We have just entered the fourth week of the Holy Season of
Easter: in the West it is Good Shepherd Sunday, in the East Sunday of the
Myrrhbearing Women.
The Church, breathing with both lungs, of the Orthodox in
the East, the Roman in the west, celebrates the central grace of faith: CHRIST
IS RISEN.
In the Roman liturgy we pray for eight days this IS the day,
while in the Eastern liturgy reference is made to the days as ‘bright’, for
example: Bright Tuesday.
This illumination of all creation, this divine brightness,
is because the very one teaching us here in St. John chapter 5, is the same
Jesus who beforehand suffered, died and was buried for us and is now Risen from
the dead.
It is critical we keep in mind that we are not simply
reading the recorded words of some historical figure, even though Jesus was,
born, lived, taught, suffered, died, rose at a particular time, in history – we
are factually ‘hearing’ in this moment the spoken to us words of Jesus Risen.
Vs.24/25=Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears My word and
believes in the One who sent Me has eternal life and will not come to
condemnation but has passed from death to life. Amen, amen, I say to you, the
hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of
God, and those who hear will live.
We, in the 21st century, who have been baptized, experience
the reality of what Jesus says, teaches, here, for we have been plunged in the
waters of baptism into oneness with Him, by Divine Mercy, in His death, and
lifted from the waters into, by the Holy Spirit, oneness with Him in His
Glorious and Holy Resurrection.
But, what of those who know of Jesus, but have not accepted
Him, are not baptized? What of those who do not know of Him?
Not everyone is given the vocation to be a missionary in the
classic sense of one who goes where evangelization is urgently needed by the
presence of missionary-priests, religious, lay people in a country not our own,
or even within regions of our own country which desperately need
re-evangelization.
For many their prime vocation may well be priesthood,
religious life, the consecrated lay apostolate, with a specific pastoral
mission such as being a parish priest, serving the poor, etc.; while others
have as prime vocation sacramental marriage and parenthood, which often entails
careers demanding much of their time, in order to be able to properly feed,
cloth, house, see to the education of the family, preparing their children to
become courageous witnesses to Christ in an anti-Christ world.
Nonetheless, everyone of we the baptized has the overarching
vocation to evangelize by the witness of our lives, living with courage amid a
virulently anti-Christian society, the Gospel with our lives without
compromise, because Baptism makes us participants in Christ’s own priestly,
kingly, prophetic mission.
[The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in paragraphs 871
& 897-913, elaborates this truth in detail.]
We live amid a human family filled with anxiety, millions
suffering the ravages of hatred, war, unemployment, lack of clean water,
famine, lack of adequate housing, proper medical care, the list is much longer
that what is mentioned here.
We need only look up, look around, with the eyes of Christ,
sees the faces of our own spouse, children, neighbours, co-workers, strangers,
not pass by the homeless, or an elderly person who seems lost or confused – yes
just check the world news from time to time, to find where love, in this moment,
where prayer in this moment, where charity/love in action in imitation of
Jesus, is needed for us to be true proclaimers of the Gospel of Life.
Vs. 26/27=For just as the Father has life in Himself, so
also He gave to His Son the possession of life in Himself. And He gave Him
power to exercise judgment, because He is the Son of Man.
There are verses, such as these in St. John’s account of the
life and teachings of Jesus, where, to have the words of Jesus fully penetrate
our hearts, we should go back and hear the Prologue once more.
This great mystery-truth, that Jesus is true God and true
man, is beyond the ability of the intellect to comprehend, but the heart gets
it because the heart loves, and the Incarnation is the Father’s love for us.
Jesus loves us, thus we can be sure and trust, when He
exercises the mandate given by the Father to judge, He will do so with
judgement illuminated by Divine Mercy.
Judgement is necessary because we are endowed with free will
and The Trinity does not, Jesus Himself does not interfere with our free will,
our freedom to choose.
The choice is always between love and hate, light and
darkness, good and evil, life and death.
…..I have set before you life and death, the blessing and
the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may
live…..[Deut.30:19].
Hell exists.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that God
does NOT predestine anyone to go to hell [para.1037].
Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the
unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse
to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost. Jesus
solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . .
. all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire," and that he will
pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal
fire!" [para.1034].
Hell, being eternal separation from the Most Holy Trinity,
hell the abode of satan and his minions, surely is not where we would choose to
spend eternity – but if we refuse to choose Christ, to live aware we need to be
converted to Him anew each day, then we may well choose step by step those
free-willed choices which, ultimately, means it is highly probable we will die
unrepentant in the state of mortal sin.
It will be we who then have tipped the scales, have in a
sense forced the hand of Jesus who will point to us among those on His left and
utter the terrible words: Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of
these least ones, you did not do for me.’
And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to
eternal life.” {Mt.25:45/46}
Here in this chapter of the Holy Gospel, Jesus is absolutely
clear about death, judgement, resurrection.
V.28-30=Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming
in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and will come out, those
who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done
wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation. “I cannot do anything on My
own; I judge as I hear, and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own
will but the will of the One who sent Me.