From: John 3:14-21
The Visit of Nicodemus (Continuation)
[16] “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes
in Him should not perish but have eternal life. [17] For God sent the Son into the
world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.
[18] He who believes in Him is not condemned; He who does not believe is con-
demned already, because He had not believed in the name of the only Son of
God. [19] And this is the judgment, that the light has come into world, and men
loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. [20] For every
one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds
should be exposed. [21] But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it
may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.”
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Commentary:
14-15. The bronze serpent which Moses set up on a pole was established by
God to cure those who had been bitten by the poisonous serpents in the desert
(cf. Numbers 21:8-9). Jesus compares this with His crucifixion, to show the va-
lue of His being raised up on the cross: those who look on Him with faith can ob-
tain salvation. We could say that the good thief was the first to experience the
saving power of Christ on the cross: he saw the crucified Jesus, the King of Is-
rael, the Messiah, and was immediately promised that he would be in Paradise
that very day (cf. Luke 23:39-43).
The Son of God took on our human nature to make known the hidden mystery of
God’s own life (cf. Mark 4:11; John 1:18; 3:1-13; Ephesians 3:9) and to free from
sin and death those who look at Him with faith and love and who accept the cross
of every day.
The faith of which our Lord speaks is not just intellectual acceptance of the truths
He has taught: it involves recognizing Him as Son of God (cf. 1 John 5:1), sharing
His very life (cf. John 1:12) and surrendering ourselves out of love and therefore
becoming like Him (cf. John 10:27; 1 John 3:2). But this faith is a gift of God (cf.
John 3:3, 5-8), and we should ask Him to strengthen it and increase it as the A-
postles did: Lord “increase our faith!” (Luke 17:5). While faith is a supernatural,
free gift, it is also a virtue, a good habit, which a person can practise and thereby
develop: so the Christian, who already has the divine gift of faith, needs with the
help of grace to make explicit acts of faith in order to make this virtue grow.
16-21. These words, so charged with meaning, summarize how Christ’s death is
the supreme sign of God’s love for men (cf. the section on charity in the “Intro-
duction to the Gospel according to John”: pp. 31ff above). “`For God so loved the
world that He gave His only Son’ for its salvation. All our religion is a revelation of
God’s kindness, mercy and love for us. `God is love’ (1 John 4:16), that is, love
poured forth unsparingly. All is summed up in this supreme truth, which explains
and illuminates everything. The story of Jesus must be seen in this light. `(He)
loved me’, St. Paul writes. Each of us can and must repeat it for himself — `He
loved me, and gave Himself for me’ (Galatians 2:20)” (Paul VI, “Homily on Cor-
pus Christi”, 13 June 1976).
Christ’s self-surrender is a pressing call to respond to His great love for us: “If it
is true that God has created us, that He has redeemed us, that He loves us so
much that He has given up His only-begotten Son for us (John 3:16), that He
waits for us — every day! — as eagerly as the father of the prodigal son did (cf.
Luke 15:11-32), how can we doubt that He wants us to respond to Him with all
our love? The strange thing would be not to talk to God, to draw away and forget
Him, and busy ourselves in activities which are closed to the constant promp-
tings of His grace” (St. J. Escriva, “Friends of God”, 251).
“Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for
himself, his life is senseless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encoun-
ter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not partici-
pate intimately in it. This [...] is why Christ the Redeemer `fully reveals man to
himself’. If we may use the _expression, this is the human dimension of the mys-
tery of the Redemption. In this dimension man finds again the greatness, dignity
and value that belong to his humanity. [...] The one who wishes to understand
himself thoroughly [...] must, with his unrest and uncertainty and even his weak-
ness and sinfulness, with his life and death, draw near to Christ. He must, so to
speak, enter into Him with all his own self, he must `appropriate’ and assimilate
the whole of the reality of the Incarnation and Redemption in order to find himself.
If this profound process takes place within him, he then bears fruit not only of
adoration of God but also of deep wonder at himself.
How precious must man be in the eyes of the Creator, if he `gained so great a
Redeemer’, (”Roman Missal, Exultet” at Easter Vigil), and if God `gave His only
Son’ in order that man `should not perish but have eternal life’. [...]
`Increasingly contemplating the whole of Christ’s mystery, the Church knows
with all the certainty of faith that the Redemption that took place through the
Cross has definitively restored his dignity to man and given back meaning to his
life in the world, a meaning that was lost to a considerable extent because of sin.
And for that reason, the Redemption was accomplished in the paschal mystery,
leading through the Cross and death to Resurrection” (Bl. John Paul II, “Redemp-
tor Hominis”, 10).
Jesus demands that we have faith in Him as a first prerequisite to sharing in His
love. Faith brings us out of darkness into the light, and sets us on the road to sal-
vation. “He who does not believe is condemned already” (verse 18).
“The words of Christ are at once words of judgment and grace, of life and death.
For it is only by putting to death that which is old that we can come to newness
of life. Now, although this refers primarily to people, it is also true of various world-
ly goods which bear the mark both of man’s sin and the blessing of God. [...] No
one is freed from sin by himself or by his own efforts, no one is raised above him-
self or completely delivered from his own weakness, solitude or slavery; all have
need of Christ, who is the model, master, liberator, savior, and giver of life. Even
in the secular history of mankind the Gospel has acted as a leaven in the inte-
rests of liberty and progress, and it always offers itself as a leaven with regard to
brotherhood, unity and peace” (Vatican II, “Ad Gentes”, 8).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
| First reading | 2 Chronicles 36:14-16,19-23 © |
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| Psalm | Psalm 136:1-6 © |
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| Second reading | Ephesians 2:4-10 © |
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| Gospel Acclamation | Jn3:16 |
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| Gospel | John 3:14-21 © |
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