April 24, 2013 Prayer Service

From: John 12:44-50

The Unbelief of the Jews
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[44] And Jesus cried out and said, "He who believes in Me, believes not in Me,
but in Him who sent Me. [45] And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.
[46] I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in Me may not
remain in darkness. [47] If any one hears My sayings and does not keep them,
I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
[48] He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings has a judge; the word
that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day. [49] For I have not spoken
on My own authority; the Father who sent Me has Himself given Me command-
ment what to say and what to speak. [50] And I know that His commandment
is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has bidden Me."

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Commentary:

44-50. With these verses St. John brings to an end his account of our Lord's pub-
lic ministry. He brings together certain fundamental themes developed in previous
chapters--the need for faith in Christ (verse 44); the Father and the Son are one
yet distinct (cf. 45); Jesus is Light and Life of the world (verses 46, 50); men will
be judged in accordance with whether they accept or reject the Son of God (ver-
ses 47-49). The chapters which follow contain Jesus' teaching to His Apostles at
the Last Supper, and the accounts of the Passion and Resurrection.

45. Christ, the Word Incarnate, is one with the Father (cf. John 10:30); "He re-
flects the glory of God" (Hebrews 1:3); "He is the image of the invisible God" (Co-
lossians 1:15). In John 14:9 Jesus expresses Himself in almost the same words:
"He who has seen Me has seen the Father". At the same time as He speaks of
His oneness with the Father, we are clearly shown the distinction of persons --
the Father who sends, and the Son who is sent.

In Christ's holy human nature His divinity is, as it were, hidden, that divinity which
He possesses with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit (cf. John 14:7-11). In
theology "circumincession" is the word usually used for the fact that, by virtue of
the unity among the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, "the Father is wholly in
the Son and wholly in the Holy Spirit; the Son wholly in the Father and wholly in
the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit wholly in the Father and wholly in the Son" (Coun-
cil of Florence, "Decree Pro Jacobitis, Dz-Sch", 1331).

47. Christ has come to save the world by offering Himself in sacrifice for our sins
and bringing us supernatural life (cf. John 3:17). But He has also been made
Judge of the living and the dead (cf. Acts 10:42): He passes sentence at the Par-
ticular Judgment which happens immediately after death, and at the end of the
world, at His Second Coming or Parousia, at the universal judgment (cf. John 5:
22; 8:15-16).