Listen to Christ to live

Gospel of John 5:17–30

Jesus said to the Jews, “My Father is always at work, and I too am working.” Because he called God his own Father and made himself equal with God, they sought even more to kill him.

Jesus replied, “The Son can do nothing by himself; he does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son does also. The Father loves the Son and shows him all he does, and greater works than these will be shown.

As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.

Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

Whoever hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life. He will not come into judgment but has passed from death to life. 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 as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and has given him authority to judge as the Son of Man. The hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out: those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.

I can do nothing on my own; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

Reflection

Jesus reveals a shared mission with the Father: life, judgment, and truth flow from a relationship of trust and obedience. His work—doing what the Father does, presenting the Father’s love, and inviting all to life eternal—calls us into alignment with God’s will. When we hear the word and believe, we enter not into judgment but into life, because the source of all life is at work in and through Christ.

Reflection Question

How can I more clearly seek and do the Father’s will in my daily choices, trusting that in Christ I share in the Father’s life and judgment?

Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank You for revealing the Father’s heart and for inviting me into life that never ends. Help me to listen, believe, and do Your Father’s will with humility and courage. May my words and actions reflect Your unity with the Father, and may I honor You as I honor Him. Amen.

Comments

The Way The Truth and the Life

Gospel John 14:6-14 To have seen me is to have seen the father Jesus said to Thomas: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you know me, you know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen him.’ Philip said, ‘Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied.’ ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip,’ said Jesus to him ‘and you still do not know me? ‘To have seen me is to have seen the Father, so how can you say, “Let us see the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak as from myself: it is the Father, living in me, who is doing this work. You must believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; believe it on the evidence of this work, if for no other reason. I tell you most solemnly, whoever believes in me will perform the same works as I do myself, he will perform even greater w...

His name is John

Gospel Luke 1:57-66,80 'His name is John' The time came for Elizabeth to have her child, and she gave birth to a son; and when her neighbours and relations heard that the Lord had shown her so great a kindness, they shared her joy. Now on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child; they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, but his mother spoke up. ‘No,’ she said ‘he is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘But no one in your family has that name’, and made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called. The father asked for a writing-tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And they were all astonished. At that instant his power of speech returned and he spoke and praised God. All their neighbours were filled with awe and the whole affair was talked about throughout the hill country of Judaea. All those who heard of it treasured it in their hearts. ‘What will this child turn out to be?’ they wondered. And indeed the hand of the Lord...

Difficult for the rich to enter for God's kingdom

Gospel Matthew 19:23-30 It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven Jesus said to his disciples, ‘I tell you solemnly, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.’ When the disciples heard this they were astonished. ‘Who can be saved, then?’ they said. Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he told them ‘this is impossible; for God everything is possible.’ Then Peter spoke. ‘What about us?’ he said to him ‘We have left everything and followed you. What are we to have, then?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I tell you solemnly, when all is made new and the Son of Man sits on his throne of glory, you will yourselves sit on twelve thrones to judge the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for ...

Search This Blog