Daily Devotional • October 28
Feast of St. Simon and St. Jude, Apostles
A Reading from John 14:15-31
15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19 In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words, and the word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.
25 “I have said these things to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no power over me, 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us be on our way.
Meditation
Today’s reading is the one time we hear St. Jude — also called Thaddeus, also called Judas (not Iscariot) — speak in the Gospel narratives. In the account of the Last Supper, St. Jude asks a question of our Lord. His question and Jesus’ answer tell us about what it means to be at home with God.
Often, we think of our home with God being on the other side of the veil. The Father’s house of many mansions in which, we pray, the Father has made a place for us to dwell with him. Yet, Jesus’ answer to St. Jude does not speak of us going to be with the Father, but the Father and the Son coming to dwell with us, in an earthly home. Those who love the Lord and keep his commandments are creating a home for God within their very souls.
In a vision, St. Teresa of Avila describes this home as a crystal castle, a glorious dwelling place for the Father and the Son to reign at its center. Thus, it is not only in the next life, but in this one that we may encounter the Father through the Son. At the end of this passage, we hear that Jesus shall ascend to the Father, which he did forty days after his resurrection. And yet, through Jesus’ answer to St. Jude, we hear that even as he ascends to the Father, he will make his home with us here and now. He is both going away and he is coming to us.
Let us learn from the blessed example of the saints in doing as Jesus says: to love the Lord and to keep his commandments. It is only in so doing that, with the Holy Spirit as our guide, we may navigate the twists and turns of our own souls and arrive at the center of our interior castle where we may be truly at home with God.
Sarah Cornwell is a laywoman and an associate of the Eastern Province of the Community of St. Mary. She and her husband have seven children and they live in Wheaton, Illinois.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
The Diocese of North Karamoja – The Church of the Province of Uganda
The Episcopal Diocese of Easton
