"A New Season"
"Relationship" (Relational Love: part
3)
Jesus is 'God with us'. He has died
for us, and now he lives within us through the Holy Spirit and baptismal faith.
Through the Incarnation Jesus has brought us into the immediacy of the Father's
presence. The Incarnation is the greatest work ever accomplished by God: God
among us in a human nature--hence, Jesus living in a human body. Through his
death and resurrection and the miracle of Pentecost, Jesus also lives in his
Mystical Body--and now within each of us who are members of his Mystical Body.
Contemplation is about Jesus living in
his Mystical Body through the gift of the Holy Spirit. Because of the
Incarnation, Jesus always lives, prays, loves, and forgives through a human
nature. Now through the Holy Spirit he continues to live, love, pray and
forgive through my human nature too. Jesus always lives in relation to the
Father, and he desires only the Father's will to be accomplished.
My life is meant to be imbued with the
mystery of God: Jesus! This is what St. Paul refers to in Col. 1:27 when he
speaks of, "The mystery of Christ in you." This is the mystery of Jesus who
continues to relate to the Father in the Spirit now within my heart. Jesus
continues to live the mystery of prayer to the Father--now within my heart
( see CCC 2614). Jesus dwells within my heart through faith--a faith which, in
turn, awakens a profound prayer of the heart. Jesus continues his prayer to the
Father in the secret depths of my heart: "I must be in my Father's house"
(Luke 2:49). It is urgent; it is truth; it is the only way for me as an
intercessor: I must allow Jesus to live now within me his relationship with the
Father! I must allow his prayer to rise up from within my heart. Jesus desires
to continue to love the Father, be in relationship with the
Father, live in his identity as Son in the presence of the Father and to
continue his mission as Son--taking away the sins of the world as the
one Intercessor between God and humanity--now from within my humanity.
I need to pray for the grace of desire
to be brought into Jesus' own interiority. He is the master of prayer--and
within him is present the newness of prayer; for, Jesus prays within me as the
only begotten Son always in the presence of the Father (see CCC 2601). The
Father continues to recognize--to hear--the voice of His Son now from within
me. Jesus who has the full "breadth, length, height and depth" of love desires
to continue to love both the Father and humanity now through me.
Prayer is life, and this life is with
the Father through Jesus. Prayer allows Jesus to 'relate' to the Father through
me--allows the "new humanity" present in Jesus (the contemplative humanity of
Jesus) to dwell within me.
Questions:
1) How
aware am I of the mystery of Jesus' presence within me?
2) What
still needs to change in my life so that it is Jesus who lives within me, prays
within me, loves and forgives through me?
Scriptures:
Any scripture from the text; John 17:26; Gal. 2:20; Eph.
3:17-19
