John 8: 21-30
Again Jesus said to them, ‘I am going away, and you will search for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.’ Then the Jews said, ‘Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying, “Where I am going, you cannot come”?’ He said to them, ‘You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.’ They said to him, ‘Who are you?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Why do I speak to you at all? I have much to say about you and much to condemn; but the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.’ They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.’ As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Focus On Love
“As he was saying these things, many believed in him.” In the world today we hear from many sources about many topics. Whether we listen to politics or sports pundits, our hunger is fed through many opinions and invitations to believe.
Why do you believe? The Jews in today’s Gospel from St. John came to believe in Jesus as he was speaking to them. In the first reading from the book of Numbers (Nm 21:4-9), the people who were bitten by snakes lived because of their looking at the bronze serpent Moses mounted on the pole. Do you need such incredible healing to believe? As we find God in all things through the presence of our God among us, our focus is encouraged to be on love. Moses obeys God’s invitation to allow love to heal. Jesus speaks out of love for the people to remember our God always among us.
During this Lenten season, may we continue to grow in doing what is pleasing to our God.
—Fr. Kevin Schneider, SJ, is a Jesuit of the Midwest Province and a spiritual director and priest in residence at The Cloisters on the Platte Retreat Center in Gretna, Nebraska.
Prayer
Nothing is more practical than finding God,
that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute final way.
—Excerpt of a prayer by Joseph Whelan, SJ, often attributed to Pedro Arrupe