THE THREE WITNESSES

FRIDAY AFTER EPIPHANY SUNDAY

1 Jn 5:5-13; Ps 147:12-15,19-20; Lk 5:12-16

The Witnesses in our Minds

The statement that God made us for himself is incontestable. But to the one who does not believe, whom the scriptures describe as a fool, it may not be evident. We are not surprised by this, because colours are not evident to the blind, and sound is not evident to the deaf. But even to the blind, the sun makes its presence felt by its heating effect on his skin. No one is so deprived of his senses and reason to the extent that he does not see the loving providence of God in his life and events thereof. The human mind is like a dam into which three rivers pour their contents: the biological river of the unconscious working of our biological machine, the sensible river of our sensible perceptions, and the spiritual river of our mental and spiritual interactions. These three rivers come together in the mind; they are commingled and used to process knowledge of our realities. God instructs and teaches us through the contents of these three inflows if we are paying attention. They come together in the mind of the wise to testify to the existence of God, and his providential plan and care of man.

These three inflows into our minds can be related to the three witnesses Saint John presents to us in the reading from his first letter. The witnesses of these three confirm God’s presence, his wonderful love and plan of salvation for us. “Who can overcome the world? Only the man who believes that Jesus is the Son of God: Jesus Christ who came by water and blood, not with water only, but with water and blood; with the Spirit as another witness—since the Spirit is the truth—so that there are three witnesses, the Spirit, the water and the blood, and all three of them agree.” The word of God comes to us through our biological make-up, represented by the blood; He comes to us through our sensible perceptions or our encounter with external reality, represented by the water; he comes to us also through our mental conceptions or spiritual intuitions and enlightenments. The first witness arises from our very biological life and constitution, which bears the footprint of the evolutionary trend through which the word of God refined and constructed matter to support the presentation of the universe within us. The second witness is the unending river of our sensible experience of the universe, flooding, seeding, and irrigating our minds with ideas from material things created by God for man. The third witness is the presence of the Holy Spirit hovering over these material activities within us to bring new spiritual reality to birth in us. Paying attention to these three witnesses within us grows our faith in Christ and guarantees our salvation.

God, in his infinite power, causes the testimonies of these three to accord with the revelation of his Word. The testimonies of these three come together and make complete sense when we profess faith in the Incarnation of the Son of God. Hence, in a Christian, these three levels of witnesses of existence blend so well that they become one solid basis for our communion with God. We see that the Eucharistic Sacrament is constituted to address these three levels. The nutritional contents of the bread and wine, what the senses perceive, and the word spoken as representing the spiritual reality or the divinity of the Son. Our Lord addressed these three levels of constitution of the man who came to him. “Jesus was in one of the towns when a man appeared, covered with leprosy. Seeing Jesus, he fell on his face and implored him. ‘Sir,’ he said ‘if you want to, you can cure me.’ Jesus stretched out his hand, touched him and said, ‘Of course I want to! Be cured!’ And the leprosy left him at once.” The man’s entire situation led him to be convinced of his need for God’s intervention in his life. So, when he came across the Son of Man, he believed in the presence of God in Jesus and made his supplication to him. The prior witnessing of these three within the man prepared him to recognise God in Jesus Christ, and for the encounter to take place. A prayerful and attentive Christian life prepares us for continuous communion with God in the Holy Spirit. Through these, God establishes peace on our borders, and he feeds us with the finest wheat. He sends out his word to the earth and swiftly runs his command.

Let us pray: Grant, we ask, almighty God, that the Nativity of the Saviour of the world, made known by the guidance of a star, may be revealed ever more fully to our minds. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.