2-Nov-20

JN 6:37-40

Jesus said to the crowds:
“Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.
And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.
For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.”

Reflection

Jesus said to the crowds:
“Everything that the Father gives me will come to me,
and I will not reject anyone who comes to me….."

There’s a difference between believing and wanting to believe.

I want to believe Jesus’ words: “I will not reject anyone who comes to me." But growing up in a Church that taught “we must strive to be perfect just as Jesus is perfect,” I am left doubting, not in Jesus’ forgiveness, but in my own worthiness to enter through the gates of Heaven.

Yet, in today’s Gospel Jesus doubles down by saying:

“And this is the will of the one who sent me,
that I should not lose anything of what he gave me,
but that I should raise it on the last day.”

I want to believe that in spite of my many failings and sins, the Father “gave me” to Jesus and I will be “raised…on the last day.”

Jesus makes this point for a third time:

"For this is the will of my Father,
that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him
may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him on the last day.”

I have not seen the Son, but I believe in Him. I have witnessed the spirit of those who are heavily burdened come to life at the sight of Jesus on the cross.

I yearn to believe that in spite of our unworthiness we will all be raised up on the last day.

“I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:24