22 March 2023
Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Parents pass on all kinds of habits, assumptions, and ways of being in the world to their children. With Jesus, this relation between parent and child is of a whole different caliber. As Jesus says, “the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also” (John 5:19). Jesus, the incarnate Son of the Father, does all that the father does not merely out of imitation or habit, but because at the very depths of his being Jesus is one with his heavenly Father. “For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself” (5:26). Thus the Son can perform great works of healing and can “give life to whomever he wishes” (5:21). Jesus’ oneness with the Father, in and with the Holy Spirit, is the root and source of all his power as well as his love, mercy, and compassion for us. Moreover, it is the origin of Jesus’ saving mission, for he comes not to seek his own will, but that of the Father (5:30).
We are invited into this intimate relationship between the Father and the Son, since through baptism, our relationship to God has been changed at the depths of our being, making us children of God in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. How manifest is this transformation in us? Let us examine ourselves and pray that we might live more and more out of this reality.