Sunday, 1 June 2014

SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER Thomas Merton

Monastic Office of Vigils.  

Year II      SEVENTH SUNDAY  OF EASTER
Fr. Thomas Merton, ocso
  

First Reading      1 Corinthians 12:1-27
          Responsory          1 Cor 12:9-10; 7:4
The Spirit gives one the gift of wise speech, another the gift of healing, the power to work miracles, or the gift of prophecy. + In each one the Spirit is manifested in a particular way for the good of all, al­leluia.
V. There is a variety of gifts, but they come from the same Spirit. + In each one ...


Second Reading
From the writings of Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O.   (The NewMass, 117-119)

Life in Christ
When we speak of "life in Christ," according to the phrase of Saint Paul, It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, we are speaking not of self-alienation but of our discovery of our true selves in Christ. In this discovery we participate spiritually in the mystery of his resurrection. And this sharing of the death and resurrection of Christ is the very heart of the Christian faith and of Christian mysticism.

I came, said Jesus, that they may have life. The life he came to bring us is his own life as Son of God. And because of his resur­rection he received the power to communicate to us all his Spirit as the principle of our own life and the life of our own spirit. The uncreated image, buried and concealed by sin in the depths of our souls, rises from death when, sending forth his Spirit into our spirit, he manifests his presence within us and becomes for us the source of a new life, a new identity, and a new mode of action.

This new life in us is an extension of Christ's own risen life. It forms an integral part of that new existence which he inaugu­rated when he rose from the tomb. Before he died on the cross, the historical Christ was alone in his human and physical exis­tence. As he himself said, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Rising from the dead, Jesus lived no longer merely in himself. He be­came the vine of which we are the branches. He extends his personality to include each one of us who is united to him by faith. The new existence which is his by virtue of his resurrection is no longer limited by the exigencies of matter. He can now pass through closed doors, appear in many places at once, or exer­cise his action upon the earth while remaining hidden in the depths of the Godhead: yet these are only secondary aspects of his risen life. The primary aspect of his risen life is his life in the souls of his elect. He is now not only the natural Christ, but the mystical Christ, and as such he includes all of us who believe in him.

Christ living in me is at the same time himself and myself.
From the moment that I am united to him in one spirit there is no longer any contradiction implied by the fact that we are different persons. He remains, naturally and physically, the Son of God who was born of the blessed Virgin in Nazareth, who went about doing good, and who died on the cross two thousand years ago. I remain the singular person that I am. But mystically and spiritually Christ lives in me from the moment that I am united to him in his death and resurrection by the sacrament of baptism and by all the moments and incidents of a Christian life. This union is not merely a moral union, or an agreement of wills, nor merely a psychological union which flows from the fact that I keep him in my thoughts. Christ mystically identifies his members with himself by giving them his Holy Spirit.

Responsory          1 Cor 12:6-7.27
There are different ministries but the same God who accomplishes
all of them in everyone. + The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one in a particular way for the good of all, alleluia.
V, You are the body of Christ; each one of you is a member of it. + The manifestation of ...

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