Gospel Commentary may 10, JN 14:1-12
probably the most hardest training to gain knowledge of is that your lifestyles isn't about you. One could even say that to keep in mind that conception is the key of residing. We have been designed by means of God to provide ourselves away in acts of self-forgetfulness, and we can on no account recognize happiness until we learn to achieve this. a light-weight changed into made to shine. A fish became made to swim. A chook become made to fly. And a human person was made to live for God, and for others. Our sadness and nervousness most effective boost each time we think about our lives to be a grand self-actualization venture — as if we had been created simplest to serve our own ambitions and to make all our goals come proper. as the second Vatican Council states, "Man can't entirely discover himself apart from through a honest reward of himself" ("Gaudium et Spes," 24).
Like most every appealing idea, although, this is very effortless to consider however fairly elaborate to follow. An abstract thought has under no circumstances been potent sufficient to trade a human coronary heart. simplest the love of yet another person has the energy to do this. That's why the power of the Christian faith derives now not from a lofty idea, but from the adult of Jesus Christ, whose passion, loss of life and resurrection are the definitive facts of the truth of his words.
On the night before he died, Jesus spoke to his apostles the alluring message we hear within the Gospel this week, "i'm the style and the reality and the existence" (Jn 14:6). No different chief in history ever dared to talk like that. Many civic leaders have mentioned, in impact, "observe me, and i will demonstrate you the style," however simplest Christ says, "i'm the manner." many spiritual leaders have referred to, "listen to my teaching. I talk the actuality," however most effective Jesus says, "i'm the truth." Many first rate social reformers have referred to, "be taught from me. i will be able to help you reside a far better lifestyles," but best Jesus says, "i'm the existence." observe that Jesus pronounces himself to be now not a method amongst many, or one reality amongst many, or one approach to life, however solely the manner, the truth and the life.
Such absolute terms may additionally seem to be anathema to a lifestyle equivalent to ours, steeped in relativism, but it is exactly the readability of Jesus' phrases that frees us to behave on them, and empowers us to break out the shallow confines of a selfish existence. in addition, in this same Gospel, Jesus tells his apostles, "do not let your hearts be bothered or afraid … have faith in me." This he says just hours before he could be arrested, mocked, imprisoned, scourged, crucified and sealed in a tomb. notice how these phrases are spoken in the indispensable voice. here is a commandment, now not a guideline. through what authority does Jesus enjoin us to be free from discouragement and anxiety, on the very second through which we might otherwise be most tempted to succumb to them? The answer is to be present in the empty tomb. Easter Sunday is the definitive proof that our faith isn't established on naive optimism or wishful considering, however on the wonderful wo rk which God has executed in Jesus Christ. or not it's why his triumph over death is the religious bedrock on which our religion is constructed.
It's been pointed out that the Christian story is the simplest story on this planet which should be examine backwards as a way to be understood. simplest when we start with Jesus risen from the dead do we then see the which means of his struggling and dying, the authority of his teaching, and the value of every observe he spoke. or not it's why St. Paul urged the Colossians to "be rooted in him" (Col 2:7). Pope Emeritus Benedict as soon as wrote, "Being Christian is not the outcomes of an moral choice or a lofty thought, but an encounter with a person." To lose ourselves within the stumble upon with that person — to become Christ based as a substitute of self-based — is to discover the taproot of pleasure, and to take into account eventually who God has created us to be.
Fr. Hudgins is pastor of St. Jude Church in Fredericksburg.
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