Today’s readings: Acts 8, 5-8.14-17; 1 Peter 3, 15-18; John 14, 15-21
In her spiritual classic The Interior Castle, St Teresa of Avila imagines a multi-room castle and takes the reader on a journey of spiritual growth towards the inner room where the soul encounters God. She writes: “If you want to make progress on the path and ascend to the places you have longed for, the important thing is not to think much but to love much.”
This really sets the tone for what today’s Scriptures want to convey. There is a sharp turn in the readings today from the preceding Sundays. Till now the focus was on how the community of the first disciples was stabilising itself, coming to terms with the new reality of Christ risen and alive. Now we see how the deeper this experience of the risen Lord becomes, the more transparent and credible their (and our) witness is.
In Acts, the author speaks of a Church going forth, crossing borders to reach out to Samaria, alien territory to the Jews and depicted as infested with “unclean spirits that came shrieking out of many who were possessed, with several paralytics and cripples”. Samaria was out of bounds for the disciples, yet daringly they went there to proclaim Jesus and were welcomed with “great rejoicing”.
Even in our times the Church is called to exit its comfort zones and stop being inward-looking with an agenda concerned with internal and often very petty issues. Our one and only issue should be how the joy of believing can get through to others. As St Peter indicates in the second reading, people have every right to ask us the reason for the hope we claim to have, and we are in duty bound to give them account of that.
In giving account of what we believe in we have to be mindful in our language because the world out there is becoming completely alien to our symbols and jargon. This is a major challenge in our way of connecting with the emerging generations, young and old alike. Not being attentive to this can be suicidal for the faith we profess.
The problem is not merely one of language, but it concerns mainly the strength of our witness in terms of transparency and credibility. Richard Rohr writes that “the Church is filled with people who are living on hearsay, who stand on someone else’s authority, but do not know what they themselves know”.
St John’s gospel speaks of the inner authority that a true relationship with Jesus gives us in our witness. Jesus reassuringly says “I will not leave you orphans”. The image of the orphan is that of someone without any points of reference where parental love is concerned. It is the existential image of total solitude so commonplace today.
The paternity and maternity of God cannot be reduced to a superficial belonging to the Church. It can only result from a deeper and inner experience. Jesus says: “If you love me you will keep my commandments”. But we know that in his proposal of discipleship Jesus went far beyond the Decalogue.
So what is this love Jesus is demanding? In his book I Want You to Be, Tomas Halik writes: “Anyone wanting to talk about God should first look into their own heart and see if it contains enough love – or at least a yearning for love, a readiness to learn to love”.
It is this love that gives us the inner authority to speak out credibly. Our faith jargon may understandably no longer be a meeting ground with many out there, but love always remains a universal language. It is love in our heart that gives us a glimpse of the true God and that keeps us going steadily on our path.