Daily Reflections May 1, 2012

encounter Jesus , encounter God

 

“I want to see Jesus,” a beautiful song goes. And I guess all of us are somehow a bit jealous thinking of the people who have seen and heard Jesus with their own eyes and ears. But as for us, the only way we can see Jesus is by reading the Gospels.

In today’s Gospel passage Jesus claims that in Him we are confronted with God. To listen to Him is to listen to God; to see Him is to see God. In Him, God meets man, and man meets God. But with our sinfulness, are we not a bit afraid of meeting God face to face?

Jesus says that He did not come into the world to condemn but to save. It was not the wrath of God which sent Jesus to men; it was God’s love. Yet the coming of Jesus inevitably involves judgment. By our attitude to Jesus we show what He is and therefore judge ourselves.

If we find in Jesus a profound attraction, we feel the pull of God on our hearts, and therefore we are safe. If, on the other hand, we see in Jesus nothing lovely and our hearts remain completely untouched in His presence, it means we are unreceptive to God, and we have therefore judged ourselves.

Jesus also said that, on the last day, the words which people had heard would be their judges. That is one of the great truths of life. We cannot be blamed for not knowing, but if we know the right and do the wrong, His

condemnation is all the more serious. Therefore every wise thing that we heard, and every opportunity we had to know the truth, will in the end be a witness against us.

Jesus reminds us that what He said are actually not His words but the Father’s. Again, whenever we read or hear the Gospel, it is God Himself whom we encounter and who speaks to us. Could that thought not make us more attentive to the Gospels and more alert to practice what we hear? Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD

 

REFLECTION QUESTION: Are you aware enough that reading the Bible is an encounter with God?

 

Lord, too often I read or hear the Gospels without being attentive enough. Send me the Holy Spirit to appreciate Your Word more.