Sixth Sunday of Easter
During the early years of my spiritual journey, I used a very simple analogy to help me grow in my God-experience. I would often think my heart as my house. Like every other home, I would think of my heart as having a living room, a dining, a kitchen, bedrooms, a basement and even an attic. And in each of these rooms were closets where I stored things and sometimes even hide things that I did not want other people to see or know about. Talking about my heart as my house, it was easy to let Jesus into my living room and I would be happy if he just stayed there. But initially I had restrictions. It was as if I was saying, “Lord, please do not come into my bedroom. It is not always made up and clean. And for heaven’s sake, do not open the closets. You do not want to see the thing I collect. Of all things, do not turn on the channels on TV that I turn on, do not look around the room, or lift the mattress to see what is underneath.” It was as if the Lord and I could live under one roof but lead pretty independent lives. But sooner than later I realized that I couldn’t do that. Can’t mess with Jesus! Gradually I let him into my bedroom, into all the closets of my life. Felt much better because my life was much cleaner. But the Lord seemed dissatisfied even with that. “Lord what more can I do? Is there something more?” There came a day when I wrote my house to his name. My house, my home, my heart, my life was no longer mine but the Lord’s. This analogy helped me take my relationship with God to the next level.
Today’s gospel reading, for me, is one of those passages in which Jesus takes his disciples to the next level of relationship. Jesus outlines a three dimensional relationship - the Father in me, I in you and you in me. Thus far, Jesus was with the disciples. He moved among them, he taught them, ate with them, laughed and cried with them. The word “with” denotes a movement. No more! I hear Jesus placing emphasis on the preposition ‘in’. This is then how it would sound: the Father in me, I in you and you in me. The Greek word en denotes a relation of rest. This means a qualitative change in the kind of relationship between the Father, Jesus and the disciples. From now on, Jesus will “rest” in them. That is what Peter means by saying “Sanctify Christ as the Lord of your hearts” (1 Pet 3:15). In other words, Peter is asking us to allow Christ to rest in our hearts.
Let me offer three practical implications of understanding Jesus’ words in this way. I want to draw these practical implications from today’s second reading from the letter of Peter.
1. The very first advice Peter gives to his community is, “Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.” But how do we do this? We can learn much from our relationship with one another. Our important relationships became meaningful because we decide to invest time and energy into them. Think, for example, about your relationship with your spouse or your best friend. The same principle applies to our relationship with God. Christ wants to move from with us to in us. If we want to move Christ into the very center of our being; if we want Christ to be the very source and summit of our lives, we must be prepared to invest in our relationship with Christ. The depth of our relationship with Christ is in direct proportion to the time and energy we are willing to invest in him. Moreover, this is just the start. The great doctors of prayer such as John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila tell us that once we learn to rest in God, God surprises us by taking us to greater depths of divine knowledge and understanding. Christ is personally inviting us to enter into a deeper relationship in him.
2. “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope, but do it with gentleness and reverence.” This second advice from Peter is a logical second step. Once again, there is much to learn from our ordinary relationship. Those of you who are parents, it is not difficult to know that your young son or daughter is madly in love, is it? The body language gives away, doesn’t it? When Christ is in our hearts, life just becomes different. We do not have to go about preaching the rapture, predicting the end, pronouncing judgment or condemnation. Peter advises us to give explanation for our hope with gentleness and reverence. In other words, when we have genuinely sanctified Christ in our hearts, when God rests in us and we rest in God, it will show in our behavior and attitudes – kindness, gentleness, compassion, forgiveness, patience, love, selflessness, generosity and courage in the face of suffering.
3. “…It is better to suffer for doing good, if that be the will of God, than for doing evil.” One of the prominent marks of contemporary society is the willing to retaliate to evil with evil. We kill easily to make the point that killing is wrong. We enter into conflict too easily to prove that conflict is undesirable. Our patience to “suffer for doing good” is limited. When someone maligns our name, disrespects us or does harm, we find it very hard to return the evil with good. Christ’s example to us is so counter-cultural. Peter, in today’s reading suggests to his community that a genuine sign that Christ rests in us is our commitment to good and the willing to pay the price for it. This week, at work when a co-worker gets on your nerves, or at home when a family member tries your patience, or at school a classmate make fun of you, or when you get inclined to lie, judge or condemn, allow the Christ who rest in you to lead you to peace.
The Eucharist is the way in which the promise of Jesus to live in our hearts is fulfilled. The Father in me, I in you and you in me,” is the central theme of the Eucharist. As we receive Jesus in bread and wine let us sanctify Jesus as the Lord of our hearts. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph