Good News

Gospel According to John 4.16-19. "Jesus said to her."Go call your husband, and come back."The woman answered him,"I have no husband."Jesus said to her."You are right in saying,'I have no husband ';for you have had five husbands, and the one that you have now is not your husband .What you have said is true!"The woman said to him, "Sir I see that you are a prophet." Here we find Jesus piercing into our hearts and revealing all that is hidden and concealed from others.Jesus knew that the woman's life history in full.He has that divine intelligence to fathom the heart of man and woman.Such understanding is not possible in the ordinary intelligence.Jesus the Son of God our Lord and God knows all the goings in our heart.He knows our life, its ups and falls, wrongs and rights, valleys and mountains, sins and virtues.In fact each breath that we take does not go unnoticed by God.See the millions and millions of People in the world and J...

Gospel According to John 4.11-15 The woman said to him .'Sir you have no bucket and the well is deep.Where do you get that living water?Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob,who gave us this well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?"Jesu said to her."Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty again.The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life".The woman said to him," Sir give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water." Here we find Jesu referring to the insufficiency that is built in to the very material things that we use daily in our life.No one can live without hunger or thirst.Our body always crave for food and water.Our body is never satisfied with the food that we eat or the water that we drink.This is the law of the body or rather the law o...

Gospel According to John 4.10 Jesus answered her."If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you,'Give me a drink' you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." We give gifts to our friends and relatives on many occasions like birthday, marriage, success and achievements.It is a token of our expression of acknowledgment, love or appreciation.And the value of the gift tends to vanish fast.Articles of long-term value, however remain throughout our life.We keep it for long time.However the gift that God gives us is everlasting.The very character of God is Eternity.So whatever comes from God has always the touch of Eternity.The gift of God makes us immortal and it does not drag us in earthly matters.The important thing is that we should be prepared to accept the Gift that God gives us.Here we find Jesus talking about living water, water that makes us live not only in this world but in the next world.The living water, of course, me...

Gospel According to John 4.7-9 "A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her."Give me a drink".(His disciples had gone to buy food).The Samaritan woman said to him,"How is that you, a Jew,ask a drink of me,a woman of Samaria?"(Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)" The conversation centers on social discrimination that we practice in our life.Discriminations of all forms exist, economic, social or political.Here we find an instance in which the parties refer to the actula social discrimination being practiced.The Jews and Samaritans do not share anything in between because of historical and other reasons.Some cultural events or practices that occurred in the past had alienated the communities and it was carried forward.Such discriminations we find everywhere.But it is totally unacceptable in the eyes of God.The weak human eye tends to see "some others"as untoucables.It is a clear case of sin.All the people are brothe...

Gospel According to John 4.1-6. "Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard, "Jesus is making and baptizing more disciples than John -although it was not Jesus himself but his disciples who baptized- he left Judea and stared back to Galilee.But he had to go through Samaria.So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph,Jacob's well was there and Jesus , tired out by his journey , was sitting by the well.It was about noon." Here we find Jesus in the nature of a weak human being, who is doubtful and weak hearted as to his mission and will.He is easily moved by the adverse criticism of others.On the criticism of Pharisees Jesus decided to quit Judea and decided to go to Galilee.Can we find fault with Jesu?No we cannot because sometimes we have to accept the criticism of others and change our actions.Again Jesu does not come across the critics he cleverly avoids a confrontation with them. We find Jes...

Gospel According to John 3.31-36. "The one who comes come from above is above all;the one who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks about earthly things.The one who comes from heaven is above all.He testifies to what he has seen and heard,yet no one accepts his testimony.Whoever has accepted his testimony has certified this, that God is true.He whom God has sent speaks the words of God,for he gives the Spirit without measure.The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in his hands .Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life;whoever disobeys the Son will not see life ,but must endure God's wrath. Here we find a differentiation of earthly and heavenly matters.The two can be made separate or not is a question.Generally the Semitic religions like Christianity or Islam looks up above the earth to see God.This tendency is there very much in the tradition of religions evolved in that context.This is true very much in Old Testament .Jesus however urged people to l...

Gospel According to St.John 3.29-30 "He who has the bride is the bridegroom.The friend of the bridegroom,who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice.For this reason my joy has been fulfilled.He must increase, but I must decrease." In a simplistic manner, I may say that he who has the blessings of God is the fortunate human being or he who is close to God is the true human being.We must be close to God in order to be really alive. The important and the most agonising message that the Baptist has communicated refers to self-denial.Here we find John denying everything, his possessions, achievements, fame, spiritual power and his own life for the One Who is ahead of him.Jesus the true God and the Son of Man came to save the world and the human beings.The mission of Jesus was clear to all Israelites and more particularly it was understood by John through divine inspiration.It is the characteristic nature of John, that is the tendency to deny his own...

Gospel According to John. 3.25-28. "Now a discussion about purification arose between John's disciples and a Jew.They came to John and said to him."Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing and all are going to him."John answered," No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven.You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, 'I am not the Messiah ,but I have been sent ahead of him.' Purification! What does it mean? We say God is the perfect being without any impurity.The sense of purity was very much present in the early life of man.Purity can be easily identified in all our activities.Our hands may be impure, dirt and dust accumulate.Our head may be impure, dandruff and lices spread on the scalp , our clothes may be impure and our place of living may be impure.So our senses easily sense the presence of impurity in life.But the impurity that affects the mind is the most significant and...

Gospel According to John 3.22-24 "After this Jesus and his disciples went into the Judea country side and he spent some time there with them and baptized.John was also baptzing at Aenon near Salim because water was abundant there;and people kept coming and were being baptized. John, of course, had not yet been thrown into prison." One may wonder what is the significance of baptzing.God has created man in his image and he belongs to him. He is his creation.Baptizm is a way of purification of our activities, we have accumulated lots and lots of impurities in our mind.Baptizing with water purifies our mind.Of course it is a symbolic act in that pouring an amount of water on our head or body does no more than wetting the surface.The meaning of this symbolism is that our mind is being washed or purified by the power of the Spirit.The Spirit of the God descends and dwells on us when we accept God in our life.Once the impurities are cleared, washed away, God chooses the body to...

Gospel According to John 3.17-21. " Indeed God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world,but in order that the world might be saved through Him.Those who believe in Him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God.And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God." Here God offers us the choice between light and darkness and between godly and ungodly and between redemption and damnation.God loves the world and the created beings so much that the Son was sent to this world, to save the men and women from sin.When we say Son of God, the idea of procreation may come...

Gospel According to John 3.16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life." There is nothing practical or concrete about this Word of Jesus.He asks us to believe that God sent His only Son to the world so that the people may be saved.Jesus was not simply a historical figure who lived , did good things and disappeared.Indeed He was the Son Of God, The Word Incarnate, destined from the creation to appear in the world as the God and Man.His purpose was to lead all the people to God.Think of our life.God has given us life.He has created this world.The life of a person is ,say, a maximum of 90 years, after which he is to depart this world, taking nothing with him, he leaves alone.And he leaves this world to darkness or light.Jesus was the God Incarnate to tell us that our life should not end in darkness, instead it should lead to light.We as the children of God are loved by God so much that w...