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Life Abounding: A Reading of John's Gospel
The fourth gospel addresses the thirst for life that lies at the depth of every human heart. The life in question is not just physical life but the “more abundant life‘” (John 10:10) that is nothing less than a share in the “eternal life” of the divine communion of love. In Life Abounding, Brendan Byrne, SJ, facilitates a reading of John for readers today so that it may move them from mere existence to a conscious sense of sharing the divine eternal life—and the joy that goes with it.The reading of the Fourth Gospel offered here remains conscious of the difficulties John presents on several fronts for contemporary readers. Byrne explains the text in a way that is critical yet sensitive to the gospel’s distinctive character and the untapped treasures it may yet contain for theology and spirituality today. This volume represents the completion of Byrne’s highly successful series of books on the four gospels, which have proven to be rich resources for preachers, teachers, and all who desire a more profound understanding of the life of Jesus as it is presented in the gospels.
- GenresTheology
384 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2014
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July 4, 2017235 - Impotent to bring about conversion, divine love is at its most vulnerable here and yet is not withdrawn. Judas, along with the others, will be loved "to the end."
250 - Dwelling:
In the Old Testament tradition God dwelt with Israel wandering in Sinai and came to rest in the temple at Jerusalem, leading to Solomon's exclamation at the time of its inauguration: "But will God indeed dwell on the earth?" (I Kings 8:27). Earlier in the gospel (2:19-21) Jesus had spoken of himself ("his body") as the new temple of divine indwelling. Now that indwelling is extended to the bodies of believers.
251 - Paraclete
Once more he points to the gift of the Paraclete - now explicitly identified as "the Holy Spirit" - as the remedy for the vacuum his own absence will create. The Paraclete will take up his teaching role. The Paraclete will do so not in the sense of adding new teaching in a quantitative way but by "reminding" the disciples of things Jesus had said in such a way as to bring out the significance for the new situation in which they will find themselves."
Footnote: the masculine pronouns used of the Paraclete in the second half of v. 26 show that the evangelist has in mind a personal presence., not just a force.
Page 252 - The Gifts of Peace and Joy: 14:27-29
With Jesus about to depart, his bequest of peace (v.27) is at one level simply the conventional Semitic expression of farewell: "Shalom" ("Peace"). In the present context, however, it is far more. In the biblical tradition stretching behind the gospels, "peace" is a central aspect of the salvation promised in the messianic age (e.g., Isa 52:7; 54:10; 57:19; 60:17; Zech 8:12; 9:10). It is in the final place and fundamentally peace with God - something which Jesus is uniquely in a position to give in view of the reconciliation he can offer because of his death and bequest of the Spirit (20:21-23). This is a peace that the world is utterly incapable of giving. Worldly authority can from time to time bring about an absence of hostilities between human beings and human societies; it cannot errode the fundamental insecurity and anxiety at the root of human existence. The peace Jesus is leaving with the disciples extends God's grace and love deep into the human heart. That is why, in the face of his departure, he can repeat the injunction with which he began: "Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid" (14:1).
256 - "Bearing fruit" - a recurrent theme throughout the passage probably refers to all the ways in which the love of Jesus which ultimately derives of course from the Father (the "vinedresser") finds expression in the love members of the believeing community display toward one another. Such acts of love derive from the "sap" of divine love coursing from the "Vine" stem to the branches, which are at last explicitly identified as the disciples ("you").
257 - "Remain"/"dwell" in his love as he "remains"/"dwells" continually in the love of the Father (1:18). No joy can be compared with the joy of discovering that one is very much loved by someone whom one longed to be loved by but did not dare hope that such might ever be the case.
263 - Love-unbounded, selfless, pure gift-is hard for human beings to handle and accept. It invites to relationship and hence to change and growth, beyond the limits of views and perceptions with which human beings have been comfortable hitherto. Sin at its most fundamental is perhaps a refusal to believe that one is lovable to God at all, that God could be so good as to love simply because that is the divine nature, without preexisting grounds or cause. We are not far here from what the English Benedictine theologian Sebastian Moore described as the essence of sin.
"God loves us...And God's taste is excellent. Whatever other people may think of us, God thinks a lot of us, and he's right. Sin consists in disagreeing with God's estimate: in saying, "No, I'm really nothing to write home about." Sin is the failure to love ourselves as God loves us. Sin...makes nonsense out of the beauty of creation and knocks the life out of everything."
Ultimately, it all repeats the pattern of the primeval sin in the Garden (Genesis 3), where the serpent contrived to bring the first pair down by distorting the truth about God - portraying the prohibition concerning the fruit of one tree as a ploy by God to keep something back from the human pair, thereby eroding love, intimacy, and trust.
250 - Dwelling:
In the Old Testament tradition God dwelt with Israel wandering in Sinai and came to rest in the temple at Jerusalem, leading to Solomon's exclamation at the time of its inauguration: "But will God indeed dwell on the earth?" (I Kings 8:27). Earlier in the gospel (2:19-21) Jesus had spoken of himself ("his body") as the new temple of divine indwelling. Now that indwelling is extended to the bodies of believers.
251 - Paraclete
Once more he points to the gift of the Paraclete - now explicitly identified as "the Holy Spirit" - as the remedy for the vacuum his own absence will create. The Paraclete will take up his teaching role. The Paraclete will do so not in the sense of adding new teaching in a quantitative way but by "reminding" the disciples of things Jesus had said in such a way as to bring out the significance for the new situation in which they will find themselves."
Footnote: the masculine pronouns used of the Paraclete in the second half of v. 26 show that the evangelist has in mind a personal presence., not just a force.
Page 252 - The Gifts of Peace and Joy: 14:27-29
With Jesus about to depart, his bequest of peace (v.27) is at one level simply the conventional Semitic expression of farewell: "Shalom" ("Peace"). In the present context, however, it is far more. In the biblical tradition stretching behind the gospels, "peace" is a central aspect of the salvation promised in the messianic age (e.g., Isa 52:7; 54:10; 57:19; 60:17; Zech 8:12; 9:10). It is in the final place and fundamentally peace with God - something which Jesus is uniquely in a position to give in view of the reconciliation he can offer because of his death and bequest of the Spirit (20:21-23). This is a peace that the world is utterly incapable of giving. Worldly authority can from time to time bring about an absence of hostilities between human beings and human societies; it cannot errode the fundamental insecurity and anxiety at the root of human existence. The peace Jesus is leaving with the disciples extends God's grace and love deep into the human heart. That is why, in the face of his departure, he can repeat the injunction with which he began: "Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid" (14:1).
256 - "Bearing fruit" - a recurrent theme throughout the passage probably refers to all the ways in which the love of Jesus which ultimately derives of course from the Father (the "vinedresser") finds expression in the love members of the believeing community display toward one another. Such acts of love derive from the "sap" of divine love coursing from the "Vine" stem to the branches, which are at last explicitly identified as the disciples ("you").
257 - "Remain"/"dwell" in his love as he "remains"/"dwells" continually in the love of the Father (1:18). No joy can be compared with the joy of discovering that one is very much loved by someone whom one longed to be loved by but did not dare hope that such might ever be the case.
263 - Love-unbounded, selfless, pure gift-is hard for human beings to handle and accept. It invites to relationship and hence to change and growth, beyond the limits of views and perceptions with which human beings have been comfortable hitherto. Sin at its most fundamental is perhaps a refusal to believe that one is lovable to God at all, that God could be so good as to love simply because that is the divine nature, without preexisting grounds or cause. We are not far here from what the English Benedictine theologian Sebastian Moore described as the essence of sin.
"God loves us...And God's taste is excellent. Whatever other people may think of us, God thinks a lot of us, and he's right. Sin consists in disagreeing with God's estimate: in saying, "No, I'm really nothing to write home about." Sin is the failure to love ourselves as God loves us. Sin...makes nonsense out of the beauty of creation and knocks the life out of everything."
Ultimately, it all repeats the pattern of the primeval sin in the Garden (Genesis 3), where the serpent contrived to bring the first pair down by distorting the truth about God - portraying the prohibition concerning the fruit of one tree as a ploy by God to keep something back from the human pair, thereby eroding love, intimacy, and trust.
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