Paradoxically, the most sublime teaching on the reality of God – that He is the source and spirating substance of Love – provokes many who hear it to hatred. Jesus is hated because His Word powerfully breaks down the worldly and all too human facades that encumber the mystery of God. This is the world which John counts as the enemy of Jesus and of all who keep His words. When Jesus’ Word breaks through our minds for the first time we grasp in a flash what is to be gained by laying hold of Him. That is the gift of faith. As we hold onto His Word we discover the presence of Its enemy: the world.
Monday of the Fifth Week of Easter
MARK THE HERMIT:
Do you see how [Jesus] has hidden his manifestation in the commandments? Of all the commandments, therefore, the most comprehensive is to love God and our neighbor. This love is made firm through abstaining from material things and through stillness of thoughts.
Knowing this, the Lord enjoins us “not to be anxious about tomorrow,” and rightly so. For if someone has not freed himself from material things and from concern about them, how can he be freed from evil thoughts? And if he is beset by evil thoughts, how can he see the reality of the sin concealed behind them? This sin wraps the soul in darkness and obscurity and increases its hold on us through our evil thoughts and actions. The devil initiates the whole process by testing a person with a provocation that the person is not compelled to accept. But the one urged on by self-indulgence and self-esteem begins to entertain this provocation with enjoyment. Even if their discrimination tells them to reject it, yet in practice they take pleasure in it and accept it. If someone has not perceived this general process of sinning, when will he pray about it and be cleansed from it? And if he has not been cleansed, how will he find purity of nature? And if he has not found this, how will he behold the inner dwelling place of Christ? For we are a dwelling place of God, according to the words of prophet, evangelist and apostle.
Mercy Sunday
The symbols in today’s Gospel teach us about God’s mercy. God uses the language of Creation and Human Life to help us perceive the significance of His mercy. Jesus first gives peace to the disciples to counteract their sorrow and fear. Then as He breathes on them and invokes the gift of the Holy Spirit, we recall the first act of Creation, wherein God breathes into the nostrils of Adam and causes him to become a living being. We understand now, that this life was forfeited with sin and that new life becomes possible by receiving new breath, a new Spirit. We are recreated by the spirit: God’s mercy and forgiveness are not simply about letting bygones be bygones, it is the infusion of new life.