From: 1 John 5:14-21
Prayer for Sinners
The Christian’s Confidence as a Child of God
[19] We know that we are of God, and the whole world is in the power of the evil
one.
[20] And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understan-
ding, to know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. [21] Little children, keep yourselves
from idols.
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Commentary:
13-21. St John’s words in v. 13 are evocative of the first epilogue to his Gospel,
where he explains why he wrote that book: “that you may believe that Jesus is
the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name” (Jn
20:31). In this verse of the letter, the Apostle stresses the efficacy of faith, which
is already an anticipation of eternal life (cf. notes on 1 Jn 3:2; 5:9-12).
His final counsels are designed to strengthen our confidence in prayer and to
urge the need for prayer on behalf of sinners (vv. 14-17); they also stress the con-
viction and confidence that faith in the Son of God gives the believer (vv. 18-21).
14-15. Earlier, the Apostle referred to confidence in prayer and to how we can be
sure of receiving what we pray for: that confidence comes from the fact that “we
keep his commandments and do what pleases him” (1 Jn 3:22). Now he stres-
ses that God always listens to us, if we ask “according to his will”. This condi-
tion can be taken in two ways, as St Bede briefly explains: “Insofar as we ask
for the things he desires, and insofar as those of us who approach him are as
he desires us to be” (”In I Epist. S. Ioannis, ad loc.”). The asker therefore needs
to strive to live in accordance with God’s will, and to identify himself in advance
with God’s plans. If one does not try to live in keeping with God’s command-
ments, one cannot expect him to listen to one’s prayers.
When prayer meets those requirements, “we know that we have obtained the re-
quests made of him”, as our Lord himself assured us: “if you ask anything in my
name, I will do it” (Jn 14:14). “It is not surprising, then,” the Cure of Ars teaches,
“that the devil should do everything possible to influence us to give up prayer or
to pray badly, because he knows better than we do how terrible it is for hell and
how impossible it is that God should refuse us what we ask him for in prayer.
How many sinners would get out of sin if they managed to have recourse to
prayer!” (”Selected Sermons”, Fifth Sunday after Easter).
16-17. “Mortal sin”: the meaning of the original text is “sin which leads to death”.
The gravity of this sin (St John does not specify its exact nature) recalls the gra-
vity of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 12:31-32) and of the sin of apo-
stasy which Hebrews speaks of (Heb 6:4-8).
The Fathers have interpreted this expression in various ways, referring to different
grave sins. In the context of the letter (in the previous chapters St John often
speaks about the antichrists and false prophets who “went out” from the commu-
nity: 2:19) the best interpretation seems to be that of St Bede and St Augustine,
who apply it to the sin of the apostate who, in addition, attacks the faith of other
Christians. “My view is”, St Augustine says, “that the sin unto death is the sin
of the brother who, after knowing God by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, at-
tacks brotherly union and in a passion of envy reacts against that very grace by
which he was reconciled to God” (”De Sermo Dom. in monte”, l, 22, 73).
If St John does not expressly command his readers to pray for these sinners,
it does not mean that they are beyond recovery, or that it is useless to pray for
them. Pope St Gelasius I teaches: “There is a sin of death for those who persist
in that same sin; there is a sin not of death for those who desist from sin. There
is, certainly, no sin for the pardon of which the Church does not pray or from
which, by the power which was divinely granted to it, it cannot absolve those
who desist from it” (”Ne forte”).
Referring to this passage of St John, Bl. John Paul II says: “Obviously, the con-
cept of death here is a spiritual death. It is a question of the loss of the true life
or ‘eternal life’, which for John is knowledge of the Father and the Son (cf. Jn 17:
3), and communion and intimacy with them. In that passage the sin that leads
to death seems to be the denial of the Son (cf. 1 Jn 2:22), or the worship of false
gods (cf. 1 Jn 5:21). At any rate, by this distinction of concepts John seems to
wish to emphasize the incalculable seriousness of what constitutes the very es-
sence of sin, namely the rejection of God. This is manifested above all in aposta-
sy and idolatry: repudiating faith in revealed truth and, making certain created re-
alities equal to God, raising them to the status of idols”; and false gods (cf. 1 Jn
5:16-21).”
And after referring to blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (cf. Mt 12:31-32) he adds:
“Here of course it is a question of extreme and radical manifestations — rejection
of God, rejection of his grace, and therefore opposition to the very source of salva-
tion (cf. St Thomas, “Summa Theologiae”, II-II, q. 14, a. 1-3) — these are manifes-
tations whereby a person seems to exclude himself voluntarily from the path of
forgiveness. It is to be hoped that very few persist to the end in this attitude of re-
bellion or even defiance of God. Moreover, God in his merciful love is greater than
our hearts, as St John further teaches us (cf. 1 Jn 3:20), and can overcome all
our psychological and spiritual resistance. So that, as St Thomas writes, ‘consi-
dering the omnipotence and mercy of God, no one should despair of the salvation
of anyone in this life’ (”Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 14, a. 3, ad 1)” (”Reconciliatio
et Paenitentia”, 17).
18-20. “We know”: each of these verses begins this way. He does not mean theo-
retical knowledge but that understanding that comes from living faith. St John is
once again stressing the Christian’s joyful confidence, which he has expounding
throughout the letter (cf. 2:3-6 and note). This confidence is grounded on three ba-
sic truths: 1) he who is born of God does not sin (cf. 1 Jn 3:6-9 and note); 2) “we
are of God”, and therefore we are particularly free of the world, which is still in the
power of the evil one (cf. 4:4; 5:12); 3) the Son of God has become man (cf. 4:2;
5:1). The incarnation of the Word is the central truth which sheds light on the two
previous ones, because our supernatural insight is the effect of the Incarnation (v.
20): Jesus Christ, true God and true man, is also eternal life, for only in him can
we attain that life.
18. “In this Johannine affirmation”, Bl. John Paul II teaches, “there is an indica-
tion of hope, based on the divine promises: the Christian has received the guaran-
tee and the necessary strength not to sin. It is not a question therefore of a sin-
lessness acquired through one’s own virtue or even inherent in man, as the Gnos-
tics thought. It is a result of God’s action. In order not to sin the Christian has
knowledge of God, as St John reminds us in this same passage. But a little ear-
lier he had written: ‘No one born of God commits sin; for God’s seed [RSV: “na-
ture”] abides in him’ (1 Jn 3:9). If by ‘God’s seed’ we understand, as some com-
mentators suggest, Jesus the Son of God, then we can say that in order not to
sin, or in order to gain freedom from sin, the Christian has within himself the pre-
sence of Christ and the mystery of Christ, which is the mystery of God’s loving
kindness” (”Reconciliatio et Paentientia”, 20).
19. “The whole world is in the power of the evil one”: although the Greek term may
be neuter and would allow a more abstract translation (”in the power of evil”), it is
more consistent with the context to take it in a personal sense. St John is poin-
ting up the contrast between Christ’s followers and those of the evil one: whereas
the world (in the pejorative sense) is like a slave in the power of the devil, true
Christians are in Christ, as free people, with a share in Christ’s own life. “We have
been born of God through grace and have been reborn in Baptism through faith.
On the other hand, those who love the world are in the power of the enemy, be it
because they have not yet been liberated from him by the waters of regeneration
or because, after their rebirth, they have once more submitted to his rule through
sinning” (”In I Epist. S. Ioannis, ad loc.”).
20. “Him who is true”: that is, the only true God as distinct from false gods; the
Jews used to refer to God as “the True”, without naming him. When St John
oes on to say that “we are in him, who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ”, he is
confessing the divinity of Christ and the fact that he is the only mediator between
the Father and mankind.
21. Although at first sight, this formal exhortation may seem surprising, it was
appropriate in its time, because these first Christians were living in the midst of
a pagan world, and were exposed to the danger of idolatry.
However, St John may be speaking metaphorically: the true danger facing Chris-
tians, then and now, is that of following the idols of the heart — that is, sin; in
which case he is giving this final counsel: Keep away from sin, be on guard a-
gainst those whose fallacious arguments could lead you to sin.
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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.
From: John 2:1-11
The Wedding at Cana
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Commentary:
1. Cana in Galilee was probably what is now Kef Kenna, seven kilometers (four
miles) north-east of Nazareth.
The first guest to be mentioned is Mary: St Joseph is not mentioned, which can-
not be put down to St John’s forgetfulness: his silence here and on other occa-
sions in his Gospel leads us to believe that Joseph had already died.
The wedding celebrations lasted quite a while in the East (Gen 29:27; Judg 14:
10, 12, 17; Job 9:12; 10:1). In the course of the celebrations relatives and friends
would come to greet the newly-weds; even people passing through could join in
the celebration. Wine was regarded as an indispensable element in meals and
also helped to create a festive atmosphere. The women looked after the catering:
here our Lady would have lent a hand, which was how she realized they were
running out of wine.
2. “To show that all states in life are good, [...] Jesus deigned to be born in the
pure womb of the Virgin Mary; soon after he was born he received praise from the
prophetic lips of Anna, a widow, and, invited in his youth by the betrothed couple,
he honored the wedding with the power of his presence” (St Bede, “Hom. 13”, for
the second Sunday after the Epiphany). Christ’s presence at the wedding at Ca-
na is a sign that he blesses love between man and woman joined in marriage:
God instituted marriage at the beginning of creation (cf. Gen 1:27-28); Jesus con-
firmed it and raised it to the dignity of a sacrament (cf. Mt 19:6).
3. In the Fourth Gospel the Mother of Jesus—this is the title St John gives her —
appears only twice: once here, and the other time on Calvary (Jn 19:25). This
suggests Mary’s involvement in the redemption. A number of analogies can be
drawn between Cana and Calvary. They are located at the beginning and at the
end of Jesus’ public life, as if to show that Mary is present in everything that
Jesus did. Her title — Mother — carries very special tones: Mary acts as Jesus’
true Mother at these two points in which his divinity is being revealed. Also, both
episodes demonstrate Mary’s special solicitude towards everyone: in one case
she intercedes when “the hour” has not yet come; in the other she offers the
Father the redeeming death of her Son, and accepts the mission Jesus confers
on her to be the Mother of all believers, who are represented on Calvary by the
beloved disciple.
“In the public life of Jesus Mary appears prominently; at the very beginning when
at the marriage feast of Cana, moved with pity, she brought about by her interces-
sion the beginning of the miracles of Jesus the Messiah (cf. John 2:1-11). In the
course of her Son’s preaching she received the words whereby, in extolling a king-
dom beyond the concerns and ties of flesh and blood, he declared blessed those
who heard and kept the word of God (cf. Mk 3:35; Lk 11:27-28) as she was faith-
fully doing (cf. Lk 2:19, 51). Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage
of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross, where
she stood (cf. Jn 19:25), in line with the divine plan, enduring with her only-begot-
ten Son the intensity of his passion, with his sacrifice, associating herself in her
mother’s heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim which was
born of her. Finally, she was given by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross
as a mother to his disciple, with these words: ‘Woman, behold thy son’ (Jn 19:
26-27)” (Vatican II, “Lumen Gentium”, 58).
4. For the meaning of the words of this verse see the section on our Lady in the
“Introduction” above (pp. 35ff). It should also be said that the Gospel account of
this dialogue between Jesus and his Mother does not give us his gestures, tone
of voice etc.: to us, for example, his answer sounds harsh, as if he were saying,
“This is no concern of ours”. But that was not the case.
“Woman” is a respectful title, rather like “lady” or “madam”; it is a formal way of
speaking. On the Cross Jesus will use the same word with great affection and
veneration (Jn 19:26).
[The sentence rendered “What have you to do with me?” (RSV) is the subject
of a note in RSVCE which says “while this expression always implies a diver-
gence of view, the precise meaning is to be determined by the context, which
here shows that it is not an unqualified rebuttal, still less a rebuke.” The Navarre
Spanish is the equivalent of “What has it to do with you and me?”] The sentence
“What has it to do with you and me?” is an Oriental way of speaking which can
have different nuances. Jesus’ reply seems to indicate that although in principle
it was not part of God’s plan for him to use his power to solve the problem the
wedding feast had run into, our Lady’s request moves him to do precisely that.
Also, one could surmise that God’s plan envisaged that Jesus should work the
miracle at his Mother’s request. In any event, God willed that the Revelation of
the New Testament should include this important teaching: so influential is our
Lady’s intercession that God will listen to all petitions made through her; which
is why Christian piety, with theological accuracy, has called our Lady “suppli-
cant omnipotence”.
“My hour has not yet come”: the term “hour” is sometimes used by Jesus to
designate the moment of his coming in glory (cf. Jn 5:28), but generally it refers
to the time of his passion, death and resurrection (cf. Jn 7:30; 12:23; 13:1; 17:1).
5. Like a good mother, the Virgin Mary knows perfectly well what her son’s reply
means — though to us it is ambiguous (”What has it to do with you and me?”):
she is confident that Jesus will do something to come to the family’s rescue.
This is why she tells the servants so specifically to do what Jesus tells them.
These words of our Lady can be seen as a permanent invitation to each of us:
“in that all Christian holiness consists: for perfect holiness is obeying Christ in
all things” (St Thomas Aquinas, “Comm. on St John, in loc.”).
We find the same attitude in Bl. John Paul II’s prayer at our Lady’s shrine at
Knock, when he consecrated the Irish people to God: “At this solemn moment
we listen with particular attention to your words: “Do whatever my Son tells you”.
And we wish to respond to your words with all our heart. We wish to do what
your Son tells us, what he commands us, for he has the words of eternal life. We
wish to carry out and fulfill all that comes from him, all that is contained in the
Good News, as our forefathers did for many centuries. [...] Today, therefore, [...]
we entrust and consecrate to you, Mother of Christ and Mother of the Church,
our hearts, our consciences, and our works, in order that they may be in keeping
with the faith we profess. We entrust and consecrate to you each and every one
of those who make up both the community of the Irish people and the community
of the People of God living in this land” (”Homily at Knock Shrine”, 30 September
1979).”
6. We are talking about 500-700 liters (100-150 gallons) of top quality wine. St
John stresses the magnificence of the gift produced by the miracle — as he also
does at the multiplication of the loaves (Jn 6:12-13). One of the signs of the arri-
val of the Messiah was abundance; here we have the fulfillment of the ancient pro-
phecies: “the Lord will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase”, as
Psalm 85:12 proclaims; “the threshing floors shall be full of grain, the vats shall
overflow with wine and oil” (Joel 2:24; cf. Amos 9:13-15). This abundance of ma-
terial goods is a symbol of the supernatural gifts Christ obtains for us through
the Redemption: later on St John highlights our Lord’s words: “I came that they
may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10; cf. Rom 5:20).
7. “Up to the brim”: the evangelist gives us this further piece of information to em-
phasize the superabundance of the riches of Redemption and also to show how
very precisely the servants did what they were told, as if hinting at the importance
of docility in fulfilling the will of God, even in small details.
9-10. Jesus works miracles in a magnificent way; for example, in the multiplica-
tion of the loaves and fish (cf. Jn 6:10-13) he feeds five thousand men — who eat
as much as they want—and the left-overs fill twelve baskets. In this present mira-
cle he does not change the water into just any wine but into wine of excellent
quality.
The Fathers see in this good wine, kept for the end of the celebrations, and in its
abundance, a prefiguring of the crowning of the history of salvation: formerly God
sent the patriarchs and prophets, but in the fullness of time he sent his own Son,
whose teaching perfects the old Revelation and whose grace far exceeds the ex-
pectations of the righteous in the Old Testament. They also have seen, in this
good wine coming at the end, the reward and joy of eternal life which God grants
to those who desire to follow Christ and who have suffered bitterness and contra-
diction in this life (cf. St Thomas Aquinas, “Commentary on St John, in loc.”).
11. Before he worked this miracle the disciples already believed that Jesus was
the Messiah; but they had too earthbound a concept of his salvific mission. St
John testifies here that this miracle was the beginning of a new dimension in
their faith; it became much deeper. “At Cana, Mary appears once more as the
Virgin in prayer: when she tactfully told her Son of a temporal need, she also ob-
tained an effect of grace, namely, that Jesus, in working the first of his ‘signs’,
confirmed his disciples’ faith in him” (Paul VI, “Marialis Cultus”, 18).
“Why are Mary’s prayers so effective with God? The prayers of the saints are
prayers of servants, whereas Mary’s are a Mother’s prayer, whence flows their
efficacy and their authority; and since Jesus has immense love for his Mother,
she cannot pray without being listened to. [...]
“To understand Mary’s great goodness, let us remember what the Gospel says.
[...] There was a shortage of wine, which naturally worried the married couple.
No one asks the Blessed Virgin to intervene and request her Son to come to
the rescue of the couple. But Mary’s heart cannot but take pity on the unfortu-
nate couple [...]; it stirs her to act as intercessor and ask her Son for the mira-
cle, even though no one asks her to. [...] If our Lady acted like this without
being asked, what would she not have done if they actually asked her to inter-
vene?” (St Alphonsus, “Sunday Sermons”, 48).
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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.