Mutual Indwelling

The Easter glow has moved … from an outer experience then to an inward reality now. He is no longer where he once was. He is now where we are. We shine because he has come to dwell in us by the Holy Spirit.

 

But we often feel we have lost the glow. In fact, we feel pretty dull. Yet feelings are not facts…we are learning that. So the Church takes us by the hand and leads us into Ordinary Time by assuring us we will have food for the journey…his very self.

 

This month opens with the great celebration of Corpus Christi, the Body of Christ. We celebrate the wonder of the Lord’s genius. “I am going to my Father…yet I will be with you always…” and he means it. It is his final step down into time/space. He becomes our food. First step…he presses our humanness with all its brokenness to himself. Second step…he dives like an Olympic diver into the cesspool of our sin and violence. Third step…he bounces up out of death to show us it will not hold us either. Then the final step…he bends down into Bread…the Bread of life. From him we learn that we too must be ready to be blessed, broken, and shared.

 

So we are now launched into the troubled waters of this next part of our lives. Our little boats will be buffeted by the wind and waves coming from the evening news. The Church in the Sundays of June will unfold to us what we need to remember to guide our little boat. Most of all, we need to remember that he is curled up in the boat with us, willing to be roused when things really get rough. Yes, we dwell in him and he in us. It is a mutual indwelling. We don’t ever travel alone.

 

Loving Lord,

You’ve been through it all.

You’ve been there…done that.

But you are no longer there, in those times of long ago.

You are now where we are

in our times.

Don’t leave us orphans.

Stay with us for the day is nearly spent

and the night comes on.

Fill us with your Spirit,

That strong wind that guides our little boat;

That fire that warms what is chill, that water that cleanses;

The oil that heals, the blood that saves;

The wine that makes us drunk with love

and the dove that brings us peace.