Gospel
John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
Now the Jew’s Feast of Booths was at hand. After his brothers and sisters had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private.
Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, ‘Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? But we know where this man comes from, and when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.’ So Jesus proclaimed, as he taught in the Temple, ‘You know me, and you know where I come from. But I have not come of my own accord. He who sent me is true, and him you do not know. I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.’ So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come.
To know is a complex act that goes beyond merely receiving information. It requires intimate interaction and an affection born from that relationship. Knowledge emerges and flourishes through love.
To truly know God, we must participate in the Trinitarian communion revealed by Christ, a communion we access through the Holy Spirit. This is the path opened to us by Christ’s coming.
Applied to Married Life:
Alice: Eternal life is knowing God. But look at how many people around us don’t know Him. Can you imagine our life without God?
Jonathan: It would be like the Earth losing the Sun. We’d wander aimlessly, disconnected, directionless, freezing cold—enough to drive us mad.
Alice: That’s how so many marriages around us are. You and I must become volcanoes spreading the fire of the Holy Spirit.
Jonathan: But we have to be holy for that.
Alice: If God wills it, He will make it happen.
Mother,
What an incredible wonder it is to have access to knowing God. What an immense gift that He opens His intimacy to our hearts. Eternally praised be our Heavenly Father.