Sometimes I see a bumper sticker, or a little sign discreetly tucked away in a restaurant, with just “3-16.” It refers to John 3:16, the most loved and most motivating passage in Christian Scripture, which we hear in our Gospel on Trinity Sunday. God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might … have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through him. But does this glowingly positive Gospel contradict itself when the very next sentence says that those who do not believe in him are condemned? No. The Johannine Gospel’s context for condemnation is persons who decide willfully to reject the light. Many spiritual teachers of our Catholic heritage have talked about our having an “inner eye,” an eye of the heart, open to divine light. The great 20th century theologian Karl Rahner said we have a supernatural existential, a God-created capacity to hear the voice of God speaking through our human experience. We also have freedom. We can refuse to live in the light, choose to pour concrete over our God-given inner eye, tune out the voice of God. Refusing the light willfully is the action that is condemned. God remains non-condemning love, waiting until we truly come to our senses!
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia
