It is impossible to accept the death of the soul unless one possesses another life, outside of the soul's illusory life... in the hands of our Father who is in secret. Simone Weil
Jesus said, "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die. "I know that his command leads to eternal life." John 12:32
I and the Father are one, through and through
How are we to interpret 'commands' that seem harsh? How do we reconcile our images of God with God? Is our translation that gives us 'command' in question? What I am left with, at the very least, is this. As we shall see Jesus is very keen, almost insistent, for his disciples to appreciate that he and the Father are one, that when we see Jesus we see the Father, that there is no gap. Here is the crisis of trust that the Trinity has embarked upon resolving once and for all – we can’t give up to or willingly fall back into something, into someone that isn’t wide, strong and benevolent and true. And Jesus wants to show us that this is God, even as he foresaw what was ahead.
Question: Does the will of God really mean life for me?
Our idea of God tells us more about ourselves than about him writes Thomas Merton. Embedded within many of our questions, or maybe the backcloth to them, is our view of, or deepest impression of, how God seems to us. This is often riddled with suspicion and some dis-ease. This is Jesus’s greatest passion, to show us that obeying God is life, that we are not merely agents but sons and daughters, not pawns but friends. When we imagine God we are to look at Jesus, for when we do we see the Father too!
Take another long look at the picture and Simone Weil's lines.
Andrew Hook