Who do we answer to?

Mass Readings: March 5

First:	Isaiah 49:8-15
Resp:	Psalm 145:8-9,13-14,17-18
Gospel:	John 5:17-30

John 5:30 "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.

Today we, as a culture and community and even as a nation, are losing a sense of tradition and heritage. We are losing the sense of something greater than ourselves and our sense of purpose. More and more I think we tend to judge and act according to our own limited knowledge and sense of righteousness, which is very self serving. Jesus' judgment is true because it is not his own, but that of the one who sent him.
I am always taken back a bit by people who deny not only the creation and salvation stories in the Bible, but they even deny the very existence of God. If they think that they are products of some random accident, who's judgment are they accountable to? We have the Word of God, that Word being embodied in the person of Jesus. God has given him as a covenant to the people as Isaiah 49:8 says. When we deny the son, we deny the father. And we can even deny him without consciously denying the stories from the Bible as well. We can deny him when we fail to obey him, and when we fail to trust him, when we fail to honor him as our judge, when we rely on our own judgment and rationality instead of his judgment. And when we do that we deny the father as well.
Judgment here is not just the handing out of punishment, but it is the discernment and decision making that we do every day. It is how we rationalize, or justify what we do. Our justification starts with our fear of God and respect for His Word, Jesus Christ.

Father, help me by your Holy Spirit, to more fully appreciate what you have done for me , and not only for me, but for all people. Help me to remember that you sent your son for the world and not just for me, and that there is something greater than myself and my own understanding and sense of righteousness. Help me to look beyond myself to see you.

Amen