\u201cWithout me you can do nothing\u201d. At a glance, this verse seems to be overly harsh and a condemnation. Jesus is pointing out that we\u2019re weak sinners who can do nothing without him. He is God telling us that we need him in order to live and not be punished. True.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the Gospel is still \u201cgood news,\u201d and it is good news for us to know that can do nothing without Christ. Why? Because the nothingness without Christ is the nothingness of a child. A child is nothing without their parents. They depend on their father and mother for strength and guidance to do the most menial of tasks: to wash their hands, to tie their shoes, to use a fork and a knife. This \u201cnothingness\u201d bruising our egos is the nothingness inherent in every single human being because it speaks of our absolute need for the Father\u2019s love that is a reflection of the Son\u2019s own need for the Father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier in John 5:30, Jesus says \u201cI can do nothing on my own.\u201d Now, Jesus is always God. So, how can Jesus say he does nothing on his own? Because Jesus always does everything with<\/em> the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the Son of the Father. And as the Son of the Father he receives the divine life from the Father, and is thus \u201cbegotten, but not made\u201d as our Creed teaches. Jesus being the Son of the Father means that he is totally receptive and open to the Father. It means that Jesus can do nothing on his own because he is the Son who does everything with his Father like a child wanting to do everything, even the most menial of tasks, with their parents out of sheer joy of knowing they are loved for who they are – their child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For us, this means that those moments in our lives where we see our fallen humanity remind us of our nothingness are not moments of despair; they are reminders of what we are. We are children of God who can do nothing without our heavenly Father\u2019s love, a love manifested in the world by the sending of the Son as our brother and the Holy Spirit as our breath of life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes. We are children who can do nothing without our Father. But if we see that the Father has drawn near to us in his Son and in his Holy Spirit, if we accept everything he gives us with joy, then we can bear fruit as branches on the vine, as sons and daughters in his Son Jesus Christ in whose image we are made and in whose blood we have been redeemed. Fot. Maksim Istomin\/Unsplash.com<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 5th Sunday of Easter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-strona-glowna-najnowsze","category-strona-glowna-slider"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Joseph Yuson<\/strong> \u2013 St. Joseph Seminary, Edmonton, Alberta <\/p>\n\n\n\n