John
6:44-51
Jesus
said to the crowd: ‘No one can come to me unless he is drawn by the Father who
sent me, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the
prophets: They will all be taught by God, and Everyone who listens to the
Father and learns from him comes to me. Not that anybody has seen the Father,
except the one who comes from God: he has seen the Father. I tell you most
solemnly, everybody who believes has eternal life. ‘I am the bread of life.
Your fathers ate the manna in the desert and they are dead; but this is the
bread that comes down from heaven, so that a man may eat it and not die. I am
the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread
will live for ever; and the bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life
of the world.’
Food
for thought!
Again
Jesus makes one of those revelations of his: "They will all be taught by
God; Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me."
It means that the Father teaches and we listen; it means that God continues to
teach us. We do well then to learn to listen. This is the first and necessary
condition for being disciple of Jesus.
The
words, student, pupil, disciple and learner mean basically the same. All
represent the same fact: willingness to listen. There are different kinds
of listening. There is the listening of criticism; there is the listening of
resentment; there is the listening of superiority; there is the listening of
indifference; there is the listening of the person who listens only because for
the moment he cannot get the chance to speak. The only listening that is worth
while is that which hears and learns; and that is the only way to listen to
God.
A
student, a pupil, a disciple and a learner with a shut mind is a contradiction
in terms. As long we live we must adopt a learning attitude. Learning is not a
one time event; it is a life long journey leading the learner deeper and deeper
into truths. The learner who feels that he has nothing more to learn he has not
even begun to learn.
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