Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Going places

Today is the anniversary of my Confirmation. Appropriately enough, it is also the feast of St. Matthias, the fill-in apostle who was added to the "Eleven" after the Resurrection of Jesus. The Gospel for the feast day is that beautiful Last Supper passage, "You did not choose me, I chose you..." But that same Gospel passage seems to present us with mutually exclusive directions. On the one hand, the mystical, contemplative, "Remain." And on the other, "GO and bear fruit that will last."
So what do we do: stay or go?
The clue is in one tiny word: "in." "Remain in my love." If we remain/abide/dwell (all possible translations of John's Greek) IN Christ's love, we can come and go and at the same time, never leave our true home! And for the mission of evangelization, it is vital that we "remain" all the time, because "apart from me you can do nothing."
Today's Gospel tells us that if we see a contradiction between contemplation and mission, we don't really understand either one.

1 comment:

nate said...

Happy Anniversary!