I seek the will of Him who sent me

March 21, Tuesday, Fourth Week of Lent
Ezekiel 47:1-9,12; John 5:1-16

“My Father is working until now and I am working” was a statement Jesus’ listeners began to get infuriated with.  Today, you and I would wonder at what was wrong with such a simple and pious statement from Jesus! The reason was that his listeners were Jews, like him.

The event belonged altogether to a different era.  We have got used to this young Jew. We are accustomed to His wisdom and His life-enhancing inspirational sayings. We have begun to treasure them in our hearts. For those Jews came to see and hear him, having heard the rumours of Jesus as someone for whom the Law, even Sabbath was unimportant. For them neutralising him from existence was the solution so that the evil would stop spreading. They say loudly so that all could hear, that he was not only, giving no importance to the Law, but he was making it loud and clear that the Father and he are one.  

We see in today’s reading, he was least afraid of what they thought and might even do; he kept on speaking at length about the oneness of the Father and him.

At the Baptismal experience of Jesus at the river Jordan, he changed the vocabulary of God to Abba. And he realized that he is His beloved son. Many divisions took place in Christianity, however, all Christians all over the world stuck to this new word, for God, ‘Our Father.’

As St. Paul, an ardent Jewish theologian gradually realised and wrote, Jesus freed him and all of us, from all the laws. And the only new law to replace all the others is love.

The challenge Jesus throws at all of us is to get to know God as Abba, who is, all love, the love that surpasses the love of a father and a mother put together. Once you love God as your Abba and live accordingly, you do not need any law. You will be living like the children of God!

Wear the law of love upon your sleeves, and you will live like a child of God, unafraid and free.