An ethical vision focused by “No!” – “No! I have not murdered, I have not committed adultery, I am not a thief or a liar, I do not bear false witness and I am not a fraud,” is a good place to start. But it is not a good place to end.
Even as we meditate on the vision Jesus gives us, we cannot forget that this journey of marriage is a vulnerable reality.
whoever gives you a cup of water etc: Jesus continues to develop his tolerant and universalist understanding of the kind of reality he is bringing to birth.
Discipleship does not come with a book of answers. It is an invitation to a journey with Jesus and through him with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
A natural symbol of all human beings is that of life as “journey”. The question then arises: Is the journey meaningless, without any direction or goal, except perhaps what we create?
It is not unreasonable to ask: Why the detail? And it is not unreasonable to ask: Why not? The truth is, we do not pay much attention to the details of our days.
What is the difference between this scribe and the scribes and the Pharisees that are in conflict with Jesus? Jesus cites the prophet Isaiah: “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me’” (Isaiah 29:13). “Their hearts are far from me”!
believe: The “hearing” and “accepting” are central to “believing” and believing is central to the Gospel of John. The Greek verb pisteuō is used more than ninety times in John’s Gospel. It is first used in the Prologue – see 1:7. Throughout the Gospel, John always uses the verb, “believe”, never the noun, “belief”.
The experience of “longing” helps us understand “life”. You knew longing as a child – “Are we nearly there yet?”. You knew it is an adolescent when you thought of the summer holidays. You knew it when you fell in love. You know it now – no matter how old you are. Being is be-longing. Enough is never enough. We are restless beings because we are made for “more”. Living is longing!
The Founder of the Marist Fathers – Jean Claude Colin (1790-1875) – said that once people have “tasted God” everything else will look after itself. All the idols that dwell within the thicket of unreality and prevent you hearing God’s invitation, will gradually disappear. Knowing you are loved is a powerful antidote to all manner of physical, moral and spiritual diseases!