Main news for 28 January 2022

"This testimony" is God's testimony about His Son. Judging by the context, this refers to the episode of Jesus' baptism (Matt. 3:16-17), when God's voice from heaven called Jesus the beloved Son. Let us notice the chain of witnesses that brings this news to us: the Father bears witness to the Son, John the Baptist bears witness to this to his disciples, and the disciples bear witness to this testimony to us through the Gospels. Testimony is the main way the good news is transmitted, because in it, for all its truth, there is no coercion of the listener.

What is this testimony about? "In Him is My good pleasure," that is, the good will of the Father is revealed in the Son. What, then, is this good will of God? Look at several passages: Ezek. 33:11, Matt. 18:14, John 3:16 - and you will see that God wants to deliver us from death and give eternal life. Therefore, in Jesus Christ the Father's will for eternal life for human beings is revealed: the Son of Man, passing through death into resurrection, ascended to the Father and abides forever at the Father's right hand. This means that our life can become eternal if we are united with Christ and allow Him to fill us with His presence and His life.

Today we read the fifth chapter, in which the apostle clarifies and develops his thought about discerning spirits. Once again, in somewhat different words, he offers a criterion for discernment, saying that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, is born of God. This means that the birth of the Spirit about which we read at the beginning of the third chapter of John’s Gospel occurs at the moment when, regardless of how much or how little you know about Jesus, you say in your heart: He is God. Bewilderment and grumbling then fall away, and you no longer need any proof. You simply know that this Jesus, who came by water and blood, also came by the Holy Spirit, and that He is your God. What a miracle that He has made this birth available to us!

A Christian’s relationship with the world cannot be simple. The world has its familiar patterns and norms, and we, raised in ordinary families—even believing ones, but not holy ones—live within those norms. The desire for comfort, for psychological comfort, is simply embedded in us: to be like everyone else while feeling special, to be liked by those around us...

But for that we must be part of this world. Then we become slaves, because the world rejects those who do not obey its norms and prescriptions. Who cares why you do not fit the common pattern? No one. And if you merely say, “But I am not like you,” you easily fall under the power of the prince of this world, who catches you in the nets of pride...

Only one thing conquers the world and tears apart the nets that bind us: faith in Jesus Christ. When we act not for ourselves but in His name, He grants us freedom—freedom from the power of sin and of this world.