Encountering Christ and Becoming Christ

“Everything the Father gives me will come to me and I will not reject anyone who comes to me…” (Jn 6: 35-40). What a mind-boggling thought that the Father has given me/you to Christ, the Son of God and Savior of humankind. Why would the Father do that? Because the Father loves us, wants us to be safe from the Evil One and desires us to live for Him here on earth and with Him eternally. Eternal life begins here on earth, however, with each of us doing the Father’s will. That will is that all of us, all with whom we have contact, are saved and experience the Spirit’s transformative powers within us and through us. Jesus wills that we become one with the Father as the Father and He are one (cf. Jn 17:21).  We see this will accomplished in St. Paul, who, in today’s first reading is a persecutor of the Church and, later, through God’s intervention in His life, becomes a disciple of Christ.  We, too, who encounter the Lord, are meant to be as transformed by that encounter as Paul was.

 God promises fullness of life to those who believe: “I have come that you may have life and have it in abundance” (Jn 10:10).   He gives fullness of life to all those who come to Him and believe in Him, just as He did to Peter and all of the apostles, to Mary Magdalen, the woman at the well, Veronica, St. Paul and the women and men who spread the Good News with him and to all of His disciples since His death and resurrection.  Am I, in turn, a source of life for others? Do others leave an encounter with me experiencing new life, being filled with a divine power that prior to our encounter seemed dormant? If not, why not? If not, what in me needs to change?