Everytime Conscience Reproaches Us

"My dear children, let us love, not only with words and with our lips, but in truth and in deed.

Then, we shall know that we are of the truth, and we may calm our conscience in HIS presence.  Every time it reproaches us, let us say: GOD is greater than our conscience, and HE knows everything.

When our conscience does not condemn us, dear friends, we may have complete confidence in GOD.  Then, whatever we ask, we shall receive, since we keep HIS commands and do what pleases HIM.

HIS command is, that we believe in the name of HIS Son JESUS CHRIST, and that, we love one another, as HE has commanded us.

Whoever keeps HIS commands remains in GOD and GOD in him.  It is by the Spirit GOD has given us, that we know HE lives in us." - 1 John 3:18-24 

(Every time it (conscience) reproaches us.  Doubtless John wishes to say that GOD knows and judges us better than we can ourselves.  HE does it with a love that is lacking in us.  We should beware of the guilt feelings for faults which we have regretted and doubtless repaired: this form of anguish encloses us within ourselves instead of turning to GOD who knows what to do with ruined lives and make them new again.

To believe in the name, that is to say, in the divinity of CHRIST.)  

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I AM In The FATHER, And The FATHER Is In ME, And You In ME

"If you know ME, you will know the FATHER also; indeed you know HIM, and you have seen HIM.

Philip asked HIM, 'LORD, show us the FATHER, and that is enough.'  JESUS said to him, 'What!  I have been with you so long and still you do not know ME, Philip?  Whoever sees ME sees the FATHER; how can you say, 'Show us the FATHER'?  Do you not believe that I AM in the FATHER and the FATHER is in ME?

All that I say to you, I do not say of MYSELF.  The FATHER who dwells in ME is doing HIS own work.  Believe ME when I say that I AM in the FATHER and the FATHER is in ME; at least believe it on the evidence of these works that I do.

Truly, I say to you, the one who believes in ME will do the same works that I do; and he will even do greater than these, for I AM going to the FATHER.  Everything you ask in MY name, I will do, so that the FATHER may be glorified in the Son.  Indeed, anything you ask, calling upon MY name, I will do it." - John 14:7-14 

(I AM in the FATHER, and the FATHER is in ME, and you in ME.  CHRIST makes us enter into the divine family.  Thus, we no longer speak of approaching GOD as if HE were far from us.  We no longer feel as if GOD were a single person in front of us.  We enter "into" the mysterious life of the divine Persons who share everything and who are the one and only GOD.  Material things cannot penetrate each other; but in the world of the spirit such is possible.  CHRIST is in the FATHER and the FATHER in HIM.  They make their home within us.)

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I'M Going To The FATHER

"'Do not be troubled!  Trust in GOD and trust in ME!  In MY FATHER's house there are many rooms; otherwise, I would not have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.  After I have gone and prepared a place for you, I shall come again and take you to ME, so that where I AM, you also may be.  Yet you know the way where I AM going.'

Thomas said to HIM, 'LORD, we don't know where YOU are going; how can we know the way?'  JESUS said, 'I AM the way, the truth  and the life; no one comes to the FATHER but through ME.'" - John 14:1-6 

The Ascension Of JESUS CHRIST

(JESUS ascension to the FATHER was not just an individual achievement, but opened for all of us a way to our house, not situated high above us, but in GOD.  There are many mansions, that means that there is also a place for us: not just one mansion for everybody, but a place for each one, because Heaven is not like a performance which is the same for everyone in the audience.  GOD's radiance will draw from each one the resonance only HE can bring forth.  Each one will be in his own mansion, being in communion with all.

Now, knowing what is the goal, we should walk towards this definitive communion.  "I AM the way," says JESUS.  HE became human precisely so that we might see the FATHER in HIM.  HE followed HIS way, so disconcerting for us, so that, meditating on HIS actions, we would progress towards the truth.  Although in the beginning we may not understand HIM well, with time, we will discover the LORD and understand that HIS way is ours.  Passing through the cross and death, we will achieve our own truth and arrive at life.)

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Whoever Welcomes The One I Send, Welcomes ME

"Truly, I say to you, the servant is not greater than his master, nor is the messenger greater than he who sent him.  Understand this, and blessed are you, if you put it into practice.

I AM not speaking of you all, because I know the ones I have chosen, and the Scripture has to be fulfilled which says: The one who shares MY table will rise up against ME.  I tell you this now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may know that I AM HE.

Truly, I say to you, whoever welcomes the one I send, welcomes ME; and whoever welcomes ME, welcomes the One who sent ME." - John 13:16-20 

(The apostles will do what their LORD did before them, since HE will send them in HIS name to forgive sins.  They are not to act as hierarchical officials or judges granting pardon to sinners but to take the first step in humility and mercy, in order to likewise purify those who approach the Supper of the LORD.)

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Proclaim The Good News To All Creation

"Then HE told them, 'Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Good News to all creation.  The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; the one who refuses to believe will be condemned.  Signs like these will accompany those who have believed: in MY name they will cast out demons and speak new languages; they will pick up snakes, and if they drink anything poisonous, they will be unharmed; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be healed.'

So then, after speaking to them, the LORD JESUS was taken up into heaven and took HIS place at the right hand of GOD.  The Eleven went forth and preached everywhere, while the LORD worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that accompanied it." - Mark 16:15-20 

(The Good News is the seed that will be planted in the world and will flourish, in its proper time, in every field of human endeavor.  Salvation is not a matter of saving isolated souls or individual beings.  The Gospel is to be proclaimed to all creation in all activities and acts of those who have been renewed by baptism.  They are to be the yeast that transforms human history.)

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The Foundation Of The Church At Antioch

"Those who had been scattered, because of the persecution over Stephen, traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, proclaiming the message, but only to the Jews.  But there were some natives of Cyprus and Cyrene among them who, on coming to Antioch, spoke also to the Greeks, giving them the good news of the LORD JESUS.  The hand of the LORD was with them so that a great number believed and turned to the LORD.

News of this reached the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, so they sent Barnabas to Antioch.  When he arrived and saw the manifest signs of GOD's favor, he rejoiced and urged them all to remain firmly faithful to the LORD; for he, himself, was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.  Thus large crowds came to know the LORD.

Then Barnabas went off to Tarsus, to look for Saul; and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch.  For a whole year, they had meetings with the Church and instructed many people.  It was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians." - Acts 11:19-26 

(Antioch, 500 kilometers north of Jerusalem, was the principal town of the Roman province of Syria, a pagan country, where Greek was spoken but where there was an important Jewish community.  Luke does not tell us who presented the Christian faith to the pagans for the first time, nor how that happened.  The Christians of Jewish origin that did it would deserve a statue, or better still a feast in our liturgy.  So there is at Antioch for the first time a community where Jews and non-Jews are assembled: the future of the Church was there.  The Jerusalem community is the Rome of the primitive Church.  It is conscious of its authority and immediately asks to examine more closely this extraordinary new happening: a Church where Jews accept to rub shoulders with the uncircumcised.

The Jerusalem community behaved as having authority over the new churches; the case of Antioch would touch everyone since, for the Palestinian Jews, accepting pagans was something of a scandal.  Did not the law of Moses forbid living with "uncircumcised" people?)

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Long For GOD, As A Deer Longs For Flowing Streams

"As a deer longs for flowing streams,

so my soul longs for YOU, O GOD.

My soul thirsts for GOD, for the living GOD.

When shall I go and see the face of GOD?

Day and night, my tears have been my food,

as people ask me, day after day, 

'Where is your GOD?'"

- Psalm 42:2-4

(The Levite is far from Jerusalem.  He is exiled in the land, where the Jordan rises.  The sound of its falling waters is to him a dirge for the lost happiness of the Temple feasts.

We, too, are in exile and this psalm should deepen our consciousness of it.  But our longings are not for 'this mountain' [John 4:21] or that, as the psalmist's was for Zion.  Our LORD has brought us a higher hope.  Our destiny is to 'see the face of GOD,' not only in the mediating forms of sacred ceremony.  We are to see HIM 'as HE is' [1 John 3:2].  Ask GOD for the desire for heaven.  We, too, like the Levite, are exiles here below, as long as we do not see the face of GOD.  It is good that we are not too quickly satisfied with a few beautiful ceremonies.

Long for GOD, as a deer longs for flowing streams, and our happiness will last forever and not just for long.)

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We Shall Be Like HIM

"See what singular love the FATHER has for us: we are called children of GOD, and we really are.  This is why the world does not know us, because it did not know HIM.

Beloved, we are GOD's children, and what we shall be has not, yet, been shown.  Yet, when HE appears in HIS glory, we know, that we shall be like HIM, for, then, we shall see HIM as HE is.  All who have such a hope, try to be pure, as HE is pure." - 1 John 3:1-2 

(How do we prove that we are GOD's children?  According to same criteria that we have already seen: breaking away from sin, keeping the commandment of love, proclaiming our faith.  There are many ways of saying we are GOD's children.  One person might simply think: "GOD loves people" means that human beings have great dignity.  Here John calls our attention to two points:

- you are sons and daughters, but in order to become like GOD, do not seek anything else but to be perfect as GOD is perfect;

- you are children who will return to the FATHER.  Do you really think about the unique and transcendent end for which GOD has chosen you?  Being aware of this, let us understand that GOD purifies in a thousand ways, because only in this way we can attain our goal.

We shall be like HIM:  sharing all that GOD is and somehow becoming GOD with GOD [see 1 Corinthians 13:13].  Those who now bear their lives of suffering with CHRIST will be transfigured like HIM [Mark 9:2-3; Colossians 3:4].  Then the universe will reach its goal, having the children of GOD as its center [Romans 8:19] or better, the New Creature.)

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Prayer Of A Person Saved From Death

"How can I repay YAHWEH

for all HIS goodness to me?

I will lift up the cup of salvation

and call on the name of YAHWEH.

I will fulfill my vows to YAHWEH

in the presence of all HIS people.

It is painful to YAHWEH

to see the death of HIS faithful.

O YAHWEH, I am YOUR servant,

truly YOUR servant, YOUR handmaid's son.

YOU have freed me from my bonds.

I will offer YOU a thanksgiving sacrifice;

I will call on the name of YAHWEH."

- Psalm 116:12-17

(This psalm is a simple prayer of thanks to GOD, after an escape from death by sickness, accident or malice.

We can pray with this psalm, when we have overcome mortal dangers or solved personal conflicts.  It is good for everything to remain in the sphere of the love of GOD, in whom we believe.)

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How Can This Man Give Us HIS Flesh To Eat?

"'I AM the living bread from heaven; whoever eats of this bread will live forever.  The bread I shall give is MY flesh, and I will give it for the life of the world.' 

The Jews were arguing among themselves, 'How can this man give us HIS flesh to eat?'  So, JESUS replied, 'Truly, I say to you, if you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink HIS blood, you have no life in you.   The one who eats MY flesh and drinks MY blood lives eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

MY flesh is really food, and MY blood is truly drink.  Those who eat MY flesh and drink MY blood, live in ME, and I in them.  Just as the FATHER, who is life, sent ME, and I have life from the FATHER, so whoever eats ME will have life from ME.  This is the bread from heaven; not like that of your ancestors, who ate and later died.  Those who eat this bread will live forever.'" - John 6:51-58  

(JESUS becomes our bread when we eat HIS body in the sacrament of the Eucharist.

How can this man give us flesh to eat?  Thus spoke the Israelites who distrusted GOD in the desert [Numbers 11:4 and 18].  John plays on the same words and gives them a different meaning here: why would a messenger from heaven give flesh to the world, when what we need is something spiritual?  JESUS answers in verse 63: this flesh to eat may sound like food for bodily sustenance, but it is really a sharing in the life of the risen CHRIST transformed by the Spirit.  For that reason, it gives life [verse 63].

Through material means the believer participates in a heavenly reality and enters into communion with the risen CHRIST.  The Church defines sacrament as something material that symbolizes and brings about a spiritual reality.  When we faithfully participate in a sacrament, we encounter the living CHRIST in person renewing our lives.  In the Supper of the LORD, that is, in the Eucharist, we really receive the body and blood of CHRIST, in what appears to be only bread and wine.  The risen CHRIST becomes for us the food of eternal life.

JESUS acts as living bread in us.  When we eat ordinary bread our body digests and assimilates it, but when we eat living bread [the body of CHRIST], this bread actively changes us.  CHRIST transforms us; gives HIS life to us and unites us with HIMSELF: Whoever eats ME will have life in ME.

Flesh and blood.  In Hebrew culture flesh and blood denotes the human being in his mortal condition.  JESUS wants us to make our own HIS entire human being in its humble and mortal condition and communicates to us HIS divinity.)

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