In today’s gospel readings, Jesus tells his disciples, “whoever loves Me, keeps my Word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.” In other words, God wants to make His dwelling place in our hearts. We humans think of our heart as very closely connected to our spiritual self, our deepest feelings. Our heart is our epicenter.
I remember when I was 7 years old and getting ready to receive my first communion, the nuns who were teaching us would tell us that our hearts needed to be made ready to receive the body and blood of Christ. Our hearts needed to be made clean and pure, no sins in there, no dirt, no filth. Jesus might not want to live in your heart if it was not made clean.
A quick look in my heart most times would reveal that it is not as clean as it could be, way too much clutter and stuff in there, so much that there is no room to sit down. Jesus wants to visit with me, and there is no room for us to sit down and visit with each other. I seriously need to clean the place up and make it more inviting.
Many of us are so busy these days trying to accomplish too many things in too little time, and it seems to be getting worse. I remember many years ago, we seemed to have more time for each other and for God. Talking to God in prayer, reading the Bible, keeping holy the Lord’s day, family and friends get together on Sunday. How did we ever find the time? My grandparents would say, work hard for 6 days, but you need to rest on the 7th day.
You need to decide what are the most important things you want to accomplish and weed out the rest. Time spent with God is never wasted, it will come back to you many times over. Enjoy nature and the beauty God created for you and give thanks for what you have. Be a happy and loving person, don’t let little things upset you. Show others how
to be that way. Jesus says, “whoever loves Me keeps my Word.
Keep this in mind. Only if our hearts are clean and pure, full of love, humility and caring, no traces of anger or hatred, will Jesus and the Father come and make their dwelling place in us.
Lloyd Lapierre
