A Human Heart

When people read this Gospel story they say they see that Jesus is a real human being, son of God and man of the earth, weeping over a friend.  His was a human heart. He liked friends and he found a home and a safe place with them, over the hill and away from the mob.  We might picture him there – the talk, the chat, the prayers, the love; meals with other friends who dropped in, times of prayer and silence.

The one who can share a laugh, eat a scone, have a drink or a cuppa. The one who’d give a wink at the sign of peace! Not always so serious, even about religion. There’s no such thing as a sad saint!  He is a good friend.   

When life is ending we will give thanks for friends, and regret the way we have drifted or hurt each other. Real friendship is when another’s thoughts and life become at least as or more important than our own.

So the resurrection and the life is not just for after death. It is for now. We raise each other up in friendship and in love. In that is the grace of the Lord, himself a friend, for when we love, God lives in us.

Picture your friends and those you love

and give thanks to God for each of them.

Lord, help me to keep love and friendship alive in my life.

Donal Neary SJ

The Eye of Faith

Some saw a blind man being cured and walked on amazed. Others saw the same cures and found faith. We can see things, everyday things, with different eyes. A sick woman may be seen with the eye of compassion for illness, hope for a cure/ profit from a profession. The Christian tries to see the world with the eye of faith.

Faith grows in many ways – by opening ourselves to our human desire for God, by mulling over the good things of life, by experiencing the good within ourselves, by looking over times of faith in the past and by allowing the goodness of others to bring us to new and stronger faith. This is the call of the gospel today – to open our eyes to the Lord who is at work in many ways.

We learn to see and love with the eye of faith by looking at the look of Jesus towards us. It is often a big jump to believe in what we cannot see. Even the blind man today was reminded by Jesus ‘ You are looking at the Son of Man, he is speaking to you.’ Jesus looks at each of us with faith in our goodness and with love.

Maybe we can walk around in this atmosphere of faith, “seeing” God in a flower, or in a parent holding a child’s hand, or in a person pushing a wheelchair with courage and notice that in many ways God is near and the presence of Jesus is at hand.

Donal Neary SJ

The well is deep

A famous picture has the Samaritan woman looking into the well and seeing there her image – and the image of Jesus. In the depths of the well of her life is the presence of Jesus.

In the depths of the well, when we are in love, pain, death, decision, joy, we find God. God is near when we are near to ourselves, even in shame and sin. We thirst for meaning in life, for knowing we are totally loved, for community and companionship – and God offers all this.

This is the offering of God – the living water is the Holy Spirit. We thirst for inclusion – the disciples in this story did not want Jesus talking to a woman. So much of the religion of the time separated people. In the depths of the well we are all equal.

We find the mercy of God in the well. As we go into the depths of prayer and ourselves we are open to mercy. We may put conditions on God’s mercy – naming our sins, or numbering them. At the bottom of the well is the water of mercy.

Of the mercy of God, Pope Francis says that ‘there is no sin or crime of any kind that can erase from the mind or heart of God even one of the children he has created’ (November 2013).

Imagine yourself looking into a well;

see the face of Jesus looking at you from its depths.

He looks at you with love.

Lord, send me the living water of the Holy Spirit.

Donal Neary SJ

On the mountain

The hours on the mountain were a huge experience for Peter, James and John, who would always be with him. They saw him in his glory, the beloved son of the Father. There was more to him than meets the eye.

You climb a mountain and you see new views, you see the city from a new vantage point. You see the countryside in its beauty. We need times to climb mountains and get away from the ordinary. Lent is a time like that – as we give something up, we take something on.

From the mountain, we now return home with a good seed: the seed of the Word of God. The Lord will send rain and that seed will grow. It will grow and it will bear fruit. We thank the Lord for the seed but we also want to thank the sower because you were that sower and you know how to do it. (Pope Francis, 2014)

Whenever we climb the mountain of the Lord or make any journey with him, we are changed. As every mountain is different, so every moment with him is well worth while!

We receive this word of God and we receive our call to share it. The apostles would spend their lives sharing what they got on the mountain, and how it changed them.

Donal Neary SJ