Believers believing for the first time

Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor.

A reflection on the daily readings, for Monday of the Seventh Week of Easter, by Father Perry.

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

+ “Now you are talking plainly. … Now we realize you know everything. … Because of this we believe that you came from God. …”

Really?

One supposes so. But Jesus pops their bubble; he asks —

“Do you believe now?”

And Jesus tells them that they will scatter. Things will fall apart. They will even leave him alone. Will they even hear him as he cries out to his Father on the cross, since apparently the only faithful ones that stood by the cross were the women, and in John’s Gospel, John?

But even with all of this before them, Jesus promises that he will give peace to them. For his truth and his love have indeed conquered evil, brought true freedom, and will be their peace.

Paul encounters true believers. It’s just that they only had, as rich and good as it was, the baptism of John. They hadn’t yet been baptized in the name of Jesus, the one who was to come after John, and the one whom John the Baptist spent his whole life proclaiming.

And when they heard Paul’s words about the one, they received baptism, and they received the Spirit. Gifts burst forth in and from them. They prophesied. And what Jesus had said some years before was indeed coming true in them, and before them, and among them.

They were hearing and seeing, and believing fully for the first time!