2nd Week of Easter 2022 - Wednesday - Authentic Christian Belief

Belief. The word belief is found almost 100 times in St. John’s gospel. After Jesus’ first miracle, the wedding at Cana, John’s notes how the disciples “began to believe in Him.”  After the Lord cured the royal official’s son, John records how the official “and his whole household came to believe.”  

John explains the very purpose of his Gospel when he says: all these things are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name.”

And in today’s passage, we hear, what is likely the most popular verse of St. John’s Gospel: “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.

The Gospel today is clear: belief in Jesus has eternal consequences. By belief in Him we are saved from perishing. But belief is much more than intellectual assent, holding a certain fact as true in our minds. Belief needs to shape our lives, affect our behaviors, animate our decisions.

Faith however is not just holding an idea “just in case”—you know, just in case there is a God and hell is real, I’ll believe that Jesus was sort of a real important person. When St. John’s Gospel uses the word “belief” he’s talking about the very opposite of such a superficial, surface-level insurance policy. 

Belief that Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God must be the fundamental orientation of our whole existence. The Christian must weigh every decision and every attitude against this belief. 

By belief in Jesus we are to seek detachment from all that would keep us from communion with God, any activity which is profane to God. Belief cries out to Jesus to save us from all that keeps us from becoming the people God made us to be. Belief seeks constant contact with the living God through the religious tenants, divine commandments, sacred rituals, and life of prayer proposed by the Church Christ Himself founded while still on earth.

We do well to examine our lives today: what is hindering Christian belief from shaping my daily life, what can I do to better cultivate Christian belief in my daily habits and routines?

May our belief in Jesus risen from the dead continue to transform all that we say and do for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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Filled with Paschal joy, let us turn earnestly to God, to graciously hear our prayers and supplications.

For the shepherds of our souls, the pope, bishops, and clergy, that they may govern wisely the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd, leading the Church in the increase in faith, hope, and love.

For the whole world, that it may truly know the peace of the Risen Christ.

That our parish may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ, and that the newly initiated hold fast to the faith they have received. 

For our brothers and sisters who suffer, that their sorrow may be turned to gladness through the Christian faith.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.