22/05/2026
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๐ซ. ๐๐ฆ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ฅ ๐๐ฅ๐๐จ๐ง๐ฌ๐จ, ๐๐
In her old age, my mom would always tell me that she had an unfulfilled dream. She would have wanted all of us to live together in one compoundโall my siblings and their husbands or wives and their children. All she ever desired she said was to be able to see us, chat with us, listen to our stories. I thought she was just being Chinese. As you know many Chinese families do thisโthey all live in one big compound or at the very least, very near each other. They are clannish as we say. I would dismiss this idea of course, telling her that my siblings valued independence, the space to chart their own course in life. For my mom however, this was a source of deep pain -- that we were not together, that family members move on or move away. โ๐ท๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐ก๐๐ค๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐, I miss your voice.โ It was only later that I would understand that this was my momโs notion of love. Love is being present to oneโs beloved. Love is being close, being near, being forever linked. And in this sense, it was very much like Godโs love for us.
Consider for example the Gospel today. Jesus is saying goodbye to his disciples. This passage is part of what is called Christโs High priestly prayer which he utters before his death. What one notices right away is his longing, craving, pining to somehow remain not only with his disciples but with those who would be evangelized by them, generations after generations, and that would include all of us. How he desires that he be united with all of us. He says โ๐๐ข๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐จ๐ช๐ง๐ต ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ฆโฆ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ ๐ธ๐ช๐ด๐ฉ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ฎ๐ข๐บ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฎ๐ฆ.โ How he really sounds like my mom. Indeed, the gist of this long prayer is that we may be IN HIM, in the father and the son, just as He is in the father and the father is in him. That is, that we may be in the presence, in the love of God always, eternally, forever. How does that make you feel? (๐๐ฐ ๐บ๐ถ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐จ๐ข ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐บ๐ข๐ฏ, ๐บ๐ถ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฏ๐ข๐ช๐ช๐บ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ข๐ต ๐ง๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฏ๐ข ๐ธ๐ข๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ถ๐ฏ๐จ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐ข ๐ด๐ข ๐ช๐ฏ๐บ๐ฐ, know that God wants you, desires for you, longs for you.)
Jesus achieves this union or unity of course. As we celebrated last Sunday in the feast of the Ascension and this coming Sunday on the feast of Pentecost, He has remained present in us through the Church, the Sacraments, and more importantly through the Holy Spirit coming to us in the sacraments and in many other ways. That is the creed of our faith. Especially since the incarnation, the world has changed and as the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins says, it has been charged with the grandeur, the presence of God. In fact, Christ, he writes, plays in ten thousand places, lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his. Admittedly though, we are not always aware or attuned to this divine presence.
While God is present because he is always loving us every second, every minute, somehow our minds, our eyes, our hearts are clogged, plugged or blocked from sensing this ever-present love. Only the mystics among us live in the eternal now with God. Malcolm Guite, an Anglican priest and a poet, shares how we can find this connection with God. He says, Thomas Clarkson, a British parliamentarian was near exhaustion over his anti-slavery campaign in the 19th century; he confided to the poet Samuel Coleridge that he was losing faith, saying, I no longer have a clear idea of the divine. Thatโs okay, the poet consoled him, but never forget you are a divine idea. You were in the mind God from the beginning of time.
In other words, Guite is saying, we need to change our mindset and realize our existence is only possible because of Godโs own existence. We are only present in the here and now because of Godโs eternal presence. He writes a viral poem to illustrate this well:
โ๐ผ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐กโ๐๐๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ผ โ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐กโ๐๐ข๐โ๐ก, ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ผ ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ข๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ผ โ๐๐ฃ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ผ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ก ๐ก๐๐๐โ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐ ๐ผ ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐ข๐โ๐ก, ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฅ๐๐๐๐ก ๐๐ ๐ผ ๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐. ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐โ๐๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐กโ๐๐๐ข๐โ ๐คโ๐๐โ ๐ผ ๐ ๐๐๐, ๐ ๐ฟ๐๐โ๐ก ๐ค๐๐กโ๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐๐๐โ๐ก ๐๐ฆ ๐คโ๐๐โ ๐ผ ๐ ๐๐, ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐กโ ๐กโ๐ ๐ค๐๐๐๐ ๐ค๐๐กโ ๐คโ๐๐โ ๐ผ ๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐ ๐๐๐ข๐๐๐๐๐, ๐ข๐๐๐๐ข๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐.๐ ๐ ๐๐ข๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐คโ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐๐กโ ๐๐ ๐ ๐๐ข๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐, ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐, ๐๐ฆ ๐บ๐๐๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ต๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐ค๐๐ฆ๐ ๐๐๐๐ข๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐, ๐๐ฆ ๐๐๐๐๐โ๐ ๐๐๐ข๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐: ๐ถ๐๐๐, โ๐๐๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐, ๐๐๐๐ ๐ค๐๐กโ ๐๐๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ข ๐๐๐๐๐, ๐ถ๐๐๐ ๐ก๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ค, ๐๐๐ ๐๐ข๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ฆ๐กโ๐๐๐.โ ๐ด๐๐๐.
๐โ๐๐ ๐ป๐๐๐๐๐ฆ ๐ค๐๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ฃ๐๐ ๐
๐๐๐ฆ๐ ๐พ๐๐ก๐๐๐ข๐๐๐โ๐ ๐พ๐๐๐ ๐กโ๐ ๐น๐๐๐กโ ๐๐๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐ก ๐๐๐ฆ 21, 2026 โ ๐โ๐ข๐๐ ๐๐๐ฆ ๐๐ ๐กโ๐ 7๐กโ ๐๐๐๐ ๐๐ ๐ธ๐๐ ๐ก๐๐.
