God became one of us so that we will become like God! Jesus modeled for us the Victorious Life. Today’s Gospel selection helps us see how Jesus will help us live in victory.
We read in St. Mark’s Gospel,
Taking her hand He (Jesus) said, “Tal’itha cu’mi”; which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” Mark 5:41
The crowd that was around this girl thought that she was dead. However, Jesus continue with her parents and His Apostles to minister to her. The parents trusted in Jesus and they were rewarded with victory over death.
Trusting Jesus leads to victory!
Things may seem dead in our lives. We may feel hopeless! But there is a prayer for that,
“Jesus, I surrender all things to you, take care of everything!”
There are storms in our lives that we must go through! It is foolish to try to avoid them! But faith in Jesus, the Master of All, is with us, if we have faith in Him!
We read in St. Mark’s Gospel,
And He (Jesus) said to them, “Why are you afraid? Have you no faith?”
Mark 4:40
Jesus had these questions to ask His disciples who were with Him in a boat and they were experiencing a terrible storm. They were fearful because it was a dangerous situation. It was a life or death experience. The Disciples did not know who they were with, Jesus, so they thought they all were doomed. However, they had enough sense to call on Jesus and He spoke to the Storm, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Mark 4:39.
The message is this, we know Jesus, and whatever storm comes our way, we know what to do: Call on Jesus!
Surrender whatever we are going through to Jesus, do whatever we are able to do and say to Him,
God, Our Lord Jesus, speaks to us in words that we can understand and apply to our lives. We read in the Gospel of St. Mark,
And Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed upon the ground, and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, and he knows not how…” Mark 4: 26-27
This parable of Jesus reminds us that the Kingdom of God becomes present though our faithfulness. We plant, we nurture and growth happens. The process is for all aspects of our lives. The Kingdom of God grows in ourselves, in our families, at our workplaces, in the Church and in the world by planting and nurturing, and growth comes at its appropriate time.
In the Lord’s Prayer we see what we pray to happen in us, “Thy Kingdom come on Earth as it is in Heaven.” This prayer is fulfilled in our faithfulness in daily practice of seeding and nurturing. We wait on God to bring the growth, but we are the tools God uses to make the Kingdom present.
Today, in the U. S., we celebrate our fathers and those who take the place of fathers in our lives. The process of seeding and nurturing is done by parents in the children they raise. The Kingdom of God arises in us because of their faithfulness!
If we love each other like Jesus loves us, we may be viewed as being crazy! Hate seems to be more normal in our world today. Perhaps it has been that way always! Jesus tells us in word and deed that this hate is contrary to Divine Culture. We read in St. Mark’s Gospel,
When His relatives heard of this, they set out to seize Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.” Mark 3: 21
The family of Jesus did not understand that Jesus’ purpose is to make the Divine present in the here and now. They would eventually understand because His relatives would continue His work after His Death and Resurrection.
Are we ready to live the Divine Culture of Love?
Perhaps we would be crazy to say yes because many of true believers get misunderstood and mistreated because others do not want the Culture of Love to reign. But for those who choose to say yes to the Divine, the peace and love and joy outweigh all of the suffering one might encounter in being true believers.
And as they were eating, He took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them, and said, “Take; This is My body.”
And He took a chalice, and when he had given thanks, He gave it to them, and they drank of it. And He said to them, “This is My blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many.”
Mark 14: 22-24
Jesus came to be with us and gave us Himself in His Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, in other words, Jesus gave us His totality so that we we could remain with Him forever. This may seem otherworldly, but actually it in “This- Worldly”! Evil will attack us, and we need protection.
Jesus is Lord!
Jesus knew we would suffer because of following Him, hence He had to give us Divine Food so we could “Walk through the shadow of death “.
The more we consume Jesus worthily, the more we are Jesuslike!
Jesus will take over and we will regain peace through Him!
When we enter into the Love of God we can find peace when everything around us is difficult to deal with. Our health may not be good, those we trust may have hurt us, or the world around us may be in turmoil, yet the peace that passes all understand is still ours. We have this grace because we are united in the Love that the Father God has with God The Son, in union with the Holy Spirit, and we are one with Them!
Jesus called us all to be one! We read in St. Matthew’s Gospel,
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age.”
Matthew 28:19-20
We join God in God’s triune nature. If only we could all do this, then paradise on Earth would be realized. The problem is the Ego which makes us separate from the Father who made, the Son who redeemed us, and the Holy Spirit that gives us the Holy Presence that dwells in us and through us to the entire world.
Looking at the world as it is may make us believe that it is an impossible dream. However, we have sprinklings of “Paradise People” living among us. These are the people who live everything that Jesus taught! These individuals prove that Heaven on Earth is possible because these individuals live Heaven on Earth!
May we be Paradise People! May we stay in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit! May we bring Paradise wherever we are!
It is hard to come to the end of Eastertide, but we follow a historical event. After fifty days from the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, after the Ascension of the Lord Jesus to the Right Hand of Father God, and after the Novena of Prayer with Mary the Mother of Jesus, and the Apostles, the Holy Spirit descends on them, and the Church is born. God the Holy Spirit, sent to give the followers of Jesus the gifts to save the world, works through these individuals and their spiritual descendants, to make God’s love present in the here and now!
We have to move on in our regular time to live out the Easter message!
We read in St. John’s Gospel,
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so, I send you.”
John 20:21
The world seems to be always in a mess, but we live God’s Dream that Heaven will be on Earth!
We have been taught, we have received the Spirit, and now we bring the Love of God wherever we go and to whomever we meet.
There is a New World that we live in that is different from the world we see. This is Heaven on Earth and those who belong to this world live in Jesus!
As we come to the end of Eastertide (next Sunday is Pentecost Sunday which ends the season) we are reminded that we are different than the rest of the world even though we must function in it. We have been consecrated by the Resurrected Lord Jesus and we are to live this consecration. We read in St. John’s Gospel,
“They are not of the world, even as, I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is the truth. As You sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world” John 17:16-18
Jesus has brought us together to be with Him now and always. The people we interact with must see that we are different. And that the life we live is attractive and inviting. The best way to bring people to the Jesus’ Kingdom is to live as citizens of that Kingdom!
And may we never forget that the majority of people who live in the Jesus’ Kingdom were born and raised in it. We ask blessings on all of the mothers of our lives, both living and deceased!
The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus means that Love will have the final victory!
First let us wish our Eastern Orthodox Sisters and Brothers a Happy Resurrection Sunday!
We read in St. John’s Gospel,
“This I command you, to love one another.”
John 15:17 RSV-CE
The Commandment of Love is central to Jesus and His true followers. This makes perfect sense because He is the personification of Divine Love. Jesus entered our world so that we can enter into God who is Love. The problem is living this Love is difficult because those who follow this Love will often experience the pushback, to a greater or lesser degree, what Jesus experienced as He promoted Divine Love in human relations.
Hermitage of Peace 