Hello everyone! My name is Elise Brooklyn and this is Scattering Flowers, a podcast where we scatter flowers of faith.
I’m so happy to be with you reading the daily Gospels together.
Let’s get started! Today is Thursday, April 3rd, and we will be reading John 5, 31-47.
Follow along in your Bible if you have one.
Now let’s read John 5, 31-47.
If I bear witness to myself, my testimony is not true.
There is another who bears witness to me, and I know that the testimony which he bears to me is true.
You sent to John, and he was brawn witness to the truth.
Not that the testimony which I receive is from man, but I say this that you may be saved.
He was burning and shining a lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light.
But the testimony which I have is greater than the works of John.
For the works which the Father has granted me to accomplish, these very works which I am doing bear me witness that the Father has sent me.
And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness to me.
His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him whom he has sent.
You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness to me.
Yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
I do not rejoice glory from men, but I know that you have not the love of God within you.
I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me.
If another comes in his own name, him you will receive.
How can you believe you receive glory from another and do not seek the glory that comes from only God?
Do not think that I come accuse you to the Father.
It is Moses who accuses you, on whom you send your hope.
If you believed in Moses, you had believed me, for he wrote of me.
But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?
This was a tough one to put into words.
My dad read me a story to help me understand today’s reading.
Saint Augustine was walking down the seaside meditating on the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
Then he saw a boy filling a hole in the sand with seawater.
Saint Augustine asked what he was doing, and the boy answered that he was trying to empty the sea by pouring all of its water into that hole.
Upon hearing his answer, the saint said that that was impossible.
The boy’s answer was that if what he was doing was impossible, it was even less possible to try to understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
Jesus was trying to say in today’s reading that he is who he says he is.
Like we talked about earlier this week, God is three persons in one.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
We may not ever fully understand it, but we can still believe the mystery of it.
Let’s pray.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Dear God, even though we don’t understand the mystery of the Holy Trinity, help us to always believe in it.
Saint Augustine, pray for us.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Thank you so much for listening.
I’ll be back tomorrow to scatter more flowers.
See ya!