The Good News for the Day, April 29, 2024
Monday in the Fifth Week of Easter (249))
Jesus says to those of us inspired by him: “Anybody who gets what I tell them to do and puts them into practice — there is the person who loves me.
Anybody who loves me will be cherished by My Father—and I will love that person back and share who I am with such a person.”
Judas (not the Iscariot) said to him, “Sir, what does that mean—that you are going to reveal yourself to us—but not to the world?”
Jesus answered “Whoever loves me is going to be doing what I tell them to do. My Father will love that person; we will come to such a person and make ourselves at home there. Anybody who doesn’t love me doesn’t do what I say to do—though the message you hear is not mine at all—but the message comes from the One who sent me
“I have been telling you this while I am with you. The explainer, the holy spirit whom the Father will send in my name –That One will teach you everything and be refreshing for you all that I have been telling you.” (John 14)
Jesus is making here a fundamental point. Whether from Scripture, the church, friends and spouses, other communities, or history – Jesus’s message teaches you and me to love God and neighbor – to appreciate God’s universe and to care about one another.
But that point, fundamental as it is, depends on deeper truth. Beyond anything Jesus enjoins lies a double awareness. First, its origin is God’s world – nature – discerning the word of God in history, challenges, news, and developments unfolding to confront you.
The second awareness involves your committed faith to see and understand beyond human interpretations. Obeying Jesus requires readiness, conscience, intelligence, curiosity, humility – the presence of that attitude or Spirit. This outlook or mindset
we call the Holy Spirit; that mentality is your growing faith that God is speaking to you without words, but lovingly and challengingly.
The presence of this Holy Spirit is your acquired humility, your willingness to get up out of the grave of mechanical obedience, or your pursuit of security, or a habitual and comfortable self-centeredness, or other traits of immaturity.
St. Paul mentions the qualities of charity – love – in his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13. Read that hungrily in connection with this passage; everything it says points to this deeper truth. Merely doing the right thing does not count. Real love does.
Precisely that spirit you have of accepting the message of God from a Lover provides the permanent joy, The Good News, The Message of Salvation. You can love Scripture, multiply prayers, go to church faithfully, and even show kindness habitually.
It is, however, God’s joy only when you read Scripture for the love of God, pray with your heart, attend to the Body of Christ at church, and care about your neighbor for real. Jesus is calling us beyond just doing the right thing to that extra depth of honest love.
jorisheise 