Thursday in the Second Week of Easter, April 28, 2022

John 3, 31-36

The one who comes from above is above all. The one who is of the earth is earthly and speaks of earthly things. But the one who comes from heaven is above all. He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy. For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God. He does not ration his gift of the Spirit. The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.

The words of this Gospel reading are a part of a teaching either of John the Baptist or of John the Apostle.  They seem to continue The Apostle’s prelude to his Gospel, as found in John 1, 1–14.

The one who comes “from above” comes from heaven.  The Greek word translated as above all means “is superior” to all”, not to be confused with “higher” than all.  This is the Son of God, the Word made flesh.  Even jointing himself to human nature, “being made in the likeness of men, and in form found as a man” (Philippians 2, 7), he is superior to all.  “The one who is of the earth is earthly”, that is, from the earth — out of the earth, made of its clay.  This kind of person does not seek to rise above the earth but to remain mired in it.  “And speaks of earthly things.”  When the Lord speaks of earthly things, he does so in order to teach heavenly realities, but when a man without faith speaks of earthly things, that is all he means because he has no experience of anything higher.  The Lord “testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony.”  He has proven that he knows of heavenly realities through the works he has done, for as Nicodemus has admitted, “You are come a teacher from God; for no man can do these signs which you do, unless God be with him” (John 3, 2).  Yet, “no one accepts his testimony.”  This suggests a willfulness, a determination not to accept his testimony no matter what he says.  Most people, the Lord is saying, “loved darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil” (John 3, 19).  

“Whoever does accept his testimony certifies that God is trustworthy.”  First he says that “no one accepts his testimony, and then he says “whoever does accept his testimony”, indicating that those who do accept his testimony are few.  The one who accepts Jesus is that rare human who yearns to be above earthly things and to understand the language of heavenly things. “For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God.”  The One whom God has designated as sent by him — “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3, 17) — speaks of heaven and God just as naturally as another person might speak of his work.

“He does not ration his gift of the Spirit.”  The Greek connects the phrase “For the one whom God sent speaks the words of God” to this phrase with “for”, as though providing an elaboration, while the first phrase, translated as a complete sentence, does not contain a “for”.  Thus, from the Greek text: “The one whom God sent speaks the words of God for he does not ration his gift of the Spirit.”  The one whom God sent is his Son, and he speaks the words the Father gives him to speak.  The Holy Sprit, “descending as a dove, and coming upon him” at the time of his baptism in the Jordan, assists  the human nature the Son has assumed in speaking the Father’s words.  We learn from this that the Persons of the Holy Trinity, distinct as they are, act in concert, each with his own role, as it were.  The Son will later, with the Father, bestow this same Holy Spirit upon the Apostles: “He breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Spirit” (John 20, 22).  

“The Father loves the Son and has given everything over to him.”  As the Lord will say later, “All things whatsoever the Father has are mine” (John 16, 15.  That is to say, life.  From all eternity the Father begot the Son and so the Son may be said to have life because of the Father, and this life is the divine life, to which no perfection is lacking.  The Father gives this to his Son because he loved him from all eternity.

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him.”  To believe in the Son as the Son of God means to make the intellectual assent to this truth as well as to practice this truth in the world through the doing of good works.  In this way, a person begins to have eternal life even here, while those who rejects faith in the Son in order to devote themselves to their pleasures are “dead even while still living” (1 Timothy 5, 6).  

Carefully reading these words of the Gospel which the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the Evangelist helps us as we gaze at the Host at Mass and as we receive it in Holy Communion to know the greatness and the sublime majesty of the one upon whom we are looking and consuming.