May 4: Abiding / Inhabitación

In John 14, 21-26, Jesus says, “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.” The expression “make our home with them” is also translated “abide with them.”

“Abide” is not a word we use often in everyday speech these days, but it is a word used repeatedly in St. John’s Gospel, especially in chapters 14 and 15. Two other translations read “live in them” and “remain in them.” 

It’s too bad that we do not use the word “abide” more often because it is a beautiful word. The German priest, philosopher, and mystic Meister Eckhart (+1328) wrote, “It is not right to love God for His heaven’s sake, or for the sake of anything at all; but we should love Him for the goodness that He is in Himself. For whoever loves Him for anything else does not abide in Him, but abides in the thing he is loving Him for. If, therefore, you want to abide in Him, you must love Him for nothing but Himself.”

How often do we love God for what He can do for us? How often do we love other people for what they can do for us? St. Teresa of Ávila said she would like to close down both heaven and hell, “so that people would do good for its own sake – not because of ambition or fear – and would love God for God’s own sake. That would be abiding in God.”

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En Juan 14, 21-26, Cristo habla de inhabitación de Dios. En el Antiguo Testamento, el lugar donde Dios habitaba era, primero, la Tienda y el Arca de la Alianza; después, el Templo. El Templo era el signo de que Dios vivía en medio de y con su pueblo. Esto era tomado con frecuencia demasiado al pie de la letra, materialmente, y casi mágicamente. 

Los Libros Sapienciales (Sabiduría, por ejemplo) decían que la presencia de Dios era algo más interior: Dios se hacía presente por medio de su sabiduría, hallada en el corazón de los justos. Jesucristo dice que la presencia de Dios es mucho más íntima: Él vive por amor en los corazones de los que le aman y guardan su Palabra – una presencia que sólo la puede conocer alguien que realmente ama.