Acts 13: 14, 43 - 52
Revelation 7: 9, 14b - 17
John 10: 27 - 30
Welcome the Gift of God
In the Gospel of John, Jesus defines the relationship that binds him to his disciples. He has revealed himself as the Good Shepherd, the traditional Davidic figure of the Messiah. Now Jesus tells them that he knows his sheep. Knowing in the Old Testament tradition denotes a deep relationship. To know is to listen, to understand, to pay attention and care for the other. Thus Jesus shows the degree of intimacy that he desires to have with the disciples and his care for them. At the same time, he underlines the reciprocity of this relationship of communion in which the sheep listen to his voice and follow him. Listening and obedience are the response of the disciple to the love of the Father for humanity, love revealed in Jesus Christ.
"The Father and I are one," Jesus says by way of expressing his own intimacy and communion with the Father. "I have made your Name known to them and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I [may be] in them" (Jn 17, 25). Jesus proclaims Gods project for humanity: communion, transformation in God. His presence among the disciples is the result of this love; it is also its expression. God has shared his life with us. The text from the Book of Revelation helps us to understand that what God wants is life for all, life in/with God. This loving plan of God for all of humanity takes place in time and will last for all eternity.
Let us then allow God to enter fully into our lives. Let us find the way of return to our heart, to the inmost depths where the Spirit reveals the intimacy with the Father to which we are called. In the depths of our being, the Spirit assists our efforts and struggles to love and conforms us more and more to the likeness of the Son. Let us receive our life as a gift from God; this is the assent to which we are called in order to enter into the Trinitarian life.
-- Sr. Sophie Ramond, R.A.