GOSPEL POWER |APRIL 28, 2021

WEDNESDAY | Saint Peter Chanel, Priest and Martyr / Saint Louis Grignion de Montfort, Priest

4th Week of Easter| Gospel: Jn 12: 44 - 50

Jesus cried aloud: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.”

REFLECTION

Jesus is the Word of God sent into the world to speak the  words of life, to save and not to condemn. Salvation or  condemnation is determined by how people react to the Word and to his words. It is not enough to hear the words. It is by acting on  them that one begins to experience salvation even in this world. By  keeping the words of the eternal Word, a person begins to participate  in the very life of the eternal God. On the other hand, willful rejection  of those words brings about situations which a person will experience  as condemnation — the fruit of one’s free decision. To reject the words  of Jesus is to reject him as the Word of God and, therefore, to reject  God himself, in whom, alone, is found salvation.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, grant us the grace, not only to hear your words, but to act  on them. Amen.