WAKE REFLECTION FOR SISTER BERTHA MARIE NALLY, OSU
Reflection on John 6:37-40, Revelation 21:1-7 and Psalm 63
October 8, 2006
This section of Saint John’s Gospel follows the Multiplication of the Loaves and the Walking on the Water. In this section we read that “everything the Father gives Jesus will come to him and he will not reject anyone who comes to him.”
For us who live the Christian life, this is a consoling thought. We turn to Jesus in all that we do and want to be near him. Knowing that we are accepted and never rejected is a special gift given to us. This passage speaks to us of the love God has for creatures and all of creation. It speaks to us of the gift of eternal life that is ours as a result of this great love God has for us. It speaks to us of the hope that is ours as we look toward the end of life, either our own death or the death of someone whom we love very much. The promise we receive is that we will receive eternal life and will be raised on the last day. What a powerful promise this is – what a consolation!
As we reflect on the first reading from Revelation, our thoughts turn to “what is heaven like?” My guess is that most of us think about a place here on earth that we have seen that is very beautiful to us and try to somehow imagine that place as part of heaven or as like heaven. Perhaps we imagine this place as where God is and maybe when we need to feel God’s presence in a special way like when we have lost a loved one to death, when we are suffering from a hardship that’s either physical, emotional or spiritual—we find ourselves returning, in our imagination, to this beautiful place and once again we experience God’s presence. It is, in some way, like our own little piece of heaven. Maybe after we have again visited this place in our imagination we feel renewed and recreated and are able once again to face whatever life offers us on our journey.
The “gift from the spring of life-giving water” reminds us of our Baptism and our commitment in Confirmation to live the Christian life with all our heart and all our strength. This too is a great consolation as we face life each day. We know on a daily basis that God is our God and we are God’s own. Now do we always live this perfectly? Well, maybe some of you do, but I have never been able to do that. However, I do know that because of God’s love and this “gift from the spring of life-giving water” that the love of God is stronger than all of my human weaknesses. As Christian people we rely on that great hope of eternal life.
Psalm 63 speaks of our longing for God. I am reminded of the saying of Saint Augustine who says: “God made us for himself and we are restless until we rest in God.” This is a psalm of wanting to be with God, of recognizing that without God we are nothing. We feel the longing for God with our whole being. As we imagine what God might be like we think of all the things that make life special here on earth—the presence of others, a rich banquet, having someone to turn to when life is hard to manage on our own. All of these are who God is to us. God will never leave us alone, but will be closer to us than we are to ourselves.
Given by Sister Ann McGrew, OSU