Jn 5: 31-47
“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.
“You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him.
How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”
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.
Rooting Our Desires in God
Where are your desires coming from? We often want good things, but we might have bad reasons for wanting those good things if they are rooted in ourselves. Do we want to take that promotion for the sake of the prestige, or because the raise would help our family? Do we go to soup kitchens so that people will tell us that we are good people, or do we go because we care about the poor? Do we start relationships for the benefits that come to us alone, or do we start relationships to care and be cared for? Ultimately, is our testimony based in ourselves or is it based in God and others? Most of our facets are likely in some gray area, but let us move ever closer to solely caring about good for God’s sake.
—Alex Hale, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic from the Midwest Province studying philosophy at Loyola University Chicago.
—Alex Hale, SJ
Prayer
God, help me to say, and truly long for, your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Help my will to become like that of yours so that all of my thoughts and actions may come from you.
Amen.