Repentance

By David Torkington

Pentecost (Painting from an altarpiece,
Wikimedia Commons)

On the  feast of Pentecost the Jews celebrated the day on which God had given the Law to Moses. However the first Pentecost after the Resurrection was the day on which God gave his new law – the law of love. This law was not primarily a  list of rules and regulations  like the laws that were given to Moses, but the same personal  love that God had showered on Jesus. It was this love that enabled Jesus to practise to perfection the New Commandments that he taught his disciples. Namely, to Love God with their whole hearts and minds, and with their whole being, as he did, and to love others as he did too, and still does. 

What had been given to Jesus throughout his life on earth, had been given in full measure after his Resurrection, and in such a way, that he would be able to give it to others to inaugurate a new era – the Kingdom of Love. After the Resurrection the unique and transcendental love that Jesus had received from God enabled him to love not just one person, or even a group of persons, as he had done before, but every person alive at that time and in time to come, who would believe in his love and who would freely chose to receive it. So when the crowds who had gathered on the first Pentecost, demanded to know how they could receive the love of the Holy Spirit, St Peter told them that they should repent.

Justice and Peace, Goodness and  Truth. 

When he told them to repent, he was telling them, in language that they understood, how to turn to receive this love that had already begun to change him and his friends, as they could see for themselves. In other words they had to turn away from the adolescent world in which they had been living, where self-seeking, self- indulgence and self-absorption was the norm, in order to turn to be filled with the love of Jesus, his Holy Spirit.

This love would take them out of themselves and into the new world order that Jesus had come to inaugurate. In this world, love would transform them, by enabling them to enter into the risen Christ to experience the fullness of love that deep down every human being yearns for more than anything else, because it is  this that they were born for in the first place. The fruits of this love – justice and peace, goodness and  truth, and the flowering of all the virtues, would be seen embodied in his followers, as they had been embodied in his life on earth.


Continue reading at David's blog David Torkington.

Show us the path of life

By Heidi

(Wikimedia Commons).

That very day, the first day of the week, two of Jesus’ disciples were going to a village seven miles from Jerusalem called Emmaus, and they were conversing about all the things that had occurred. And it happened that while they were conversing and debating, Jesus himself drew near and walked with them, but their eyes were prevented from recognizing him.  (Luke 24:13-16).

The disciples on the road to Emmaus are discouraged and downcast, heading away from Jerusalem:  The site of the resurrection, the place where they are to go and await the Lord.  They have heard the rumors of resurrection, but they cannot believe after such a disastrous and seemingly definitive end to the life and mission of Jesus.  Their hope is crushed, their courage has failed them. Have you ever found yourself wandering away from the path set before you by the Lord in the wake of the sorrows, trails and sinfulness of this world?  Jesus, who will never abandon us, meets the disciples where they are and probes their hearts.  He gives them His mild rebuke: “Oh how foolish you are!  How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke!”  He then gently instructs and redirects them with the power of His Word.

 You have made known to me the paths of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence.  Psalm 16:11

If there is one thing that we spiritual sojourners constantly face it is the the disorientation of our own sinfulness.  Walking toward the Light can be discouraging, like driving into the sun, every spot on our windshield shows.  I often find myself tossed to and fro between despairing self-condemnation and blinding self-justification.  Both extremes will divert us from our journey into a deeper relationship with the Lord.  We fail to move with conviction, or sometimes without our complete awareness, we change our direction and move farther away from the Light at the slightest failure.  Like the two disciples, in times of discouragement and sorrow, sometimes we discover we are on a path heading away from our true destination. 


Continue reading at Heidi's blog Journey to Wisdom.

The journey of love

By Robert Batch

A journey of love is a journey that brings us life.  John 10:10: He came so that we may have life to the fullest.

The Easter Sunday Gospel, describes a journey that Mary Magdalene takes to tell everyone about the Risen Christ.  ”He has been raised from the dead, and indeed is going ahead of you to Galilee.”

Pope Francis mentioned in his Easter Vigil homily last night in Rome, that to return to Galilee means to “re-read everything on the basis of the Cross and it’s victory”  We must take into account all of what Christ did during His earthly ministry, even the betrayal and the crucifixion.

The journey that Christ took on the hill to Calvary was not just a beating, or a act of sacrifice. It was a Journey of Love that gave us life in the resurrection.  During this Easter season let us all discover our Journey of Love.

Let us all experience the Easter Joy, let us all experience a new resurrection, a new life in which the tomb does not have power!


Robert originally posted this as his blog Love is Calling.