John 12: 44-50
Then Jesus cried aloud: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
To Know Jesus is to Love Him
It is impossible to love someone if you do not know them. Jesus provides us with a way to know him and grow in our love for him. The book of John lays out who Jesus is directly. There are no parables to figure out. There is just Jesus who is the light that brings us out of darkness, who came to save us from an eternity without him, who does not condemn us for our sins and who speaks the words of the Father. Before I prayed the Spiritual Exercises, I thought I knew and loved Jesus. But the truth is, he was like a distant cousin. Someone I had heard about but had never met. Once I began placing myself in the scenes of his life as an active participant, I really came to know him as my brother, my friend, and my savior. When he was born, I was his midwife. When he was crucified, I knelt weeping at the foot of his cross. When he was buried, I stayed in the tomb with him and saw him open his eyes on the third day. It is impossible to love someone if you do not know them and to know Jesus is to love him.
—Terresa Michele Ford is an Ignatian spiritual director, palliative care chaplain and artist who has written for Ignatius House Jesuit Retreat Center, Catholic Women Preach, and the Black Catholic Messenger. She holds an M.Div. from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University and an MFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art and serves as a Reflector for the Ignatian Volunteer Corp.
Prayer
“An Offering of Self”
O Jesus, my life and my glory,
I cheerfully restore the life
which I have received from thee,
and were it not thy gift,
would not be mine to return.
I have ever desired, O God of my soul,
to resign my life to thee and for thee.
I die for the love of thee.
—St. Edmund Arrowsmith, SJ