"... No one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father", Jesus says today in John 6:65. The gift of faith, granted, not taken, not developed through study or inherited. Each person receives it as a gift, something freely given and freely accepted.
I meditate on this, and the challenge God's gift brings me: now that He has given me life through the spirit, for It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail (Jn 6:63), and i have accepted His gift of faith, what am i going to do with it?
Why do the temptations of the flesh, this material world known through our senses, distract us so? Buddha called them illusions. Jesus warns that anything gained materially is of no avail, a waste of time and energy, fruitless, perhaps even pointless in truly knowing what life is. The meaning of life can only be exponentially known through the spirit. Jesus reminded us of that earlier in St. John's gospel 6:56-57:
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
God is the key. Being God in this material world, Jesus shows us how this unity can work. God is, I AM. Everything comes from Him and returns to Him. There is nothing that is not God. To believe otherwise is indeed, to willingly choose to believe in illusions. With His gift of faith, the mists can clear and the world has new meaning, just as all that i do with my life can have new meaning. To put the gift away or refuse it would be insanity, me thinks, just like those in Plato's cave allegory who choose to believe in the reality of dancing lights on a cave wall because it's more convenient, because it's all they know, because fear binds them, because to turn around and walk up out into the light requires effort. Politics, economics, science and technology, these all seem more important, more real, worthier of our time and energy because we experience immediate pleasure or security in the flesh. We think we are living, but Jesus says we are not living if we choose to believe in life this way. God is life, the True and Absolute Reality.
Jesus asks his disciples to make a choice, to put down the gift of faith and walk away, or embrace it, live it. St. Peter answers for them: Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life (Jn 6:68).
No one said life would be easy. But choosing to live life any other way seems a bit pointless, me thinks. I thank God for His gift of faith and humbly try to be worthy of such a brilliant gift: Life.
Deo gratias.
I meditate on this, and the challenge God's gift brings me: now that He has given me life through the spirit, for It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail (Jn 6:63), and i have accepted His gift of faith, what am i going to do with it?
Why do the temptations of the flesh, this material world known through our senses, distract us so? Buddha called them illusions. Jesus warns that anything gained materially is of no avail, a waste of time and energy, fruitless, perhaps even pointless in truly knowing what life is. The meaning of life can only be exponentially known through the spirit. Jesus reminded us of that earlier in St. John's gospel 6:56-57:
Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.
God is the key. Being God in this material world, Jesus shows us how this unity can work. God is, I AM. Everything comes from Him and returns to Him. There is nothing that is not God. To believe otherwise is indeed, to willingly choose to believe in illusions. With His gift of faith, the mists can clear and the world has new meaning, just as all that i do with my life can have new meaning. To put the gift away or refuse it would be insanity, me thinks, just like those in Plato's cave allegory who choose to believe in the reality of dancing lights on a cave wall because it's more convenient, because it's all they know, because fear binds them, because to turn around and walk up out into the light requires effort. Politics, economics, science and technology, these all seem more important, more real, worthier of our time and energy because we experience immediate pleasure or security in the flesh. We think we are living, but Jesus says we are not living if we choose to believe in life this way. God is life, the True and Absolute Reality.
Jesus asks his disciples to make a choice, to put down the gift of faith and walk away, or embrace it, live it. St. Peter answers for them: Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life (Jn 6:68).
No one said life would be easy. But choosing to live life any other way seems a bit pointless, me thinks. I thank God for His gift of faith and humbly try to be worthy of such a brilliant gift: Life.
Deo gratias.
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