Becky's Move to Oak Park and God's assurance

Saturday, April 28, 2018 Today, we moved Becky from her Rochester apartment to the house in Oak Park that her friend, Kevin, bought and will be fixing up.  We met Kevin, who seems like a nice kid. Nice in that he was polite as we discussed the house and he answered my questions. Kid as in he didn't know to offer to help us move stuff, and he puttered around a little and left the house. He talked of the repair men coming in for different projects, his mom painting the bedrooms and Becky telling us privately that his mom is obnoxious and overbearing and kept saying, "Kevin" do this or "Kevin" come in here, etc. Brett said he could tell he must have an overbearing mom because he is a wuss.

FOURTH WEEK OF EASTER

JOHN 14:7-14

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus declares his mutual indwelling with God: “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?” Charles Williams, a friend of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, stated that the master idea of Christianity is “coinherence,” what he described as mutual indwelling. But we sometimes forget that we are all interconnected. How do we often identify ourselves? Almost exclusively through the naming of relationships: we are sons, brothers, daughters, mothers, fathers, members of organizations, or members of the Church. Yet read the Gospel today and see how Jesus identifies himself. Jesus reveals the coinherence that obtains within the very existence of God. “Lord,” Philip said to him, “show us the Father, and that will be enough for us.” Jesus replied, “Philip, after I have been with you all this time, you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” How can this be true, unless the Father and the Son coinhere in each other? Though Father and Son are really distinct, they are utterly implicated in each other by a mutual act of love. As Jesus says, “It is the Father who lives in me accomplishing his works.” Sunday, April 29, 2018 FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER JOHN 15:1-8 Friends, our passage today is from the beautiful, evocative, and challenging fifteenth chapter of John’s Gospel. Jesus declares that he is the vine and we are the branches. He is the power and energy source in which we live. This vine and branches image is closely related, therefore, to Paul’s metaphor of the Body of Christ. The point is that we live in him and he in us. Jesus is the source of supernatural life in us, and without him we would have none of it. If you are separated from the vine, you will die spiritually; if you are connected to it, you will live a supernatural life. What does this mean concretely? It means a steady immersion in the prayer of the Church and steady communion with God, and speaking to him on a regular basis. It means an immersion in the Scriptures and soaking in the truth of the Bible. It means engaging in the corporal and spiritual works of mercy.  And you must participate in the sacraments—especially confession and the Eucharist. By the sacraments, we stay close to the Christ who forgives our sins and enlivens our spirits