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TODAY’S WORD…

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Jesus said,

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God, believe also in me.”

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– John 14:1 (NRSV)

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REFLECTION…

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“Do not let your hearts be troubled.”

Jesus is so tender and comforting,

and He addresses all of us

– with our minds so full of anxiety, perplexity and preoccupation – with tender and inimitably beautiful truths of His gospel.

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His truths allay every fear,

silence every complaint,

and give every needed consolation to the soul.

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Peace is primarily a gift of God

and then the fruit of our efforts.

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That is why peace should begin in the hearts of people

as a grace given:

"My peace I give to you,"Jesus also tells us (Jn 14:27).

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“Believe in God, believe also in me.”

“That Jesus is a man, no one denies.

That He is a prophet, one sent from God,

is also admitted almost universally.

Many stay at that point.

But it is not enough.

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A Muslim, if he is coherent with what is found written in the Koran,

also recognizes that Jesus is a prophet.

But not for that is one considered a Christian.

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The leap by which one passes to be a Christian in the true sense

is when he or she proclaims, like the man blind from birth,

that Jesus is "Lord"

and adores Him as God.

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Christian faith is not primarily to believe in something – that God exists, that there is something beyond –

but to believe in someone.

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Jesus in the Gospel does not give us a list of things to believe;

He says, "Believe in God; believe also in me."

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For Christians,

to believe is to believe in Jesus Christ." (Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa)

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REPETITIVE PRAYER FOR TODAY…

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O tender most loving Jesus,

my soul yearns for the consolation of Your truth.

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