Showing posts with label John 5:31-38. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John 5:31-38. Show all posts

Sunday, June 30, 2019

2nd St. Johnstide 2019, Free

John the Baptist Preaching, Rembrandt

St. Johnstide
John 5: 31-38

If I were only appearing as my own witness, my testimony would be without truth [real power]; but there is another who bears witness to me, and I know that the testimony He gives me is the full truth [possesses full reality].

You sent messengers to John, and he gave valid testimony. But human testimony is not enough for me, for I want you to find salvation [healing] through my word.

He [John] was the burning and bright shining lamp [fire], and you wanted nothing more than to bathe for a while in that light. A weightier testimony is at my disposal than that of John. The deeds which the Father has given me to accomplish, the deeds which I fulfill, they testify for me that the Father has sent me. And so the Father who sent me Himself testifies to me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form; the Word which proceeds from Him does not live in your souls, for you do not open yourselves to him whom He has sent.


4th St. Johnstide
July 7, 2019
John 5: 31-38

There was a small curly-headed dark-haired child who loved fairytales. She lived in a home where the mirrors were all far above her head. Imagine her astonishment when her parent lifted her up to see her reflection and she discovered that she wasn’t golden-haired like the princesses in the fairytales! She was so disappointed. Did not being golden-haired mean that she wasn’t a princess after all?

Mirrors allow us to see ourselves from the outside. They enable a degree of objectivity. Mirrors can show us truth, at least on one level. Thinking and feeling human souls can also serve as mirrors for the truth.

In today’s Gospel, Christ talks about how spiritual truth operates. He affirms that John the Baptist recognized Him, that John’s testimony about the truth of Christ’s being was valid. But He urges us not to be satisfied merely with accepting John’s eyewitness account. He wants us to take into consideration two other levels of testimony.

One is the testimony that comes from His Father, who shines through the deeds of teaching and healing that Christ does. The other, perhaps more relevant for us, comes from within us, from within our own hearts and souls. Christ wants to be mirrored in us, to see Himself, hear His evolving Word in us. Without opening our souls, opening our thoughts and our feelings to Christ, He cannot find His truth or the truth of the Father in us. If we do not open our souls to Him, He says, we cannot mirror his working.

Catherine of Sienna writes of waiting for her father to return from work one night. She says:

I saw him coming. We ran into each other’s arms
and he lifted me as he so often had—
twirled me through the air,
his hands beneath
my arms.
That is what the truth does:
lifts us and lets us
fly.*

Grace and truth come from Christ, who is Truth.  John 1:17, John 14:6.  When we let ourselves mirror the truth, we are free to align ourselves with what He really is. “You shall know the truth”, He says, “and the truth shall set you free.” John 8:32.

* Catherine of Sienna, “Smells of Good Food”, in Love Poems from God, Daniel Ladinsky, p. 202.

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