Introduction

I have continued to read the Gospel of John, finishing it only this morning. Since I last wrote, much has happened, most notably my Solemn Profession, but also a scary medical incident and a thought-provoking community retreat. Life events influence and change us, but also lectio changes us. By virtue of my interaction with the text, and the working of the Holy Spirit, I grow into Christ, perhaps through the development of my thoughts and ideas, but also in a spiritual way, so the next time I read the text, I am a different person and can approach it and receive it in a different way. This is true all the time, but has been particularly so this month.

Lectio

Looking back through my notes, the theme that stands out most of all is that which is central to this Gospel: eternal life. This not only means the life that we will live after our resurrection, but the life in Christ that we can have access to now. Jesus is holding this life out to us. Throughout the Gospel he tells us in so many ways that he is offering us this life, that he is the source of this life. I continue to feel his thirst for us that I wrote about last month. Here are some of the verses about life that stood out for me:

The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life (6:63).

Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life (6:68).

I am the light of the world; anyone who follows me will not be walking in the dark; he will have the light of life (8:12).

I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full (10:10).

And, perhaps, most famously:

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me (14:6).

If we accept the gift of eternal life, we will be drawn into the self-giving relationship that flows between the Father and the Son. Jesus desires to be to us what the Father is to him, and to bring us into the Trinitarian relationship of love.

May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me. I have given them the glory you gave to me, that they may be one as we are one. With me in them and you in me, may they be completely one that the world will realise that it was you who sent me and that I have loved them as much as you loved me (17:21-23).

These verses also speak of the unity we are called to, not just my union with Jesus, but the unity we have with one another and both of which find expression in mutual love. The relationships we have with one another are in themselves a form of missionary activity – for it is by them that ‘the world will realise’ that Jesus is from God the Father.

The Gospel ends with these words:
There were many other things that Jesus did; if all were written down, the world itself, I suppose, would not hold all the books that would have to be written (21:25).

And it is also the case that much more can be said about this Gospel, and even my reading of it in the last month, but these are the graces that stood out most for me.

Prayer

Lord, through the Gospels we hear you calling us to follow you. Grant us the grace to receive and take up your vivifying offer of eternal, lasting and true life with you and with the Father. May we grow in and through our love for you and for one another and so proclaim your Word to the world.