Best way to believe in Jesus

NINETEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (B) 12 August 2012

John 6, 41-51

At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

Rev. Fr.Valentine de Souza S.J.

 “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life.

 I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

 THE WAY TO BELIEF IN JESUS

 José Antonio Pagola

 According to John’s account Jesus openly repeats, increasingly so, that he comes from God to offer everyone a food that gives eternal life. People can no longer listen to something so unreasonable without reacting. They know his parents. How can he say he comes from God?

 Their reaction surprises no one. Is it reasonable to believe in Jesus? How can we believe that in this particular man, born shortly before the death of Herod the Great, and known for his prophetic activity in Galilee about the year 30, the unfathomable Mystery of God became incarnate?

Jesus does not answer their objections. He homes in on the roots of their unbelief: “Stop grumbling among yourselves.” It is wrong to resist the radical newness of his person, obstinately continuing to think they already know everything about his real identity. He will show them the way they can follow.

Jesus assumes that no one can believe in him unless attracted to his person. That’s for sure. From our cultural viewpoint, perhaps, we understand him better than those people of Capernaum. It’s getting increasingly difficult to believe in doctrines and ideologies. Faith and trust arise in us when we feel drawn to someone who does good to us or helps us live.

But Jesus draws their attention to something very important: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” God himself produces the attraction for Jesus. The Father who has sent him to the world prompts our hearts to come to Jesus with joy and trust, overcoming doubts and resistance.

Therefore we must listen to the voice of God in our hearts and allow ourselves to be led by him to Jesus; to be docile to the Father teaching us for he is the Creator of life and Friend of human beings: “Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me.”

The statement of Jesus struck those Hebrews as revolutionary. Biblical tradition taught people to listen in their hearts to the call of God to faithfully fulfill the Law. The prophet Jeremiah had thus proclaimed the promise of God: “I will put my Law within you and I will write it in your hearts.”

The words of Jesus invite us to go through a different experience. Conscience is not the only hidden and privileged place in which we can listen to the Law of God. If in the depths of our being, we feel attracted by what is good, beautiful, and noble, by what does good to human beings and builds a better world, we will easily feel invited by God to be of one mind and heart with Jesus. It’s the best way to believe in him.

Spread the attraction for Jesus

URL of José Antonio Pagola's Buenas Noticias Web site: 

http://sanvicentemartirdeabando.org

Jose Antonio Pagola, vgentza@euskalnet.net , San Sebastian, Guipuzcoa, Spain.

English Translation by Valentine de Souza S.J. Mandal, Gujarat , India.394650