The Holy Martyr Glyceria (138-61)
Acts 15:35-41; John 10:27-38.
Read John 10:27-38
Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen!
Sometimes we complain that we cannot overcome various difficulties and temptations in our life. However, there is nothing that can snatch us out of Jesus’s hand if we choose to stay faithful to his word and remain dedicated to His flock. Jesus promises that we will not perish because we were given to Him by his Heavenly Father. Jesus’s claims and promises are based on the fundamental truth that He and the Father are one. He is not acting in his own name, but in the name of the One who sent Him, so He can shepherd the sheep and give them eternal life in his Father’s authority.
What is the true meaning of this probably the most cardinal affirmation that “I and the Father are one”? We may reflect on this declaration from the point of view of dogmatic theology engaging ourselves into reflection on God’s essence of being One or the so-called hypostatic union. But it will only lead us to the understanding that God’s inner life is a mystery which we can not fully grasp or uprehand.
The pragmatic meaning of Jesus’s communion with the Father and its practical relevance to our own life is appealingly developed in the chapter 17 of the Gospel of St. John when before His death Jesus is praying for His followers saying: “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one” (John 17:11). In the same chapter, Jesus goes even further: “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one” (John 17:20-22).
We may not fully understand hypostatic unity of the Father and the Son, but the good new for us as Christians is the fact that we are invited to participate in this unity by the bond of love: “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love; just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (John 15:10). Demonstration of true love comes with obedience and readiness to live in accordance with Christ’s commandments, for: “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” (John 14:21).