2nd Week of Easter: Thursday - St Athanasius, Bishop & doctor
2nd Week of Easter: Thursday, 2nd May 2019
Acts 5:27-33; Ps. 34(33):2,9,17-18,19-20; John. 3:31-36 (Ps Wk II)
Different books of the Bible have different, but not opposing, ways of describing who God is. For the Jews of Old Testament times God was “He who sent us out of Egypt”. In Paul’s Letters, God is frequently “the one who raised Jesus from the dead”.
Thus in today’s Gospel passage, Jesus speaks of himself as “the One whom God has sent”. However in one verse in this chapter [3:16] St John affirms: God loved the world in this particular way, that he gave his only Son changing his customary “sent” onto “gave”, this adds another dimension to our theological and spiritual doctrine about Jesus — he is the Father’s gift to us.
This gives a special grounding to Jesus’ affirmations of what he is for us: “the Light of the world”, “the bread of life”, “the resurrection and the life” “the way, the truth and the life”: whatever special grace we desire to receive from God is found in Jesus, the gift of the Father who in turn gives himself in death for us and gives himself to us in the Eucharist
Lord Jesus, may we always find in You what our hearts most desire.
