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The liberating encounter with (the divine) is always an encounter with our authentic selves resurrected from underneath the alienated self. It is not experienced against, but in and through relationships, healing our broken relations with our bodies, with other people, with nature.
- Rosemary
Ruether
(What part of this quote speaks to you? Spend some time meditating on its meaning.) |
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Acts 5:17-26; Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7,
8-9 Jn 3:16-21 God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might
have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in
God. USCCB lectionary
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Reflection on the Scripture |
“The judgment of condemnation is this: the Light came into the world, but men
loved darkness rather than Light because their deeds were wicked.”
—John 3:19 Darkness is the absence of light. You can make a dark room light by turning on a flashlight. However, you can’t make a light room dark by turning on a “flashdark.” By definition, no one can invent a machine that shines darkness which
overpowers light. You can only make a room dark by extinguishing the source of the light. Jesus came to the world as its Light (Jn 12:46). However, men hated the light of Christ because they preferred evil lifestyles (Jn 3:19). Since they couldn’t overcome the Light (Jn 1:5), they attempted to extinguish Jesus by crucifying Him. Alleluia! Jesus has risen! “The Light shines on in darkness” and can no longer be extinguished (Jn 1:5). So now the only way for men to find the darkness they crave is to erect a place to exclude the Light. Photographers do this by building a darkroom to develop their film. Those committed to a lifestyle of sin build their darkroom by erecting walls to exclude Jesus, the Light (Jn 8:12). If you make the final decision to separate yourself from Jesus the Light, there’s a place “of definitive self-exclusion from” God (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1033). It’s called hell. In hell, you are safe forever from being bothered by Jesus the Light (see Lk 16:26). Sadly, the eternal fire (Mk 9:48), demonic harassment, and ruthless punishments of hell won’t bother you much at all compared to the pain of eternal separation from God and His love (see
Catechism, 1035). Therefore, repent now! Accept Jesus, Who came to save you, not to condemn you (Jn 3:16-17). Live in His Light. Prayer: Jesus, apart from You, I can do nothing (Jn 15:5). Protect me from myself. “Draw me” always to You (Sg 1:4; Jn 12:32). Promise: “I will bless the Lord at all
times.” —Ps 34:2 Presentation Ministries
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-Readings from Jesus Alive in Our Lives, by Philip St. Romain. Ave Maria Press, 1985. Contemplative Ministries, Inc. 2011. Part One, Chapter 4: When Good Things Happen to Bad People - Selected
quotes God’s judgment, we might recognize, is not an act that God bestows for or against us; rather, judgment is determined by our response to God. Our earthly life is, in this perspective, an opportunity to write in the law of our being the values of God or the values of self-indulgence. When, at the end of our days, we stand before God stripped of all our defense
mechanisms and false pretenses, we will either be drawn toward him or else feel repulsed by his love. It is not so much that God will reject those who have been evil; it is they who will not be able to accept God in his revealed splendor. Like feeble seedlings in highly fertilized soil, they will be shriveled up, their hardened hearts closed to the power of the Love that reaches out to embrace them. Those who have loved God and their fellow human beings, on the other hand, will
have become acclimated, as it were, to the richness of the Divine Ground. They will burst forth in a passionate embrace of the God who has embraced them through their lives, nurturing them unto the fullness of their spiritual individuality. Paperback and eBook versions
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