EVERYONE WHO SEES THE SON AND BELIEVES IN HIM
Jb 9,1.23-27a; Ps 2.6; Rm 5,1-1 1; Jn 6,37-40
2 NOVEMBER
The resurrection is one of the basic, essential points among the truths proclaimed by Christ the Lord in the Gospel according to John. In itself the resurrection was already faith in the Lord’s people. What then is the peculiarity introduced in the Fourth Gospel? The way on which to walk to resurrect tomorrow to new and eternal life is listening to the Word of Jesus. Jesus is also the voice that will call us from the sepulchre. He will call. Men will rise again. Those who did the good for a resurrection of life, those who did evil for a resurrection of condemnation. He will judge the living and the dead.
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. Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to his Son the possession of life in himself. And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation. “I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me (Jn 5,24-30).
Even Jesus will have to resurrect. He will not be resurrected by anyone. He gives life and He takes it back. He deliberately hands himself over to death and returns to life by himself.
I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. These also I must lead, and they will hear my voice, and there will be one flock, one shepherd. This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own. I have power to lay it down, and power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father” (Jn 10,14-18).
The truth of the resurrection is announced also on the occasion of the death of Lazarus. To live eternally we must live in Christ and believe in Him. He is the heart of time and eternity. In his heart today. In his heart in eternity. In his Heaven.
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, only about two miles away. And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. (But) even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world” (Jn 11,17-27).
The way of the resurrection of glory is one: believing in Christ, living in Christ and following Christ. Jesus the Lord omits nothing and leave out nothing that the Father has commanded him.
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it (on) the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him (on) the last day.”
Whoever loses himself, is lost because he did not listen to Christ Jesus and did not want to believe in Him. Before His Father He will be irreproachable forever. He gave his life for us.
Mother of God, Angels and Saints, help us to believe in Christ and to live in him and through him.