God of Relationship
A
Our God is a God of relationship
First, at the ascension, there is newness of life for all the followers of Jesus. As the Lord prepares to go, he shows that what feels like loss is not really loss. Jesus reassures his disciples by entrusting them with a new way of living, existing, and relating. This is a life no longer marked by abandonment. This is not the life of orphans, but of sons and daughters who belong to the Father. Jesus is bringing all of us into his own relationship with the Father. Jesus's life and mission is to reveal that the Father is, by nature, a God of relationship. In this relationship, the Father always takes the initiative. The Father moves first. He anticipates need. He reaches out before everything is put in place. He moves toward us before things are fully settled. He does not wait for everything to be in order before he acts.
This is the most radical teaching of Jesus, especially because we have misunderstood: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Purity in this context means having a heart that seeks a relationship with God. But purity is not perfection. We have mistakenly equated the two and turned them into preconditions or requirements in order to meet God. Jesus says blessed are those with a contrite heart or a contrite spirit. Why? Because it is only by having a contrite heart, a contrite spirit, can we enter into a loving relationship and communion with another. It is the relationship that blesses and completes our joy. When Jesus says, following the Prophet Hosea, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mt 9:13; 12:7; Hos 6:6), God cares more about how we treat others—with mercy and love—than about performing duties without mercy and love.
A new way of praying to the Father
Second point: When Jesus brings us into an intimate relationship with his Father, it calls for a new way of communicating with Him. "Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete" (Jn 16:23-24).
Before the Father answers a prayer, He first gives His presence to the person behind the prayer. Before He solves or saves, God offers a relationship first. That is why all prayers are answered prayers when they are said within a relationship. This is Jesus’ revolution of the heart. A revolution, quietly ignited by Christ. In this vast universe, all we need to do is to ask from within this communion with the Father, and surely you will receive.
Teilhard de Chardin writes in The Divine Milieu that the whole of reality is immersed in a divine home (Oikos). Yet we are called to awaken to it, to grow into a Christ-consciousness where our vision is transformed, and we begin to see reality through the eyes of Christ.
A New Life in the Spirit
Here we ask one last reflective question: How do we awaken? Who will enkindle in us this new way of seeing? We cannot awaken ourselves. That’s for sure. We are never meant to self-activate or self-automate. At the deepest level, life is received, not produced—it is a gift. Our life does not begin with our effort, but with a gift. We are receivers before we are doers.
And the good news is that God is a giver of gifts through the Holy Spirit. The glorified Jesus breathes on his disciples and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The breath of God is now within us. Awakening, teaching us everything and empowering us.
The Holy Spirit turns every prayer into communion. That is why we pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.
To be enkindled is to be changed from within—to see differently, to live in communion, and to desire holy desires. Jesus promises that we belong to his Divine Family. Let us end with this prayer by St Augustine:
O God, light of the minds that see you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the souls that seek you, enlarge our minds and raise the vision of our hearts, that, with swift wings of thought, our spirits may reach you, the eternal wisdom, you who live from everlasting to everlasting, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Fr JM Manzano SJ
s Jesus speaks of going back to the Father, we are left to wonder: what were the disciples feeling at that moment? Did it feel like a loss once again? There are three points that I invite you to ponder.
First, at the ascension, there is newness of life for all the followers of Jesus. As the Lord prepares to go, he shows that what feels like loss is not really loss. Jesus reassures his disciples by entrusting them with a new way of living, existing, and relating. This is a life no longer marked by abandonment. This is not the life of orphans, but of sons and daughters who belong to the Father. Jesus is bringing all of us into his own relationship with the Father. Jesus's life and mission is to reveal that the Father is, by nature, a God of relationship. In this relationship, the Father always takes the initiative. The Father moves first. He anticipates need. He reaches out before everything is put in place. He moves toward us before things are fully settled. He does not wait for everything to be in order before he acts.
This is the most radical teaching of Jesus, especially because we have misunderstood: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Purity in this context means having a heart that seeks a relationship with God. But purity is not perfection. We have mistakenly equated the two and turned them into preconditions or requirements in order to meet God. Jesus says blessed are those with a contrite heart or a contrite spirit. Why? Because it is only by having a contrite heart, a contrite spirit, can we enter into a loving relationship and communion with another. It is the relationship that blesses and completes our joy. When Jesus says, following the Prophet Hosea, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mt 9:13; 12:7; Hos 6:6), God cares more about how we treat others—with mercy and love—than about performing duties without mercy and love.
A new way of praying to the Father
Second point: When Jesus brings us into an intimate relationship with his Father, it calls for a new way of communicating with Him. "Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. Until now you have not asked anything in my name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete" (Jn 16:23-24).
Before the Father answers a prayer, He first gives His presence to the person behind the prayer. Before He solves or saves, God offers a relationship first. That is why all prayers are answered prayers when they are said within a relationship. This is Jesus’ revolution of the heart. A revolution, quietly ignited by Christ. In this vast universe, all we need to do is to ask from within this communion with the Father, and surely you will receive.
Teilhard de Chardin writes in The Divine Milieu that the whole of reality is immersed in a divine home (Oikos). Yet we are called to awaken to it, to grow into a Christ-consciousness where our vision is transformed, and we begin to see reality through the eyes of Christ.
A New Life in the Spirit
Here we ask one last reflective question: How do we awaken? Who will enkindle in us this new way of seeing? We cannot awaken ourselves. That’s for sure. We are never meant to self-activate or self-automate. At the deepest level, life is received, not produced—it is a gift. Our life does not begin with our effort, but with a gift. We are receivers before we are doers.
And the good news is that God is a giver of gifts through the Holy Spirit. The glorified Jesus breathes on his disciples and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” The breath of God is now within us. Awakening, teaching us everything and empowering us.
The Holy Spirit turns every prayer into communion. That is why we pray: Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.
To be enkindled is to be changed from within—to see differently, to live in communion, and to desire holy desires. Jesus promises that we belong to his Divine Family. Let us end with this prayer by St Augustine:
O God, light of the minds that see you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the souls that seek you, enlarge our minds and raise the vision of our hearts, that, with swift wings of thought, our spirits may reach you, the eternal wisdom, you who live from everlasting to everlasting, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Fr JM Manzano SJ
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