Readings:
Acts 15:1-6
John 15:1-8
Reflection:
Surely, one of the most challenging and yet most consoling invitations from Our Lord Jesus Christ is “Make your home in me, as I make mine in you” (John 15:4).
What is “home”? It is said, “Home is where the heart is”, and that is very true. A true home is safe but is also where we find the strength to face danger. Home gives us what we need until we are ready to go out to provide a “home” for others. Even then, we still need home, somewhere to be ourselves, to find and give love.
Jesus invites us to make our home in him – a beautiful invitation that promises true human wealth.
But Jesus brings in another almost unbelievable element. He says that he makes his home in us. And his words can be read as truthfully in the singular as in the plural. You and I can with certainty believe that he makes his home in me. In me. In you.
There are no hidden agendas in what Jesus is saying. Elsewhere he directs us as to his requirements of us: to try daily to love others, to forgive, to imitate him. But here he expresses the fundamental reality of the Christian life – that he is in us, and we are in him.
As always, he tells the complete truth. He is our home, and we are his home.
Sister Susan Connelly RSJ, past teacher and Motor Missioner, has been involved with Timor-Leste since the 1990s and is concerned about West Papua. She is involved with the Passionist Parish of Marrickville, NSW.