Reflection
Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you,
do you want to go away too?
John 6:67-68
To follow Jesus means being led by the Spirit as he was led at every stage of his journey. This involves a truly personal discernment but it is never an individualistic one. The Spirit of God is always the spirit of community, communion with our human sisters and brothers and communion with the whole of creation. It is not difficult to see the Spirit at work in the great movements of our times- the ecological movement, the movement seeking justice and peace above all for the poor of the earth, and the feminine movement seeking full equality for women. In spite of all the human failure and sin that play a role in these movements, they are places where the Spirit of God is powerfully at work, calling us to our own part in these movements of liberation and hope.
Denis Edwards
Prayer
May I be Faithful to the gospel vision.
Action
Is my heart touched by any of these movements?
Where can I put my efforts to help bring about God’s reign?
Suggested Reading
Many of his disciples returned to their former way of life
and no longer accompanied him.
Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we have come to know that you are the Holy One of God.
John 6:60-67
There is no such thing as low-cost Christianity. Following Jesus means swimming against the tide, renouncing evil and selfishness
Pope Francis
Following Christ in the power of the Spirit means bringing to our world the shape of the gospel: forgiveness, the best news that anyone can ever hear, for all who yearn for it, and judgment for all who insist on dehumanizing themselves and others by their continuing pride, injustice, and greed.
N.T. Wright
Worship of Jesus is rather harmless and risk-free; actually following Jesus changes everything.
Richard Rohr
The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.
Pope John Paul II
I think it’s darkness before the dawn, because the next evolution is going to be a consciousness evolution instead of a communication revolution.
Ram Dass
Spiritual opening is not a withdrawal to some imagined realm or safe cave. It is not a pulling away, but a touching of all the experience of life with wisdom and with a heart of kindness, without any separation.
Jack Kornfield
The great lesson is that the sacred is in the ordinary, that it is to be found in one’s daily life, in one’s neighbors, friends, and family, in one’s backyard.
Abraham Maslow
Those who aren’t following Jesus aren’t his followers. Its that simple. Followers follow, and those who don’t follow aren’t followers. To follow Jesus means to follow Jesus into a society where justice rules, where love shapes everything. To follow Jesus means to take up his dream and work for it.
Scot McKnight