Acts
15:1-6 / John 15:1-6
Jesus talks about being one with him: “Remain
in me, as I remain in you.”
Paul Claudel’s play
The Satin Slipper opens with a dramatic
scene: a shipwreck at sea. The sole survivor is a missionary who has tied
himself to the mainmast. As it pitches and tosses on the great waves, the
missionary senses that death is near. So he prays in
words like these: “0 Lord, I thank you for letting me die like this. Sometimes
I found your teaching hard, and sometimes I fought your will. But now I could
not be bound more closely to you. Most of us are honest people cannot free itself from this cross on which I die. Nor would I want
it to be free, for it makes me feel a special closeness to you.”