“Jesus said:
‘My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. . . .
No one can take them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,
and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand.
The Father and I are one.’” Jn 10:27-30

This very short Gospel passage reveals the most important thing we have to discover, sooner rather than later, during our relatively short lives:  “that you and I have been related to God, our Father, long before we came to relate to anything or anyone else.”¹

And no one who refuses to believe in or trust Jesus, can take themself out of Jesus’ hand, into which the Father “has given us.”

It is God who has made us “who we are and who we can be by his own eternal purpose, which cannot be altered by any force or circumstance in this world. We may refuse this calling or remain stubbornly unaware of it; but God continues to call us and to offer us what we need to fulfill these callings. And the degree to which those callings are answered or refused has consequences for eternity”² – consequences for us and for others – for now and for eternity.

So, no one, not even ourselves, can take us (or any other person) out of the Father’s hand. (John 10:29)

REFLECT

Ponder these wise words of Archbishop Rowan Williams, especially the last paragraph. God made us, you and me and everyone of us, capable of being who we are and who we can become, not by working on this alone. Who we are and what the society around us is now and can be is up to how often and how well we comprehend that right here, right now, we are all in God’s hands. And the miracle we are hoping for, living in the kingdom of God, is not going to come about by some miracle that God will perform alone. The miracle is us learning how to cooperate with God and each other in making this the kingdom of God.

When was the last time God, the Father, thought about you and me and everyone?

When was the last time we (I) thought about God, the Father?

When was the last time you and someone else talked about whether or not we believe that God is attentive to us and that we are actually “in God’s hand”?

When was the last time God, the Father, thought about each of the people we saw yesterday or are going to be with today? When was the last time we tried to see them as God, the Father, sees them? What do you think the Father’s “eternal purpose” is for them and for us?  Might our purpose include helping each other’s “ eternal purpose” come to fruition?  Might each of our “eternal purpose” include helping each? Is there something I need to change about my way of seeing myself and others so that God who is holding us in his hand can be more truly revealed in us and through us?

Be still and listen. Listen for the voice of God, the Father, calling you, me and everyone to an awareness that we are all right here, right now, being held in God’s hand.

And so the Lord has commanded us,
“I have made you a light to the Gentiles,
that you may be an instrument of salvation
to the ends of the earth.” Acts 12:47

Sister Loretta

1. Being Disciples: Essentials of the Christian Life by Rowan Williams , 2016.
2.  Ibid.