Dwelling with God

Home is where the heart is . Home may be a challenging place at the moment.  The same walls,  faces, the quarrels ?  Wherever I lay may hat that’s my home. Home is more than familiar faces and  routines . Home  is where  I rest , where I am restored, where I am safe . Home is where I’m secure, known ,loved. Home is where I am nourished .  Jesus of Nazareth assures his disciples that there are many dwelling places in his Father’s House. To see Jesus is to See God.  Dwelling  with God is a key theme of the Gospel of John. To dwell with God, to make our home in the divine heart , to stay doing the work of God is dwelling with the Father.  We trust in Gods  promise that there are many rooms –mansions, dwellings , the Greek text can also be translated as  stopping spaces in Our  Father’s Home. When the English singer  Charlie Landsborough  ,became a Catholic he said, I believe completely. I can’t imagine my life without my faith. But it took me a long time to get there.. there are many stages on the journey home… many stopping places before we arrive . 

On Friday May 8th  VE day  We commemorated the end of World War II 75 years ago in Europe   . Millions of civilians  died. Many combatants  didn’t come home.  Europe is covered with monuments  to the fallen. Each of them  was someone’s child, parent ,sibling, spouse or sweet heart . They helped  defeat the evil  Nazi ideology that  de- humanised  and tried to eradicate  the Jewish people , Gypsies,   those living with  disability and so many more.  It was a Godless  ideology that  forced its victims into servitude and fear . 

VE day is not remembered by all in the same way . After the end of hostilities  Europe was divided into  two spheres of influence . East and West. In the East  another ideology, atheistic communism was given a free  hand . From 1946 for decades many nations were subjugated . Famine, torture and  the denial of religious freedom  were all used as weapons  against the peoples of Eastern  Europe  . The scars of that period still fester today.

My God grant us all the  grace to see  each other as a sister or  brother, a human being created in the image and likeness of God . Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks was asked  where was God? why was God silent  when all this happen? He answered God was in the extermination  camps, in the suffering.  God was in the commandments thou shalt not murder ,thou shalt not bear false witness.. God wasn’t silent. We were.

The believer is called to do the same works as Christ. Can you see those who are doing the works of God   breaking the silence?
and building a common home together.

Mgr Jim

Thursday 14th of May is a Day of prayer, fasting and works of charity: see the news section for further details.  

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