Day 31 in Lent: Sent into the World
If you make my word your home, you will indeed be my disciples; you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free. – John 8:31
Jesus became like us so we could share in his divine life. By emptying himself, he opened the way for us to be transformed through the Holy Spirit. While the disciples struggled to understand this, Jesus taught that his departure was necessary so the Spirit—the Advocate—could come and lead them into the same relationship he has with the Father.
Pentecost completes Jesus’ mission: the Spirit descends, transforming the disciples into people whose lives reflect the love between Father and Son. The spiritual life is not an escape from the world but a deeper entrance into it, continuing Jesus’ work. As those who share his relationship with the Father, we live out his incarnation, death, and resurrection in our own lives.
True interior life, as Gustavo Gutiérrez says, is freedom from law-driven compulsion—a life guided solely by God’s love. Living by the Spirit is a life of genuine freedom, love, and participation in God’s life.
Our Prayer:
Dear Lord, you are the Truth. When I keep myself rooted in you, I will live in the Truth. Help me, Lord, to live a truthful life, a life in which I am guided not by popularity, public opinion, current fashion, or convenient formulations but by a knowledge that comes from knowing you.
There may be times during which holding on to the Truth is hard and painful, and leads to oppression, persecution, and death. Be with me, Lord, if that time ever comes.
Let me then experience that to hold on to the Truth means to hold on to you, that Love and Truth can never be separated, and that to live truthfully is the same as being faithful to a loving relationship. Lord, bring me always closer to you. Amen.
