Whenever someone is chosen for the office of Bishop, they usually create a coat of arms which is filled with the signs and symbols of their heart. Our own Bishop has the star of the sea, indicating his devotion to the blessed mother, the hart that yearns for and finds living water, and the cross of Jesus. Beside these symbols, there is usually a declaration of the bishops’ understanding of himself, and of the way he intends to move. Bishop Philip has the motto, ‘In Corde Jesu’ – ‘In the heart of Jesus’. He hopes that this is where we will find him. But we can only find him if we are there too.
So, here’s a little game. Imagine you have been chosen to be a Bishop and now you have to create your own coat of arms and define the motto of your life. What would it look like I wonder?
In the Gospel for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Jesus is talking to His disciples about what happens when we enter His Sacred Heart. Our ability to love one another depends on us entering and staying there. It is when we leave that things go wrong. So, loving Jesus and staying in communion with Him is the key to Faithful Discipleship.
You might ask, “how can we do this since He is no longer with us in the same way?” It’s a good question! The Saviour would answer that, like all who have gone before us into heaven, He is with us in a different way. Departure through death is not a total loss. It provides for a different way of being present. What is more, the shatterer of death also brings an unbreakable communion with Himself and His Father into the hearts of all who believe. The point seems to be that the more we act out of love for Him, the more deeply we experience that Love through the Spirit, the more intensely we experience the Love of the Father.
For Jesus, there is no doubt that the quality of our mission depends completely on the quality of our relationships. The way that we make or break affectional bonds takes on a new seriousness. Now that we are moved by the Spirit of God we are in for a wild ride. A ride that does not allow us to sin. In The Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot put it beautifully.
“We must be still and still moving – into another intensity – for a further and deeper communion…“.
The reality of this relationship is eternal and is not subject to loss or time. It is a dance that survives death.
Perhaps this is why the Holy Trinity is best described as dancing. But more than that, we are being asked to join in the dance. To enter the flow of life that goes round and round without beginning or end. This is the Love I am talking about when I talk about Love. The dance is going on right now beneath our feet. The music is playing, and as we listen to Jesus, we sense our feet beginning to tap to His music.
