John 3:16 appearing

John 316

The text for this week has the familiar John 3:16, appearing. It is the text that from time to time shows up even behind home plate–rather oddly. And yet odd as that baseball scene may be, truly the text of God’s love for the world does appear at unexpected moments when we are doing very ordinary things.

Driving home from another road trip this week, I happened on the CBC Radio show “As it happens.” One segment was a 6 minute interview with Jean Vanier on receiving the Templeton Prize, that recognizes those who have made exceptional contributions to affirming human spirituality. It was a wonderful little listen on my drive home. It was John 3:16 suddenly appearing. Have a listen if you have a moment.

http://www.cbc.ca/player/AudioMobile/As%2BIt%2BHappens/ID/2658264149/

And a few other Vanier quotes on love and humanness and community.

“Love doesn’t mean doing extraordinary or heroic things. It means knowing how to do ordinary things with tenderness.”
― Jean Vanier, Community And Growth

“To love someone is to show to them their beauty, their worth and their importance.”
― Jean Vanier

“Every child, every person needs to know that they are a source of joy; every child, every person, needs to be celebrated. Only when all of our weaknesses are accepted as part of our humanity can our negative, broken self-images be transformed.”
― Jean Vanier, Becoming Human

“A community is only being created when its members accept that they are not going to achieve great things, that they are not going to be heroes, but simply live each day with new hope, like children, in wonderment as the sun rises and in thanksgiving as it sets. Community is only being created when they have recognized that the greatness of man is to accept his insignificance, his human condition and his earth, and to thank God for having put in a finite body the seeds of eternity which are visible in small and daily gestures of love and forgiveness. The beauty of man is in this fidelity to the wonder of each day.”
― Jean Vanier, Community And Growth

 

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