Let us listen once more to Jesus, with all the love and
respect that the Master deserves. Let us allow His words to unsettle us, to
challenge us and to demand a real change in the way we live. Otherwise,
holiness will remain no more than an empty word…..The Gospel invites us to peer
into the depths of our heart, to see where we find our security in life. [from
Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation On The Call To Holiness In Today’s World:
ch.3; paras. 66/67]
Certainly, as we continue Jesus’ teaching in the 5th chapter
of the Holy Gospel according to St. John, the words should unsettle and
challenge us and move us to peer deeper into our hearts to discern honestly
where we find our security in life: in Jesus and living the Gospel with our
lives in union with Him, or somewhere else.
Vs. 41/42: I do not accept human praise; moreover, I know
that you do not have the love of God in you. I came in the name of My Father,
but you do not accept Me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept
him. How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not
seek the praise that comes from the only God?
Sometimes, as Pope Francis teaches, Christ’s words can, do,
unsettle and challenge us.
It is important to remember the words of another successor
of Peter, St. John Paul II: The whole Gospel is a dialogue with man, with the
different generations, with nations, with different traditions…..but it is
always and continually a dialogue with man, with every man: one, unique,
absolutely individual. [from para. 3 of an address by St. John Paul II during a
prayer vigil with the youth of Paris, June 1, 1980]
V. 43: I came in the name of My Father, but you do not
accept Me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him.
Perhaps never since the time of Jesus on earth have so many
human beings been willing to listen to other voices, rather than that of
Christ, to accept teachings which are contrary to truth, to life, to the reality
of the human person.
St. John Paul, profoundly aware of this, tells us further in
the above noted address, para. 18: Learn to know Christ. Constantly. To learn
Christ. The unfathomable treasures of wisdom and science are really found in
Him. In Him, man….really becomes “the new man”: he becomes the man “for
others,” he also becomes the glory of God, because the glory of God…..is “the
living man.”
Taken from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, St. John
Paul applied the words of Christ: “put out into the deep” [cf. Lk.5:4] in many
contexts to stress a fundamental point, namely not to remain on the surface of
things, certainly not to be superficial.
The Holy Gospels are like a vast ocean whose depths we human
beings constantly explore, always discovering things, creatures, plants,
minerals, etc., which in themselves are ancient but when discovered for us are
new.
What Jesus says of those who become disciples:
"Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner
of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old."
[cf. Mt.13:52], applies here.
Only if, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, we
constantly go into the deeps, the vast ocean of the Holy Gospel, will we
constantly, “learn Christ”, as St. John Paul teaches, and in the process not
only enter ever more deeply and fully into communion of love with the Most Holy
Trinity, but enter into the depths and treasury of the humble and authentic
“I”, no longer living worldly, superficial lives, but living in the fullness of
personhood, thus glorifying God.
V. 44: How can you believe, when you accept praise from one
another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?
Perhaps here our initial reaction might be to reject the accusation
we seek the praise/approval of others.
Perhaps.
However a simple litmus test would be: when others, the
media, governments or the courts, or when at work or say at a hockey game, and
anti-Christ, anti-Christian, anti-life words or actions are put forth, do we
stand up for Christ, for truth, for life, for all our Christian Brothers and
Sisters, or do we remain silent and through our silence become complicit
because we are, in effect, accepting ‘praise’ from another?
Vs. 45-47: Do not think that I will accuse you before the
Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your
hope. For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed Me, because he
wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My
words?”
This applies to all the baptized, for through our baptism,
in Christ Jesus, we are united with the Jewish people our Elder Brothers and
Sisters in the faith, receiving from them the treasury of the Hebrews
Scriptures: …..the Church of Christ acknowledges that, according to God's
saving design, the beginnings of her faith and her election are found already
among the Patriarchs, Moses and the prophets. She professes that all who
believe in Christ-Abraham's sons according to faith ….are included in the same
Patriarch's call, and likewise that the salvation of the Church is mysteriously
foreshadowed by the chosen people's exodus from the land of bondage. The
Church, therefore, cannot forget that she received the revelation of the Old
Testament through the people with whom God in His inexpressible mercy concluded
the Ancient Covenant. [cf. Vatican II, Declaration on the Relation of the
Church to Non-Christian Religions, par.4]
© 2018-Fr. Arthur Joseph
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