Lord My Chef Sunday Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Sixth Sunday in Easter, Cycle C, 25 May 2025
Acts 15:1-2, 22-29 ><}}}}*> Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23 ><}}}}*> John 14:23-29
Let us start again our Sunday reflection from the Book of Revelation where we heard last week John mentioning the word “new” four times when he saw “new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem” coming with a voice of the Lord declaring “I make all things new” (Revelation 21:1, 2, 5).
In continuing his narration this Sunday of his visions while imprisoned in Patmos, John tells us how he not merely “saw” but also “experienced” heaven when he wrote:
The Angel took me in spirit to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. It gleamed with the splendor of God. Its radiance was like that of a precious stone, like jasper, clear as crystal… I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb (Revelation 21:10-11, 22).
I saw no temple in the city,
for its temple is the Lord God almighty
and the Lamb.
Try imagining John’s experience of heaven, almost indescribable for its beauty and majesty as the very presence of God when he specified “there is no temple in the city for its temple is the Lord God almighty and the Lamb.”
John reminds us again this Sunday that though these new heaven, new earth, new Jerusalem are the things to come at the end of time, these are already happening right now in our midst. His description of heaven like jasper and other precious stones indicate not only the incomparable beauty of heaven but the very truth that our home is in God. Thus, an invitation too for us today to live in the light of God for he dwells among us in Christ.
This “divine indwelling” has always been a part of our Catholic doctrine.
Recall how in the Old Testament during the chosen people’s wandering in the desert when God dwelled among them in a tent or booth called sukkoth where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. God’s presence was marked by a pillar of smoke over the tent at daytime and a pillar of fire at night. From this came their Feast of the Booths being the dwelling of God; hence, at the Transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor, Peter told the Lord how they would build booths for him, Moses and Elijah as he felt they were already in heaven!
Booth or tent or temple. Or church.
These indicate the presence of God now manifest in Jesus Christ, “the word who became flesh and dwelled among us.” That is why these past three Sundays of Easter we returned to his words spoken at the Last Supper to deepen our understanding and appreciation of Easter that teaches us about our relationship in God expressed with one another.
Two Sundays ago Jesus identified himself as the Good Shepherd who knows his sheep, us; then, last Sunday he gave us his “new commandment” of love that is rooted in God, a love that leads to our communion or oneness with God like Jesus and the Father. This Sunday, Jesus deepens that relationship we all have in him in the Father which perfectly matches the vision and experience of John found in the Book of Revelation.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (John 14:23).
This “dwelling” of Jesus and the Father among those who love him and keep his word is the Church, his Body which we his disciples make up.
In instructing his disciples at the Last Supper that included us today to keep his word and commandment to love, Jesus taught how this love is manifested in the Church, his Body, the indwelling of God in Jesus Christ with us his people.
Recall when the curtain in the temple was torn apart from top to bottom at his death on Good Friday that signaled the end of temple worship when people will worship in truth and in spirit as Jesus had spoken to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well.
When Pope Leo XIV was elected two weeks ago, one of the news that have struck me was about the presence of non-Catholics at St. Peter’s Square celebrating on that day. According to the news, the non-Catholics joined the crowds because they never felt such kind of unity where people were one in praising God, celebrating his loving presence in gifting the world – not just Catholics – with a Pope as the Vicar of Christ.
What a beautiful reality we now have of God’s dwelling among us as the Church!
From the Hebrew concept of qahal or congregation, Jesus linked love and his dwelling with his disciples in forming a community as his Body, the new Temple he had told he would raise in three days we now call the church which in Greek is called ekklesia that literally means to lead out “ek” the people, “kaleo”. Loving and dwelling of God among us is the reality of the Church as a community of believers called to lead others out of darkness into light, out of emptiness into fullness, out of death into life in Jesus Christ – exactly what the early Church did in our first reading today when they agreed not to impose burdens on gentile converts like circumcision and other Jewish traditions.
The Church herself is a Sacrament, a visible sign of Jesus Christ’s saving presence along with the other seven sacraments we have. The challenge is how these sacraments become dynamic ways of living for us, truly a Divine indwelling and not just signs we go through.
Every Sunday in the Mass, we renew our baptismal vows as children of God, expressing our love for each other as a community, visibly the dwelling of God, making the new heaven, the new earth and the new Jerusalem not just a vision but a reality happening now. Let us pray:
Lord Jesus Christ,
dwell in us,
dwell among us
by making us follow your light
not the artificial lights of the world;
let us keep your word
by loving more like you
for where there is love,
there is God dwelling in us
because he is love himself.
Amen.
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