March 29, 2017

Jn 5: 17-30

But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God. Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing; and he will show him greater works than these, so that you will be astonished.

Indeed, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. The Father judges no one but has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.

“Very truly, I tell you, the hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself; and he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

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.

With Others

It has been almost a month since the priest rubbed ashes on our foreheads to remind us that we are here to seek God's will. I felt energized, committed and ready to do as Pope Francis instructed:  to recognize others as "gifts” and "to refuse to settle for mediocrity and to grow in friendship with the Lord".

However, my initial energy has dulled.  A friend showed up at my door needing to talk. I saw his visit as a nuisance. I received an invitation to a party, but the anxiety of adding another task to the calendar led me to decline.

Although it is important to balance our busy lives, will I remember that Christ calls us to be with others?  If I see others as gifts, then accepting invitations and being present will draw us together, and to God. But how can I see others as gifts—not in spite of the fact that I am busy, anxious, or distracted, but because I am busy, anxious, and distracted?

—Jerry Kinney, a 1995 Prep alumnus, teaches Spanish and directs the Operation Others initiative at Creighton Prep, Omaha NE.

Prayer

Love consists in sharing
what one has
and who one is
with those one loves.
Love ought to show itself in deeds
more than in words.

—St. Ignatius Loyola