THURSDAY MARCH 21, 2024
THURSDAY OF THE FIFTH WEEK OF LENT B
Genesis 17:3-9
John 8:51-59
JESUS: THE GIVER OF LIFE AND ETERNAL VALUES
His words were piercing their hearts, words that go beyond time and space. Words that address the people which project beyond the temporal into the eternal. The people were confused, they were in lower frequency so to say. They could not understand the words of Jesus. Jesus was telling them somethings beyond them, their only response was to become cruel and violent, to carry stones to stone him. Yet his words caught them off guard.
Jesus states that life is given through his word. That this life that is earthly can be prolonged and extended to eternity. And this is the promise of God. That he came to establish this life and He is the Lord of life. He gives life, restores life, repairs life and grants life to the full.
He has this mission of giving life to the full. That their Father Abraham whom they believed so strongly in, even though he died at a time yet gives them a glimpse of the eternal values that he, Jesus came to establish on earth. And Abraham rejoices in him because the promises made to them in Abraham is being fulfilled in him, the giver of life. Yet, they could not understand Jesus and sees his teaching as a diminishing of the status and importance of their great hero Abraham and sought to kill him.
But Jesus was only alluding that he came to fulfill the promises made to Abraham in the first reading of today. That his sons and daughters will enjoy a new and everlasting covenant with God. A covenant of life and togetherness with God. A covenant whereby man will belong to God and God will be their life and their salvation forever. A covenant that transcends time and space yet made within time and space.
And to sustain this covenant, man must play his part of keeping his part of the deal. Listening to the words of God and acting on it. And that was what Jesus told them and reiterated to them today when he tells them, “truly, truly, I say to you, if any one keeps my word, he will never see death.”
Let us then take this seriously and look beyond this physical sphere into the eternal values. God is with us and cannot abandon us. Let us listen to him, do his bidding and work with him.
Heavenly Father, you promise us life in Abraham and fulfilled it in Jesus. May this life be ours not only in this physical world but in eternity. Lord, Keep us alife, healthy, happy and faithful to our baptismal promises. May the gift of life that our savior came to give us never elude us but may we attain life to the full into eternity through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Fr Norbert Uchuno
