HOW TO BELIEVE IN JESUS
According to John the Evangelist, Jesus is talking to the people on the shores of Lake Galilee. Jesus tells them not to work for just any old thing, not to think only about a «perishable food». What’s important is to work, keeping sight of «eternal life».
Undoubtably that’s true. Jesus is right. But what is the work that God wants? This is the people’s question: how can we concern ourselves in the works God wants? Jesus’ answer is nothing if not disconcerting. The only work God wants is this: «You must believe in the one God has sent». What does this mean?
«To believe in Jesus» isn’t a theoretic experience, a mental exercise. It doesn’t consist simply in a religious adherence. It is «work» in which his followers must be occupied throughout their life. To believe in Jesus is something that must be taken care of and worked day by day.
«To believe in Jesus» is to configure our life from his, convinced that his life was true: a life that leads to eternal life. His way of living for God as Father, his form of always reacting mercifully, his determination to awaken hope is the best that any human being could do.
«To believe in Jesus» is to live and work for something ultimate and decisive: exert oneself for a more human and just world; make God’s paternity more real and credible; don’t forget those who run the risk of ending up forgotten by everyone, including by religions. And to do all this knowing that our little commitment, always poor and limited, is the most human work we could do.
That’s why: pretending not to know about the lives of others, living everything indifferently, closing ourselves only in our own interests, ignoring the suffering of people we meet in our path… all these are attitudes that indicate that we aren’t «working» our faith in Jesus.
José Antonio Pagola
Translator: Fr. Jay VonHandorf
