You Can't Have One without the Other

Homily for Thursday in the Third Week of Easter

In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus makes another remarkable statement that may slide past us without notice. “Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.” At least for me, the remarkable thing about this statement is the tense of the verb “to have.” “Whoever believes has eternal life.” It is already an accomplished fact.

In the synoptic Gospels, Jesus frequently follows up a healing miracle with the statement, “Your faith has saved you.” The Gospel of St. John does not include many healing miracles, yet he is just as convinced as the other evangelists of the importance of faith in the life of the believer. For St. John, failing to believe is the ultimate sin – the only sin that really matters. If one does believe in Jesus, then one is also convinced of the mercy of God and can be forgiven any sin. However, if there is no faith in Jesus, then there cannot be any faith in God’s mercy either.

Jesus also tells us: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him.” However, the statement is turned around in chapter fourteen when he says: “No one comes to the Father except through me." One might be tempted to exclaim, “Which one is it?” However, the believer will understand that because the Father is in the Son and the Son is in the Father, both statements make perfect sense. You can’t have one without the other.

Once again, let us remember the context of this Gospel passage. Jesus is teaching the crowd about the Bread of Life. Teaching is also highlighted in the reading from the Acts of Apostles. Philip teaches the Ethiopian eunuch and leads him to Baptism, to the sacrament that joins him to both Jesus and the Father, that leads him to possess eternal life.