"For God so loved the world, said Saint John, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.  He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

Homily:

"For God so loved the world, said Saint John, that he gave his only Son."

All the true Christians, following the Apostles, in the light of what these men, chosen by the Master, wrote under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, all the true Christians confess their faith in God who is Trinity:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  All the true Christians believe in the love of God spread and communicated to men and women on earth through the intermediary of the one and unique mediator:  Christ!  Following the Apostle Saint John, all the true Christians say again:  "So we know and believe the love God has for us." (1 John 4:16)

It is necessary for us to believe in the love of God, for it is a Mystery! It is the very Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity!  Now, a mystery is a truth which we cannot absolutely fully understand:  we can understand only some fragments, some grains of truth.  But the faith, a living, supernatural and sincere faith, prompted by a desire to please God, who reveals himself, in all things, this faith collects in itself all the fragments of the mystery which surpasses us, and thus, this very same faith allows us to catch a glimpse of and to understand, so to speak, this truth which surpasses us.  Faith allows therefore the Christians to attain a knowledge other than the ordinary knowledge of the intelligence.  That's why Saint John, in the previously quoted text of his first epistle, says:  "So we know and believe the love God has for us." (1 John 4:16)  But Saint John only takes up again the teaching of Jesus himself, who said, praying his Father:  "This is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God." (John 17:3)

"That whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."

Even though, following the Apostles and Saint John, the Church announces that "God is Love" (1 John 4:16), it is still nevertheless true that, though we love God now, it will only be in the eternity that we shall have God’s life in us. The passage of today’s gospel is clear:  "Whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."  The lack of perdition and the gift of eternal life is the object of a future life!  Saint John used the future when he wrote:  "will not perish but have". . .  Even though we believe now in the Son of God sent by the Father, we will be assured of our eternal salvation only in a future time:  the one the Lord chose for us as to be the end of our life on earth.  God is Love, but, through our faith, we are called to answer this love every day of our life, until that Day which will  be the last one!

"For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.  He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God."

The following of Saint John’s words explains well what we have just said:  all depends on our faith!  Admittedly, the Christian life is also a sacramental life, and, with regard to the Mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, the first sacrament is Baptism, received in the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  But faith and sacraments cannot be separated:  both are an essential part of our Christian life.  The Lord clearly taught it in these terms:  "He who believes and is baptized will be saved." (Mark 16:16)  Nevertheless, all depends on our faith:  "But he who does not believe will be condemned." (Mark 16:16)  It is therefore a crude mistake to put forward, at the top of our preoccupations the fact that, since our baptism in Christ, we would already be saved for  eternity!  Yes!  It is a crude mistake!  Baptism is important, fundamental, but it is still true that "the victory that overcomes the world," it is "our faith." (1 John 5:4)

The true Christians were baptized in the Name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!  In the Roman Catholic Church, among others, the Christians also receive a sacrament which gives Baptism all its perfection:  it is the sacrament of Confirmation.  If God’s Love already appears very clearly in Baptism, through the fact that God, then, forgives us all our sins, this Love of the Lord towards us receives a suavity without equal in the sacrament of Confirmation, when the new baptized receives this Unction of scented oil - the Holy Oil - which confirms him, on the road of life, in this presence and this good odor of Christ!

In this spirit of love and of faith in God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, let us celebrate together the Eucharist of today:  let us give thanks to the Lord for the gift of faith and sacraments which are his work of mercy through the ages!  May the Most Holy Virgin Mary, our unique model in the faith in the Son of God, help us by her all powerful prayer!