THREAT AND PROMISE

PRAYER MOMENT  

Wednesday 2 April 2014

THREAT AND PROMISE

Pause. Be still and enter into the presence of God within.

Reading: “Whoever listens to my words, and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life.” (Is 49: 8-15, John 5:17-30)

Reflection. Somebody in the Vatican must have had fun some time back in the nineteen sixties trying to decide which parts of John’s gospel to put before Easter and which after. The threat bits should go before as they fit with the passion and the promise bits fit better with the resurrection. The trouble is they are so interwoven you cannot easily separate them. In this chapter five, “the Jews are intent on killing him”, Jesus, but he is intent on speaking about life, eternal life, the fullness of life. The whole chapter is a sort of shout of triumph. “The hour is here already when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and all who hear it will live.” And in our own lives the mixture of threat and promise is constantly present. We describe our woes but then we laugh. Syrian refugee children kick a ball around as though they did not have a care in the world.

Prayer. Lord, you sustain us in bad times and console us in good. Help us to recognise that your presence is constant, whatever our experinces. Amen.

David Harold-Barry SJ