When we speak with someone, there is much left unsaid. And yet we do not want to have regrets. We want to express what is in our hearts that is longing to be released.
If we but listen, we can hear the love of God that is knocking at the door of our hearts. If we have let that love into our hearts,* that love in us is meant to be let out. God calls us to love our neighbor** through our actions, and to speak plainly the language of love with our neighbor, whether they are rich or poor, whether they are luxuriously living in a mansion, or are huddled and shivering in sleeping bags and tents in the bushes.
I have been trying to demonstrate to the homeless folks I love here in Redwood City that there is a deeper meaning to interactions they have with people who help them. Recently I have told certain homeless friends of mine that when they receive food from people who aim to help them, it is not just about food. Really, I have said to them, I have been trying to tell you that I love you.
We wish to show you that you are worthy of respect. You are receiving this love God is giving you through me because God loves you.
And so when I have spoken so directly to my homeless friends who I so cherish, I feel as if I could say to them, that the time has come when I am no longer communicating with you in figures of speech, much like what Jesus said to His disciples just before His passion and death.*** It seems as if I could tell these dear homeless brothers and sisters of mine that now I am no longer just speaking with you through the metaphors of my actions. Now I am speaking with you plainly.**** Finally I am talking with you in the plain language of love.
Throughout much of His public ministry, Jesus spoke in parables and figures of speech. Then on Maundy Thursday, He sat down with His disciples for the Last Supper, just before He was handed over to be condemned to death.***** In that meal that night with His disciples, they saw a prefiguring of His sacrifice on the Cross. While His disciples sat down to a meal of bread and wine, they received much more than food and drink; in the Eucharist, we receive nourishment of love from Jesus. Having shown us on the night of the Last Supper how we are to celebrate the Eucharist, Jesus was about to die on Cross, and do what He had just said He was about to do. He was showing them the greatest love one can have for one's friends, as He laid down His life for His friends.******
When we try to show the greatest love we can have for our neighbor, when we die to ourselves, we live for our neighbor. When we forget who we are, who society thinks we are supposed to be, when we disregard the message from society that we are to shun our brothers and sisters who are outcasts, then we can die to the disordered desires and hurtful ideas and selfish tendencies we have, so we can embrace our needy neighbor, and thus live for our neighbor.
Once Jesus had spoken plainly to His disciples, just before He was handed over to be crucified, He told them that He did not have much more to say to them.******* He had spoken The Truth honestly and openly with them, and thus there was not much else for Him to say.
In telling these treasured homeless friends of mine that in trying to care for them, I am truly trying to tell them that I deeply love them, I have spoken plainly to them. I have said what I really have to say to these homeless friends I so love. And so I don't have much else to say.
And so in a certain sense, I would be content if this were to be last blog entry I were ever to write. Since this is the core of the message I feel that God brought me into the world to declare to my brothers and my sisters, I feel I have been embracing the vocation of love to which God has been calling me.
For were I left to my own devices, I would be hesitant to say both that I am an unprofitable servant, and that I have only done my duty. If I had not been instructed otherwise, I would lament that I am an unprofitable servant, and that I am not even sure that I can say that I have even done my duty. However, since Jesus directed us to say in the end, "We are unprofitable servants; we have only done what we were obliged to do,"******** then I do proclaim those words. Knowing that I have done what God has called me to do, to declare the truth to my homeless brothers and sisters, that they deserve respect and are clothed in dignity, since they are loved by God and by me, I rest secure in the loving promise that God, in His great mercy, will forgive me to the extent I have failed in performing this duty.
And so, whether it is today, tomorrow, or fifty or more years from now, secure in the knowledge that I am called to lovingly embrace my homeless brothers and sisters, and that God, in His immense mercy will forgive me insofar as I fail in my best efforts to overwhelmingly love them, I joyfully proclaim that I am going home to the Father.********* When I finally get back home, my dear brothers and sisters, please do not grieve for me, for it will be the most glorious day I have ever seen. For my tiny, paltry, measly efforts to love will be overwhelmed by the unbelievably warm tender glow of the infinite love of God. And thanks to His magnificent mercy, I shall bask in the glory of His infinite love for all eternity. Amen.
* Romans 5:5
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
*** John 16:25
**** John 16:29
***** Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-20
****** John 15:13
******* John 14:30
******** Luke 17:10
********* John 16:16-17
If we but listen, we can hear the love of God that is knocking at the door of our hearts. If we have let that love into our hearts,* that love in us is meant to be let out. God calls us to love our neighbor** through our actions, and to speak plainly the language of love with our neighbor, whether they are rich or poor, whether they are luxuriously living in a mansion, or are huddled and shivering in sleeping bags and tents in the bushes.
I have been trying to demonstrate to the homeless folks I love here in Redwood City that there is a deeper meaning to interactions they have with people who help them. Recently I have told certain homeless friends of mine that when they receive food from people who aim to help them, it is not just about food. Really, I have said to them, I have been trying to tell you that I love you.
We wish to show you that you are worthy of respect. You are receiving this love God is giving you through me because God loves you.
And so when I have spoken so directly to my homeless friends who I so cherish, I feel as if I could say to them, that the time has come when I am no longer communicating with you in figures of speech, much like what Jesus said to His disciples just before His passion and death.*** It seems as if I could tell these dear homeless brothers and sisters of mine that now I am no longer just speaking with you through the metaphors of my actions. Now I am speaking with you plainly.**** Finally I am talking with you in the plain language of love.
Throughout much of His public ministry, Jesus spoke in parables and figures of speech. Then on Maundy Thursday, He sat down with His disciples for the Last Supper, just before He was handed over to be condemned to death.***** In that meal that night with His disciples, they saw a prefiguring of His sacrifice on the Cross. While His disciples sat down to a meal of bread and wine, they received much more than food and drink; in the Eucharist, we receive nourishment of love from Jesus. Having shown us on the night of the Last Supper how we are to celebrate the Eucharist, Jesus was about to die on Cross, and do what He had just said He was about to do. He was showing them the greatest love one can have for one's friends, as He laid down His life for His friends.******
When we try to show the greatest love we can have for our neighbor, when we die to ourselves, we live for our neighbor. When we forget who we are, who society thinks we are supposed to be, when we disregard the message from society that we are to shun our brothers and sisters who are outcasts, then we can die to the disordered desires and hurtful ideas and selfish tendencies we have, so we can embrace our needy neighbor, and thus live for our neighbor.
Once Jesus had spoken plainly to His disciples, just before He was handed over to be crucified, He told them that He did not have much more to say to them.******* He had spoken The Truth honestly and openly with them, and thus there was not much else for Him to say.
In telling these treasured homeless friends of mine that in trying to care for them, I am truly trying to tell them that I deeply love them, I have spoken plainly to them. I have said what I really have to say to these homeless friends I so love. And so I don't have much else to say.
And so in a certain sense, I would be content if this were to be last blog entry I were ever to write. Since this is the core of the message I feel that God brought me into the world to declare to my brothers and my sisters, I feel I have been embracing the vocation of love to which God has been calling me.
For were I left to my own devices, I would be hesitant to say both that I am an unprofitable servant, and that I have only done my duty. If I had not been instructed otherwise, I would lament that I am an unprofitable servant, and that I am not even sure that I can say that I have even done my duty. However, since Jesus directed us to say in the end, "We are unprofitable servants; we have only done what we were obliged to do,"******** then I do proclaim those words. Knowing that I have done what God has called me to do, to declare the truth to my homeless brothers and sisters, that they deserve respect and are clothed in dignity, since they are loved by God and by me, I rest secure in the loving promise that God, in His great mercy, will forgive me to the extent I have failed in performing this duty.
And so, whether it is today, tomorrow, or fifty or more years from now, secure in the knowledge that I am called to lovingly embrace my homeless brothers and sisters, and that God, in His immense mercy will forgive me insofar as I fail in my best efforts to overwhelmingly love them, I joyfully proclaim that I am going home to the Father.********* When I finally get back home, my dear brothers and sisters, please do not grieve for me, for it will be the most glorious day I have ever seen. For my tiny, paltry, measly efforts to love will be overwhelmed by the unbelievably warm tender glow of the infinite love of God. And thanks to His magnificent mercy, I shall bask in the glory of His infinite love for all eternity. Amen.
* Romans 5:5
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14
*** John 16:25
**** John 16:29
***** Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-20
****** John 15:13
******* John 14:30
******** Luke 17:10
********* John 16:16-17
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