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The Catholic Telegraph
April 28, 2000For the Sundays of the Easter season in year B the Church gives us a series of readings from "The First Letter of John."
This book of the New Testament is not really cast in the form of a letter. It is more like a sermon or an exhortation. The text does not name its author, but early Christian tradition saw that its style and content resembled that of the fourth gospel, and so attributed the letter to the presumed author of the gospel, John.
First John seems to reflect a somewhat later stage of the Church’s life than John’s gospel. In the gospel, the enemies are "the Jews," outsiders to the Church, successors of the Jewish leaders who rejected and eventually killed Jesus. In First John the opponents about whom the author writes seem to be believers who have moved away from the sound doctrine of the Church community and are proposing false teachings, teachings that undermine the reality and meaning of the humanity of Jesus, teachings that seem to deny any connection between faith and personal moral behavior.
First John is both a simple and a difficult work. Its language is uncomplicated and straightforward, so much so that students of biblical Greek find themselves able to handle it early on in their studies. It’s generally the first book of the New Testament that they read. At the same time, it is repetitious and rambling and elusive. The author seems to talk in circles and what he has written cannot be clearly divided into thematic sections. More often than not, it’s hard to determine what he is talking about and how one part of the work relates to the others. One is inclined to suspect that the author of First John would not have received a high grade in a course on Greek prose composition!
We are able, though, to identify the general themes of the treatise. It is about faith (including the true humanity of Jesus), about love (God’s for us and ours for God and one another), and about obedience to the commandments (moral behavior).
The reading for this Sunday is from the last chapter of First John. One might have expected that a semi-continuous reading would start from the beginning of the book! It may be that this reading from the end of the book was chosen to begin the series because it addresses all the themes that will appear on the upcoming Sundays of the Easter season. More likely it was chosen for this Sunday because its insistence on belief fits in particularly well with the gospel narrative about Thomas and the risen Christ, which is also about belief. (We have already seen this reading from First John once this year on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.)
The reading tells us that faith is the foundation of a whole chain of consequences. To believe that Jesus is the Son of God is to have been born of God, to have become His children. This, in turn, involves loving God and therefore loving His other children (others who believe in Him). We express our love by keeping the commandments, which, in turn constitutes victory over the forces of evil that are in the world. Faith, therefore, and its consequences lead to overcoming everything that might stand in the way of God’s love for His faithful. The object of this faith is Jesus, both divine and human, who really died a real human death. The benefits of His saving death are offered to us in the Holy Spirit through the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist.
The fundamental point of this reading, and perhaps of the whole of First John, is that faith has implications. Faith has consequences. Faith is not merely the theoretical acceptance of a series of theoretical truths about God, Father, Son, and Spirit. Faith is not merely signing on to the conclusions of a course in dogmatic theology. Faith involves personal commitment to a person, Jesus Christ. This commitment brings with it relationships with God the Father and with the Holy Spirit. Because the person of Jesus had a human nature and a human history yet is a divine person, commitment to Him means that we relate to the world and its history in a different way than we would if God had remained distant and unknowable. Because those who believe in Christ share His risen life, our relationship with Him includes a relationship with all others who believe in Him. Because the risen Christ calls all women and men throughout the world to participate in salvation and grace and glory, we who live in Christ have some responsibility for presenting to them God’s offer of eternal life.
God’s love as expressed in Jesus’ saving life and ministry has brought everything into unity in Him. There is no aspect of the world - from electrons to galaxies, from microbes to mastodons, from unborn children to rocket scientists - that is unaffected by the love of God, untouched by Christ’s death and resurrection. So also there is no aspect of the world that is alien and indifferent to us who profess faith in Christ. Because we are in Christ, everything that is connected with Christ is also connected with us. Everything and everyone to whom His life is significant has meaning for us. Everything and everyone for whom His life is a blessing calls for a response from us. We are all involved in the one life of Christ, all involved in the victory of God’s love.
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Conversation Questions
How does my faith in Jesus affect my life?
What difference would it make to me if Jesus were not really human?
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