All Souls Sunday
Gospel
John 6:37-40
37
All that the Father gives me will come to me; and him who comes to me I will not cast out.
38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me;
39 and this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up at the last day.
40 For this is the will of my Father, that every one who sees the Son and believes in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day."
Interesting Details
(v.37) Jesus acknowledges that all those who come to him are the gift of the Father. This is not about predestination, God does not arbitrarily choose whom he will save or condemn those he will not. God created human beings genuinely free, man can accept or reject him. Those who accept the revelation of the Son of Man can do so freely and acknowledge it as a free gift, the giver never changes his mind.
(v.38) The conformity of his will and the will of the Father is the total obedience and unity as "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30).
(vv.39-40) The gift of eternal life defeats and abolishes the finality of death by its promise of resurrection at the last day. This is not an exemption from death, but a promise of life without the fear, the shadow and the dominion of death.
One Main Point
The resurrection at the last day is what makes the life of the believer, both before and after death, eternal life.
Reflections
Recall the life and the death of a family member or a close friend, as a Christian what are the meaning of life and the meaning of death?
No one can escape death and no one will. Are you afraid of death? Why? What are your fears? Compare yours to those of Jesus when he faced the imminent death in the Passion.
The eternal life is a free gift from God, what actions should you take to claim and to accept this irrevocable gift?
Enter Reader's Response or
View Reader's Response this week
A synthesis by the Vietnamese Christian Life (Dong Hanh) Community