, together with him, we can find a way through. The realization that there is One who even in death accompanies me, and with his “rod and his staff comforts me”, so that “I fear no evil” (cf. Ps 23 [22]:4)—this was the new “hope” that arose over the life of believers (SS 6).

What comfort and consolation indeed it is for us to realize that the roads we are afraid to tread, the mountains we are scared to climb and the rivers we are reluctant to cross, to all these Jesus Christ our Shepherd had been, and has come back to accompany us as we walk these roads, as we climb these mountains, as we cross these rivers...

"...and to assure us that together with Him, we shall find our way through."

*pix from Von größter Schönheit

"But We Were Hoping..."

"But we were hoping that He would be the one to redeem Israel" (Lk 24:21).

The walk to Emmaus is really a walk of Hope. Two men who had hoped, who seemed to have given up hope, walk away from Jerusalem, the place where their hope had been crushed. Then suddenly, the risen Jesus walks with them to rekindle the flame of hope in their hearts. It is the accompanying presence of Jesus that awakens their hope. Because Christ is with them, they have hope. Pope Benedict makes this point in Spe Salvi, his encyclical on Christian Hope. He quotes from a letter of Paul Le-bhao-tin, a Vietnamese martyr who was imprisoned for the faith:

In the midst of these torments, which usually terrify others, I am, by the grace of God, full of joy and gladness, because I am not alone —Christ is with me ... (SS 37)

May we perceive Christ present in our journeys awakening the flame of hope in our hearts.

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