March 20, 2023 - 9:17am

Lenten Meditation: Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Lenten Meditation: Wednesday, March 22, 2023

John 5:19-29

Jesus speaks to us today of eternal life in two senses. First, he tells us that those who hear his words and trust his Father have already “passed from death to life.” Second, Jesus tells us that the dead “who have done good” will come out of their graves into life.

The life that Jesus offers us, then, is something that we receive even now, and it stretches into eternity. There is a continuity between the two and not a disconnect; a door and not a wall; a bridge and not a chasm.

At the Great Vigil of Easter, we will baptize two members of the Cathedral Community, Mariko Endo and Grayson Hadley, and they will pass with Jesus through death into eternal life. After the water bath, the Bishop will pray:

Heavenly Father,
we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit
you have bestowed upon these your servants
the forgiveness of sin,
and have raised them to the new life of grace.

That passage into the new life of grace has happened already to those of us who are baptized. We have been raised to new life.

Today, pray for the grace to trust that you have already entered into the risen life of Jesus. What is one thing you want to do today as a person who already lives “the new life of grace” that you might not do otherwise?

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