Homily at the Centennial Homecoming Mass

by Father Silvino “Junjun” Borres, Jr., SJ

 

John 15:9-17

 

  • “Remain in my love” (John 15:9-11) .  It is interesting to note that in this remarkably brief passage, this phrase is mentioned three times.   Of course, this passage is part of John’s imagery of the vine and the branches .
  • Remain.  Scripture scholars say this is an important New Testament  word: it is to abide, to dwell.   As John Ortberg eloquently puts it, in our day,  it means “ having deep roots, or  being centered”  (J. Ortberg, Christianity Today) .   In the context of our life of discipleship, it is to be men and women of deep prayer, to live in intimacy with God, to be transformed by His Spirit. 
  • We need to remain connected to God .  What happens when we get disconnected from God?  When this happens, we find ourselves, in the words of  John Shea, “lacking  in  passion, purpose and pleasure.”   When we are disconnected with God, we lose our zeal for life (work, ministry. etc.). We expend our energies and not accomplishing anything worthwhile. We lose the mellowness of our hearts, we become ungrateful, we whine, we complain.
  • But we are not only called to abide.  The other aspect of discipleship is to ABOUND.  To abound means to be plentiful, be abundant, be numerous.  Again, in the context of  our lives as disciples, it means to abound in God’s work.   We hear Our Lord say :  “Abide in me but go forth, and bear fruit! (Jn. 15:4-6).  Our friendship with the Lord is always open to new life.  Our companionship with the Lord entails  generativity.  Fruitfulness or fecundity  is a sign  that our relationship with the Lord  is authentic.
  • Abiding and abounding.   This is the tension we live with everyday.   Jesus did.  Scripture scholars note that in Mark 1, Jesus withdrew into the desert to be  with His Father, then moved down into the city to abound in his work, then withdrew while it was still dark   again to be with His Father, only to be confronted  by Peter who seemed  upset that Jesus didn’t leave word where he went.  Jesus didn’t day:  “Don’t bother me – I am having an  intimate moment with my Father.”  Instead, he went back and accomplished some  more.
  • Some people resolve this tension by just abiding, seemingly oblivious to  a lack of effectiveness.  It is possible that we could go on without producing much fruit in our lives.  On the other hand, some people fill their lives with activities.  They may pile up impressive accomplishments but their spiritual life remains dry.  Their life has no depth, no mystery.
  • It is not an either-or situation but both-and. It is not a dilemma  ( a dilemma we encounter in the domestic squabble between Martha and Mary in the gospel of Luke) between sitting at the feet of Our Lord or serving in His name.  In the context of our lives as disciples, we cannot choose Mary without taking her sister  Martha along, so to speak!  We need both to abide and abound.
  • Abiding and abounding.  I would like to believe that  your lives as Theresians  are marked by this same  pattern of abiding and abounding.  On the one hand, this centennial celebration  of the College of St. Teresa calls you to re-examine  the roots of your human lives.  You are a community of memory and spirit.   Our church is founded on the memory  of Jesus.  As a Christian community you   are pledged  to keep alive the memory of  Jesus.  As Theresians,  you pledged to build your lives on the  values of Saints Francis and Teresa.  Their memories keep you from other experiences that might detach you from the historical roots of the community.
  • But you are called to bear fruit, to abound, your fruitfulness   benifting others, particularly the poor.  It is through you, a community rooted in Christ, that God’s loving presence  will be continually felt and experienced.
  • Jerome  Murphy –O’Connor describes this great privilege and responsibility God charges the community with.  “The community mediates Christ to the world.  The word that he spoke is not heard in our contemporary world unless it is proclaimed by the community.  The power that flowed forth from him in order to enable response is no longer effective unless manifested by the community. As God once acted through Christ, so now he acts through those who are conformed to the image of His Son …”

 

  • St. Teresa of Avila expressed the same sentiments much earlier in a prayer attributed to her:

Christ has no body now but yours,

                        no hands but yours,

                        no feet but yours.

                        Yours are the eyes through which

                        Christ’s compassion must look out on the world.

                        Yours are the feet with which

                        He is to go about doing good.

                        Yours are the hands with which

                        He is to bless us now.

 

 

  • My dear friends, you may have left STC but STC has never left you.  Indeed, you never leave an institution behind.  You carry it within you  wherever you go, urging you to remain  connected with God, the true source of your life and strength, despite old age and diminishing mobilities of your bodies,  to abide in Him and to abound.  May  God who began this  good  in you bring it to fulfilment.