Daily Gospel Reflection: Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter
April 24, 2024
Gospel: Jn 12:44-50
Jesus cried out and said,
“Whoever believes in me believes not only in me
but also in the one who sent me,
and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me.
I came into the world as light,
so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness.
And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them,
I do not condemn him,
for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.
Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words
has something to judge him: the word that I spoke,
it will condemn him on the last day,
because I did not speak on my own,
but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak.
And I know that his commandment is eternal life.
So what I say, I say as the Father told me.”
*United States Conference of Catholic
Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus makes it clear once again that he and the Father are one. God is not a force or an energy or a spiritual presence occupying the deep background of your life; he’s not something that you can tap into when you feel like it. Nor is God a distant supreme being who organized the universe long ago and now leaves it to its own devices.
Rather, God is the Lord. He is the commander, the ruler, the governor, the one who makes a demand and who then involves himself intimately in the affairs of the world.
More to it, this Lord is one. This is, as argued by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI), a subversive statement, for it undermines anyone or anything else’s claim to be absolute. No country, no president, no prime minister, no culture, no book, no person or political party is absolute—only God. The unity of God, for Jews and Christians, is not simply a theoretical claim; it is an enormously important existential claim. Jesus and the Father are one God, who is the Lord of all creation.
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