The seed of faith

The texts today from the Roman Catholic Lectionary have levels of impact on us as we engage the words in study. The passage from the First Letter of John is described by Friar Jude Winkler as very dualistic. The cognitive dissonance for modern believers who trust that they are following Jesus is the assertion “those who have been born of God do not sin, because God’s seed abides in them; they cannot sin, because they have been born of God.” (1 John 3.9) The exegesis of Christian writers and theologians concerning this passage opens some understanding of the ways in which Satan works to draw us away from our trust in God and love of our brothers and sisters. The calling of Andrew and the “beloved disciple” ( in the opinion of some scholars) to Jesus is a call to a change in direction. We, like these searchers from the disciplesof John the Baptist , are, as Don Schwager notes, invited by Jesus to “come and see”. In our attraction to Jesus we take the first step in a direction. The direction we choose is dualistic. We are either headed  toward Jesus to become one with the Father as expressed in Johannine teaching or we are being taken in the direction of darkness by Satan. The seed of God, Creator, in us is the compass which activates our faith and allows us to hear, see and taste the experience of staying with Jesus.