Daily Retreat 05/12/06

2006 May 12 Fri: Easter Weekday/ Nereus and Achilleus, mts/ Pancras, mt

Acts 13: 26-33/ Ps 2: 6-7. 8-9. 10-11ab/ Jn 14: 1-6

From today’s readings: "We ourselves are proclaiming this good news to you that what God promised our fathers He has brought to fulfillment for us, their children, by raising up Jesus, as it is written in the second psalm, You are My Son; this day I have begotten You.... I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

Room for You!

"In My Father's house, there are many dwelling places." The words of our Savior smack of hospitality, generosity, true charity, and comfort. The Father's house is spacious and roomy - there's room there for you, and for me! At the end of the long journey of our life, how comforting to know that Jesus has already prepared a place for us, a place with Him, no less!

So it's no wonder that no life here on earth, even one endowed with many blessings, no terrestrial house should be seen as a permanent home. For all of us Christians, we who are baptized, are united to the Body of Christ - the Body of Christ, which suffered to achieve our redemption, died, was buried, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven. So, logically, we who are united to the Body of Christ share in the same eternal destiny. For the unity we enjoy with Christ is absolute: Baptism and all the sacraments are much more than just a symbol - they effect a reality, the sacraments unite us and incorporate us to the Body of Christ. Through Baptism, St. Paul reminds us that we are baptized into the Life of Christ, into the Redemptive sufferings and Death of Christ, and finally, into the Glorious Resurrection of Christ.

And this unity, this oneness, is further effected in the Holy Eucharist, when we receive Our Lord, and we give room for Him in our lives, so that He can remain in us, and we can remain in Him. This is what it means to eat the Bread of Life, to nourish ourselves with the very flesh of Christ! Since the Lord Himself has prepared such room for us, the least we can do is give Him generous room in our lives!