The Holy, Just and Long-suffering Job
Acts 12:1-11; John 8:31-42
Read John 8:31-42
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
Everytime I visited perhaps the most terrible place on the face of the earth, the Nazi’s concentration camp Auswitz, I found myself puzzled with the meaning of a famous slogan “Arbeit macht frei” (Work sets you free) appearing on the entrances of many camps in Germany and across Eastern Europe. The original meaning of the expression comes from an 1873 novel by German philologist Lorenz Diefenbach by which he insisted that even gamblers and fraudsters may find the path to freedom through labour. While it can make some sense in case of changing someone’s habits, it can never lead us to the true spiritual freedom that can only be given to us by God not as a result of our hard work, but as a consequence of our faith and faithfulness to the word of God.
Whenever we express our opinion on any subject matter, it is inevitably subjective, partial, introspective and limited. The Truth in its objectivity may come from God only. Therefore, if one intends to be more objective, he or she must approach God as closely as possible, to learn from God’s word and to become God’s disciple. The true discipleship begins with faith and the ability to trust and rely on the One in whom we believe. It also requires constant listening, learning, obeying and remaining in the word of Jesus.
After all, not only his words, but He Himself is the Truth, the Way, and the Life. In order to stay in Truth, we need to allow ourselves to be penetrated by God’s Divine Wisdom which will allow us to see things as they are. As soon as and only in case if we succeed in achieving that state of comprehension, we can by the grace of God be freed from the slavery of our sins, passions, addictions and fears, since, as we would say in French, only our participation mystique in the life of Jesus may enable us to become new and truly liberated sons and daughters of God we always wanted to be.