Wednesday of the Second Week of Easter
NOT TO CONDEMN BUT TO SAVE
Introduction
God sent his only Son into the world to save us. Salvation. Do we need salvation? We have become so self-sufficient and proud of our human achievements that we often think that salvation belongs to another world – not ours. But when in our sober moments, we sit down and reflect, we have to face deeper realities: which achievements? For what? Have they made us happier? Have we made the world a better place to live in? And then, we realize that we cannot do it alone. We need salvation – from ourselves, from our achievements, from our so-called progress. And then, we become grateful for Jesus, not merely a person-for-others, but God’s Son, who is with us and who can still get us out of the mess we are often making.
Reading 1: Acts 5:17-26
17-20 Provoked mightily by all this, the Chief Priest and those on his side, mainly the sect of Sadducees, went into action, arrested the apostles and put them in the town jail. But during the night an angel of God opened the jailhouse door and led them out. He said, “Go to the Temple and take your stand. Tell the people everything there is to say about this Life.”
Promptly obedient, they entered the Temple at daybreak and went on with their teaching.
21-23 Meanwhile, the Chief Priest and his cronies convened the High Council, Israel’s senate, and sent to the jail to have the prisoners brought in. When the police got there, they couldn’t find them anywhere in the jail. They went back and reported, “We found the jail locked tight as a drum and the guards posted at the doors, but when we went inside we didn’t find a soul.”
24 The chief of the Temple police and the high priests were puzzled. “What’s going on here anyway?”
25-26 Just then someone showed up and said, “Did you know that the men you put in jail are back in the Temple teaching the people?” The chief and his police went and got them, but they handled them gently, fearful that the people would riot and turn on them.
Gospel: Jn 3:16-21
16-18 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.
19-21 “This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.”
Prayer
Lord, our God,
you loved the world – that is us – so much
that you gave us your only Son
to save us from ourselves
and to give us eternal life.
Do not condemn us Lord,
do not leave us to ourselves
and to our little schemes,
but give us your Son now to stay with us
and to make love, justice and peace
ever new realities among us,
your people reborn in your Son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Reflection:
19 April 2023
John 3: 16-21
God so loved the world …
We continue to read from the 3rd chapter of the Gospel of John. Even if you fail to remember any other verse from the Gospel, today, we got one to learn it by heart, and it should form the heart of our faith in Jesus. John 3:17: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him may not be lost, but may have eternal life.” The passage speaks of the great height, breadth and width of God’s love. God’s love isn’t limited to just a few nor a particular group of people; rather, it embraces all of creation, including you and me.
Do parents keep an account of all the sacrifices they make for their children? True love does not count the cost; It leads one to make sacrifices willingly and joyfully. A true lover gives one’s beloved everything one has and the best one has to offer. God proved his love for us by giving us the best he had — his only Son -Jesus. And Jesus donates his life – sacrifices his life to make us live healthily.
God’s giving of his only Son to the world has the sense of entrusting His most precious gift to the often violent and murderous world. God’s gentleness is not dependent on how the world responds. This trust of God in humanity also illustrates his readiness to face the vulnerability of loving.
God is a loving Father who cannot rest until his wandering children have returned home. Saint Augustine said that God loves each of us as if there were only one of us to love. However, God allows us to choose whom and what we will love.
We can love the darkness of sin and unbelief or the light of God’s truth, beauty, and goodness. While writing the Gospel over five decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus, John was aware that not many people could recognise the love of God the Father, and they preferred to stay in the darkness of their sins. Like Nicodemus, who came from the darkness, could not accept the light of Christ in the beginning. Therefore he slowly disappeared into the darkness.
And that is a reality today as well. Do we love God above everything else? Does God take first place in our life, thoughts, and actions?