Everyone who believes in him may have eternal life

14 SEPTEMBER (Jn 3,13-17)

Knowing God by hearsay, by imagination, immanent, philosophical and even theological thought; and knowing him instead by eternal vision, by inhabitation in his womb, by unity of the divine nature, by perfect and eternal communion in the Holy Spirit; it is not the same thing . There is the same difference that exists between being one thing and imagining one thing. Man imagines God and speaks by an always analogical thought. Jesus Christ is God and speaks by essence, substance, truth, unity, communion, charity, mercy, faithfulness, holiness, eternity and divinity, which is himself.

This difference must be established toward all existing religions in the world. They all speak of God knowing him as by groping. Instead, Jesus speaks of God speaking of himself, more than a man he speaks of himself, because Jesus knows himself perfectly in the Holy Spirit. Here is what St. Paul teaches to the Athenians.

Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said: “You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious. For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination. God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world with justice’ through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.” When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We should like to hear you on this some other time.” And so Paul left them. But some did join him, and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the Court of the Areopagus, a woman named Damaris, and others with them (At 17,22-34).

It is good that we also remember what Jesus says to the Samaritan woman, she somehow also a researcher of God, but full of so much confusion in her mind and heart.

Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming, the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking with you” (Jn 4,20-26).

The Samaritan woman says well. When the Messiah comes he will teach us all things. The Messiah speaks to us of God from the cross, from suffering for love, from his passion, from his piercings and from his nails. His is a true speech, because it is a speech of a gift.

No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Jesus speaks to us from the truth of God and man. Many also speak of the truth of God, but from their falsehood. Theirs is a truth about God that does not make true those who say it.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us true of God’s truth.