During Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, C4SO celebrates artist He Qi, who reinterprets sacred art within an ancient Chinese art idiom. His work is a blend of Chinese folk art and traditional painting technique with the iconography of the Western Middle Ages and Modern Art. On each Sunday during May, we have licensed one of He’s paintings to illuminate one of the lectionary readings. We will provide prompts for you to do Visio Divina, or “sacred seeing,” an ancient form of Christian prayer in which we allow our hearts and imaginations to enter into a sacred image to see what God might have to show us.
Painting Mary and Martha by He Qi
Lectionary Reading | Sunday, May 9: John 15:9-17 and 1 John 4:7-21, “Perfect Love”
John 15:9-17
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”
1 John 4:7-21
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
Visio Divina | Prompt
As you enter into this time of prayer and contemplation, notice Jesus’ presence. He is present to you now as he was present to Mary and Martha. Their story reminds us to become more aware of Him. As you look at this image, notice how the figures of Mary and Martha lean in toward Jesus. Is your posture one of leaning in to the presence of Jesus? If not, what might be distracting you in this moment? Are you stuck in a cycle of comparison? Are you too busy with serving? Are you too focused on doing the right things to be present with the True God revealed in Christ, who seeks to take up residence in your life? Name your distractions and offer them to Jesus.
As you ponder the image, where do you see love on display? Can you sense that love and become more deeply aware of it, not only in the image but your present moment? You are invited to receive the love that comes from God, the same love we read about in John 15 and 1 John 4.
Have you noticed the Holy Spirit in the image? The Spirit is said to be the Love between the Father and the Son. How does this same Spirit manifest as love in your life, connecting you to the Father and the Son? As you look at the image a second or third time, ask how, after receiving this love, you might turn and manifest it to the world in service to the poor, solidarity with the marginalized, or defense of those attacked and persecuted in your community. This gift of love, freely given to you, is the very same free gift you offer back to God and to your neighbor, even your enemy. Let that sink in. Ask the Holy Spirit to help make the truth of His love more real in your life and actions today.
Finally, take a deep breath and simply abide in this love that you see in our image, read about in today’s scripture, and experience right now in prayer. Take Jesus’ words with you as you go about your day: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love” (John 15:9).
