DAILY MEDITATION: “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me”

Liturgical day: Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Easter

Gospel text (Jn 12,44-50): Jesus cried out and said, “Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me, and whoever sees me sees the one who sent me. I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness. And if anyone hears my words and does not observe them, I do not condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. Whoever rejects me and does not accept my words has something to judge him: the word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father told me.”

“Whoever believes in me believes not only in me but also in the one who sent me”

Fr. Julio César RAMOS González SDB
(Mendoza, Argentina)

Today, Jesus cries out; He cries out just as someone who is saying words everybody should clearly listen to. His clamor synthesizes his saving mission, as He has come “to save the world” (Jn 12, 47), but not on his own but in the name of “Father who sent me commanded me what to say and speak” (Jn 12, 49).

It is not yet a month ago when we were celebrating the Paschal Triduum: how much present was the Father in the final hour, the hour of the Cross! As His Holiness John Paul II has written, “Jesus, overwhelmed by his foreknowledge of the trial waiting for him, alone before God, invokes him with his usual and tender expression of trust: ‘Abbá, Father’”. The next hours clearly show the intimate dialogue of the Son with the Father: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” (Lk 23, 34); “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk 23, 46).

The importance of this work by the Father and his Messenger, well deserves the personal response of he who is listening. This response is to believe, that is, a profession of faith (cf. Jn 12, 44); faith that gives us the light —by the same Jesus— so that we shall not remain in darkness. But, he who rejects all these gifts and manifestations, and does not listen to those words “has something to judge him: the word that I spoke” (Jn 12, 48).

Therefore, to accept Jesus is to believe in, see and listen to the Father, not to be in darkness, to obey the command of eternal life. We certainly deserve Saint John of the Cross-’ rebuke: “[The Father] spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word (...).Those who now desire to question God or receive some vision or revelation are guilty not only of foolish behavior but also of offending him by not fixing their eyes entirely on Christ and by living with the desire for some other novelty.”

Source: evangeli.net