Wednesday
of the
Fourth
Week of Easter
May 6th
READING: John 12: 44-end
Then Jesus cried aloud: ‘Whoever
believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me
sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who
believes in me should not remain in the darkness. I do not judge anyone who
hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but
to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a
judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, for I
have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a
commandment about what to say and what to speak.
And I know that his
commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the
Father has told me.’
~~~
New Revised Standard Version
Bible: Anglicised Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993, 1995 the Division
of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the
United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
I’m
not sure what those who want to dismantle the divinity of the second person of
the Trinity do at this point. Our early forebears in faith got it, most of them,
clearly: “whoever sees me sees him who sent me.” This is not “Gee willy
whiskers you look like yer dad.”
This
is two in one and one in two – again: we haven’t reached the full-blown Trinity
yet. The light we see in Christ is all that we need ever to see of divine
light. Anything that is less than light is not light – even when we use the
phrase “half-light” we are really saying “not light,” at least when we speak of
the unquenchable, inaccessible light of the Creator of light. Get the
Son and you get the Creator – as it happens you can only do that by getting
the Spirit but John is only scratching at the full implications of
gestating trinitarian theology at this stage (even if today happens to be his feast day).
I
have dealt a lot these past few weeks with the Christian tendency to turn words
of good news into words of ostracism. The one who came to save the world has
saved the world. Q.E.D. as they say. Quod erat demonstrandum demonstratum
est.[1]
No fail-rate here. Jesus: Saviour of the world, come to us in your mercy.
No “Jesus, you nearly did okay,” no “Jesus you saved bits of the world.” I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. Thank you,
Jesus. And let us continue to be there for those who do not as yet recognize
the salvation you, Jesus have wrought. Let us be bearers of the light you,
Jesus, have imparted.
If God commands eternal life and unquenchable light, let
us surrender to it, day by day, so that others too may see it here and now, not
in the searing gaze and blaze of judgement. Amen, amen.
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