A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

“If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus is challenged by people who do not believe in him. Seeing that they fail to believe in Jesus’ divine nature, he appeals to the people on the basis of his many good works—through his words and through his healings of mind, body, and spirit. Still, the people try to stone and arrest Jesus, but he escaped from their power because his time had not yet come. Jesus left that place and went across the Jordan, where John first baptized. Many people there came to believe in Jesus, saying, “John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true.” The people came to believe not because of signs but because the testimony of John was true. These two ways of coming to know Christ, through his works or through testimony, lead to the same road: the realization that he and the Father are one.

God, help me understand that you always leave open a way to come to know and love you. Whether I see the works of your Son through the Gospel, or witness your miracles work in the lives of others, or experience health of mind and body through participation in the sacraments, there I have an opportunity to come to know you and strengthen my faith. Attacks on my faith will come; voices from the outside or from within will cause me to question that you are the Father almighty. Attacks on the Church will come; persecutors will murmur and seek always to denounce. But let me remember the words of Jeremiah from the first reading: “But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.”

Stay with me today and keep me in your care! In the words of today’s responsorial psalm: “I love you, O LORD, my strength, O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

⁠⁠Readings⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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