Memorial of Saint John Neumann, Bishop
In today’s Gospel, I see three potential barriers that keep us from recognizing the presence of Christ and his activity in our world – fear, lack of understanding, and hard-heartedness. Our first reading offers a solution: God’s love being perfected in us. Today, let us be receptive to God’s extravagant love and so seek to be filled to overflowing with that abundant love.
Matthew tells us that after the miraculous feeding of the five thousand, Jesus sent his disciples off ahead of him by boat on the Sea of Galilee. Later, while their boat was being tossed about by high winds, Jesus came toward them walking on the water. The disciples were terrified. Despite having just witnessed the extraordinary miracle of the multiplication of fish and loaves, their eyes were blind, their minds were dark, and their hearts were afraid. Their fear was an impediment to recognizing Jesus. Matthew attributes the disciples’ astonishment to lack of understanding and hardness of heart.
We are so often like the disciples. We fail to recognize Christ when he comes to us. We miss not only the miracles but also the mundane. Focused on the “wind” that blows around us in so many ways – hardship, challenges, relationship problems, sickness, finances, chaos, difficult decisions, situations for which we see no solution – these things and more buffet us continuously and cause us to fear, worry, and be anxious. How do we overcome our anxious focus so that we have open eyes and soft hearts to see, perceive, and experience our Lord at work in our lives?
Our first reading resounds with promise! John tells us that when we remain in love we remain in God and God remains in us. God gives us the Holy Spirit as proof and tangible evidence of divine love made present in us. God’s love is brought to perfection – completion, wholeness, fullness – when we consciously remain, or abide in God. John invites us to be filled to overflowing with God’s love! A silly metaphor comes to mind but bear with me – pun intended! Imagine yourself as one of those little plastic bear-shaped jars filled with honey. When the container is full of honey, the little bear looks out at the world with his plastic eyes through the honey. The honey is his only filter through which to see the world. Imagine yourself now as a vessel completely filled to the brim with God’s love. Your only lens through which to see the world is love! Your lens is your own belovedness and the love that God has for the world – a love that God wants to pour out through you onto others. Now, instead of seeing the world through the lens of your own limited perspective, or through the blur of the storms around you, your only lens is love. If the little bear’s honey bottle is empty or only partly full, now he looks out at the world through emptiness. So it is for you and me without love. We view the world through a thin lens of our own undoing. I imagine it was the same for the disciples that day in the boat on the windy waves.
God, in the extravagance of love, wants to exchange our hardened hearts for soft hearts of love (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26). Christ’s love woos us and calls us to come and spend time with him in prayer, in the Word, and in the Sacraments. Our hearts are hardened, partly due to lack of understanding. Today, let us draw near to the Lord seeking to learn from him and receive from him. John assures us, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear . . .” God, fill us with your love, reveal to us what we need to know; chase away our fear! Amen!
Elizabeth Wells
(formerly Wourms)