Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
John 5 begins with Jesus healing a paralyzed man on the sabbath (our Gospel yesterday). We need to understand today’s text in light of that sign. Jesus makes clear that this sign reveals his unique relationship as Son of the Father and the divine power with which he carries out his mission. Jesus’ signs, his miracles, are intended to reveal his divinity and bring us into relationship with him. As such they are much more than just mighty deeds! When we read the Gospels, we should do so opening ourselves up to the living Christ who is also our healer. Unlike any other historical account, the Gospels reveal someone who is alive and present. These sacred texts put us into direct contact with their protagonist, our Lord, the living Christ.* As we engage today’s Gospel, let us do so in faith, with radical receptivity, and a desire to be drawn more deeply into the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the mission to which he calls us.
I’ve centered this reflection around a particular flow that I recognize in today’s Gospel. Following is the thread of verses I invite you to consider. “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work . . . Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also . . . Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life . . . I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”
I recognized a logical progression in Jesus’ words: The Father sent him and is at work in him; the Son does only the work of the Father, he does nothing of his own accord; anyone who hears Jesus’ words and believes in the Father will have everlasting life; Jesus seeks only to do the will of the Father. By extension, and practical application, we might consider where we find ourselves in the Son’s work. I pray that everyone praying our readings today and reading this reflection is among the “whoever”: hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation but has passed from death to life. As the redeemed, then it follows that we must ask ourselves, for what purpose have I been set free, for what purpose have I passed from death to life?
I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me. I invite us today to follow Jesus in seeking to know and do the will of our Heavenly Father. Isn’t that desire at the heart of authentic discipleship? Lent is such an opportune time to engage spiritual disciplines for the purpose of softening our will. We stubbornly hang on to our preferences, our desire for control, our disordered attachments, our delusion that we know what’s best for us, our selfishness, our egos, and more. If Jesus did not pursue his own will, but only the Father’s, who am I to presume to cling to my own will?! Today, might we make Jesus’ words our prayer, declaring to God in faith, I do not seek my own will but the will of [the Father]. Just as the Father sent Jesus, so does Jesus the Son send us into the world to lovingly do the Father’s will. As we make this prayerful declaration, let us ask the Lord for the graces we need to submit and surrender to the Father’s will for our lives. Every time I receive the Eucharist, I make this prayer, telling my Heavenly Father that I desire to humble myself and bow to his will. I share that as an idea for you, as well. Kneeling during Communion is a perfect opportunity to express one’s desire to be perfected in love such that the personal will becomes more and more conformed to God’s will.
In our Gospel today, Jesus reveals much about his intimate relationship with the Father. We, too, are created to share God’s own life! “God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange” (Catechism 221). The more we grow in intimacy with God and the more fully we live in this eternal communion of love, the freer we become to receive and reciprocate divine love. The more aware we are of the fact that God created us for this intimate love, the more grateful we become and the more joyfully we surrender our will to that of our Loving Father. The less aware I am of God’s love (or the more resistant I am to it), the more fiercely I cling to my own selfish and prideful will. Let us live in love as ones who have passed from death to life, free to do God’s will!
Drawing upon the words of the Our Father, may your Kingdom come, and your will be done, O God, in our lives as it is in heaven. Thank you for loving us and setting us free; thank you for creating us to share and abide in divine love!
I’ll see you in the Eucharist,
Elizabeth Wells
(*Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, The Gospel of John.)