Wednesday Reflection

Daily Gospel Reflection April 29^th 2020

Gospel                                                                                  JN 6:35-40

Jesus said to the crowds,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.
But I told you that although you have seen me,
you do not believe.
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.”

because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.

Dear Friends and Family,

Have you ever felt that you don’t have any say in what is going on? That someone or something else is calling all the shots and you just have to deal with it.  Maybe this is how you have felt during the pandemic, that there have been moments when you feel powerless about the circumstances around you and you find yourself adrift.  Do you hear what Jesus says to the crowd?  “I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.” Jesus was human, so did he experience the vulnerability that you and I have faced when you are subject to the will of another? Jesus surrendered himself to the will of God the Father. Was that easy for our Lord to do, to accept God’s will? We know that our Loving Father knows what we need, what we truly hunger for in this life. Have you thought about your hungers or cravings in the last month? We may be thinking we hunger for a meal at our favorite restaurant, that we long to get a haircut, that we even ache for the ability to be in control of our own lives, as we were prior to the pandemic.

Sometimes we feel powerless when we are not in control. And it does not look like that control is going to return any time soon. But even if it did, let us ask ourselves: what is my deepest hunger? How can I surrender my will so that God’s Kingdom may hasten? What about those days when I surrender not to God, but to my own frustration and limitations? Do I trust God’s plan?

This is where we turn to our Lord, Jesus Christ, the bread of life. While we may hunger and desire for many things, it is in him that all those hungers, thirsts, and needs will be fulfilled. And when we surrender our own will and ask that God’s will be done, can new think about what does that look like? What does that mean for us as we spend another day sitting in isolation?

·         One of the best ways to defeat fear and anxiety is through the power of the Bible. Read the Word of God and immerse yourself in it. If you find some favorite verses, copy them. Make a prayer card for your kitchen table or to hang on your fridge or copy the words into your Journal. Take those words to prayer and ask God to open your heart to his will.

·         When we begin to worry about lack of control, take it to God in prayer. Sometimes writing out your prayer in a Journal is helpful. Others write prayers on slips of paper and put them in a jar or a bowl that lives on their prayer table, which signifies that we are ‘giving it to God’

·         To recognize that as we live our lives as disciples of Jesus, we are going to be faced with challenges, struggles and obstacles, and each of those may bring its own amount of worry, anxiety or frustration, but ultimately, they allow us to draw closer to the Lord.

·         A recent online post stated something to the effect that no matter how many steps you have taken walking away from God, the journey back to him is a single step. God longs to be merciful, all we have to do is ask him for it.

Remember: There is no situation in life that we will ever face that is out of God’s control, so the best place to be, always, is close to Him. Maybe we can share with one another how we are staying close to Him during this pandemic. Please email me and let me know, as your idea may inspire another, and make us feel closer to one another as a community of faithful believers.