Bright Wednesday; our Venerable Fathers Joseph the Hymnographer (886) and George of Maleum
Bright Week. No fasting or abstention from foods.
Read
Acts 2:22-36; John 1:35-51
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
The most important invitation for a Christian to hear, even after He has lived the Christian life for some quite some time is in this particular Gospel reading, “Come and see.” This is the most frequent invitation Jesus offers to those whom he meets. The Lord says, “Come and See.” What is our response?
Our response in a wholehearted trust and surrender to Christ Jesus. Our response is a plea to our Saviour to fill our hearts with His love. Our response is readiness and openness to be changed, to be transformed, to be made whole. Our response is to let Him into our lives, into the deepest corners of our being, into most intimate circumstances we find ourselves in today.
We must believe that Jesus Christ knows all of our circumstances, all of our struggles, all of our deepest desires, even those we can not express or are afraid to say out loud. He knows them all because He saw Nathaniel under the fig tree and He sees all of us. He knows that good will come out of it because He has placed his image in us and He desires to burnish that image, to polish it, to remove all the dross and mud from it so that it gleams and shines. And He will do this if only we allow Him to, if only we believe that He can do it.
Everything that applies to the Saints applies to us, absolutely and positively. Jesus Christ rose from the dead on the third day for us, for each and every one of us. He wants everyone to have fullness, completeness, regardless of how weak we are, regardless of what happens to us, He wants us to be completely changed. And we can be. Only through the grace and power of His Resurrection.