Last night our prayer group watched an old (black and white) movie, The Miracle of Marcelino. It was a story of a child left as an infant on the doorstep of a monastery after his mother’s death. The early minutes were delightful as the monks learned via trial and error how to care for a baby. The child, named Marcelino, grew to be both a delightful and mischievous boy. One thing he was forbidden to do was climb the stairs to explore the attic. Of course, that was what he most wanted to do. Once in the attic, he discovered a life-size crucifix. He knew it was Jesus and that Jesus was God. Marcelino came to have a deep, wonderful relationship with him—and a beautiful miracle happened.
Last fall, a young man attending a school retreat at St. Meinrad left his table of friends to come sit with me—three times. The first time we chit-chatted. The second time he told me more about his family and school. But on the last morning of their retreat he came over to my table to say, “We had a special prayer last night. We had what is called ‘Adoration.’ The chapel was dark except for a lot of candles. They gave each of us a crucifix to hold. They told us to talk to the crucifix, that Jesus Himself was present on the altar—we would really be talking to him there—but look at him in the crucifix and talk. I never did that before. I never just talked to Jesus. I never did anything like what I did last night. Jesus was real! Jesus is real! When you pray like that, Jesus is real and close.”
Those two stories give me a focus for today’s readings. They are stories of love spilling over.
John 14:15-17
We continue with Jesus’ Farewell Address on Holy Thursday night. Today’s reading can be seen as high and deep theology about the Trinity, the Real Presence, the mix of obedience to commandment and faith. It is ALL those things.
Today, however, this reflection will focus on relationship and love spilling over. This reading tells us ways to maintain a relationship with God like Marcelino had in the movie and like the young man had on retreat. There are key words:
- Love
- Keep my commandments
- Advocate with you always
- Spirit of truth
- Will be in you
- I will come to you
- Has my commandments and observes them
- Whoever loves me will be loved by Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.
These are not words of rituals or check off the box mass attendance. They are not words of approaching God like you are equals—nor of approaching God as if He is distant, up on the altar, but not in your heart. They are not words of picking and choosing what parts of commandments you believe in and live by.
They are words of connection. They are words of Love—feelings of love, actions of love, obedience of love, giving and receiving of love. They are words of Love spilling over. Read them and let Love spill over in you.
Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Love is spilling over in Acts. Let’s put this reading in context. Last week, in Acts 6, deacons were chosen to better serve the practical needs of the community. Also, in Acts 6, Stephen, one of those deacons, is arrested because he was filled with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 7, he gives a powerful witness to the high priest and others who had condemned Jesus to death. He, too, is killed—this time by stoning.
The first few verses of Acts 8 say, “And on that day a great persecution arose against the Church in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria—except for the apostles….Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word.”
Then our selection for today begins. Phillip ( a deacon filled with Holy Spirit with a gift of healing, just like Stephen) goes to Samaria. Remember that Samaria is not Jewish culture territory—so it was safer, but it was also filled with people looked down upon by Jerusalem Jews.
Phillip doesn’t hide out in Samaria. He reaches out. Then Love spills over. He preaches and heals. People are converted and baptized. Phillip apparently does not have the capacity to anoint them with the Holy Spirit. So love spills over again. Peter and John go to Samaria, lay hands on the new converts, and they are filled with the Holy Spirit. The seeds of Love Jesus planted the many times he went through Samaria bore fruit.
The Church grows, God’s territory grows, when Love spills over by our witness–even today. Maybe especially today.
I Peter 3:15-18
The selection from I Peter continues with the theme of loving, even when persecuted, judged, or abused. Peter advises to respond to such pressures “with a clear conscience.” “Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence.”
“It is better to suffer for doing what is right,” Peter continues. We as Catholics accept that suffering is part of life. Our faith encourages us to make it as salvific as we can. That means we do our best to suffer with Love…and let our human love and the Love of God spill over through the pain of it. Easy to say. Very, very, very hard at times to do.
Hard as it can be for me, nobody is threatening to stone me. No one is torturing me. The call is mine—and yours—to let Love spill over. Let it spill over to talk to God about it.
Applications
I had a conversation this past week with someone who was educated to think of prayer as something you do in church with folded hands and through words written down by someone else. She has begun to pray while she folds laundry, drives, or waits for her children at ball practice. She’s telling God whatever is on her mind, then listening for God to answer through life, through conversations, through Scripture.
And she’s making connection. God’s love is spilling over into her. Her love is spilling over into her family. Just like Marcelino’s love in the movie. Just like the young retreatant’s love in his conversation with me. Just like Phillip’s love and Peter’s love. Just like Jesus said that last night, “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I am in you.” Love will spill over.
For me, Love spilling over is about applying what Jesus said and what the first generation Christians did: approach differences, even persecution, with the determination to go on Loving, go on proclaiming, go on living by God’s commandments and beatitudes to defeat evil. That is a lesson I still am learning.
Prayer:
This coming Friday we will begin the original novena, the one Jesus told his disciples to do as they waited for Pentecost. Lord, help us all to pray with all our hearts, “Come, Holy Spirit! Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth.“
