THE BRIDEGROOM HEARS OUR PRAYER

SATURDAY AFTER EPIPHANY SUNDAY

1 Jn 5:14-21; Ps 149:1-6,9; Jn 3:22-30

Faith in the One who comes with Water, Blood, and Spirit

The Incarnation of the Son of God demonstrates God’s complete encompassment of our human nature. It shows us that we belong to God and he knows and cares for us holistically. He took on our human nature so that all the witnesses: blood, water, and Spirit, may witness for him. He adopted and owned our weakness and mortal frailty and made it a seat of divine power and authority to make us understand that there is nothing coming from our bodies, frail and weak as they are, that is not known and sanctioned by him. As the author of everything visible and invisible, the Eternal Word is always present in the material universe, governing everything he made through and according to their respective natures. He appeared visibly to our senses in our nature and lived among us. By this, he owned the testimonies of the physical universe which enters like an ever-running stream of water through our senses into our awareness, informing and shaping the thoughts of our minds. By entering directly and visibly into the flow of our sensible experience, he makes the flowing water of our experiences bear witness to his presence among us and his love for us. Through his preaching ministry and outpouring of the Holy Spirit he received in his humanity, he reinitiated the witness of the Holy Spirit within us who believe in his name.

All these three witnesses, through which the Son of God comes, according to Saint John, convinced us of the Father’s love for us, and constituted prayer in our hearts. Prayer is simply a mind turned to God in faith. Understanding his abiding presence through these three witnesses, we learn to turn to him as often as we can to ask for our bodily, social/communal, and spiritual needs. His presence with us, supported by these three witnesses, reveals his love for us. Saint John, therefore, encourages us to ask for our needs. “We are quite confident that if we ask the Son of God for anything, and it is in accordance with his will, he will hear us; and, knowing that whatever we may ask, he hears us, we know that we have already been granted what we asked of him.” His encompassing presence, witnessed by the three, convinces us of his loving desire to save and bless us. So, when any or all three areas of our lives seem to be out of sync with his will, we confidently turn to him in prayer, that he may save and restore us to his favour. The most important of the three is our spiritual life. We must attend to our spirit always, as urged by Saint John. “If anybody sees his brother commit a sin that is not a deadly sin, he has only to pray, and God will give life to the sinner, not those who commit a deadly sin; for there is a sin that is death, and I will not say that you must pray about that. Every kind of wrongdoing is sin, but not all sin is deadly.” The source of deadly sin is ignorance or disbelief of the appearance of the Son of God in the flesh.        

To prevent his people from falling into this deadly sin, God sent the Baptist to go before the Son, to prepare the people to receive the saving presence of the Eternal Word. John fulfilled his mission and was careful not to distract the attention of the people from the saving presence of the Eternal Word in their midst. Thus, when a question arose between his disciples and the Jews on how and who forgives sins, he pointed them in the direction of the Son of Man, who alone can forgive the sins of the world; the One he earlier called the Lamb of God. “John replied: ‘A man can lay claim only to what is given him from heaven. ‘You yourselves can bear me out: I said: I myself am not the Christ; I am the one who has been sent in front of him. The bride is only for the bridegroom; and yet the bridegroom’s friend, who stands there and listens, is glad when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. This same joy I feel, and now it is complete. He must grow greater, I must grow smaller.’” We cease to sin at the recognition of the presence of the Son of God, which makes us attendants to the bridegroom. We change into the bride when we long for his voice and presence within us. When that time comes, we will watch these three portals: water, blood, and Spirit, for his coming.

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, who through your Only Begotten son have made us a new creation for yourself, grant, we pray, that by your grace we may be found in the likeness of him, in whom our nature is united to you. Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.