What gives us confidence toward God? In today’s Epistle, Saint John tells us that our confidence rests on two things: faith in the name of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, and love for one another.

To believe in the name of Jesus means, first of all, to trust that He is our Saviour. This is, after all, what His name means: The Lord saves. The fact that we must believe in Him in order to be saved does not mean that salvation is somehow our own achievement. Quite the contrary. We are saved by the grace of God, who gave His only begotten Son to bear our sins on the cross of Calvary, winning for us the forgiveness of sins and the hope of eternal life.

Saint John, the beloved apostle of Jesus, is often called the Apostle of Love. In today’s Epistle, he speaks about love as well: “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

This sounds like a command, doesn’t it? But can love be commanded? Does a command not seem contrary to the very nature of love, which must be given freely rather than offered out of obligation? Commands are often associated with punishment, and punishment produces fear. Yet the same apostle tells us that “he that feareth is not made perfect in love.”

Nicodemus came to Jesus at night and spoke to Him with great respect. Yet he saw Him as nothing more than a teacher, a rabbi. Nicodemus recognized that God was with Jesus, but he could not believe that Jesus Himself was God made flesh.

There have always been people who view Jesus in much the same way. They admire Him as a great moral teacher, a prophet, or even a social reformer (though that was never His mission). They are willing to place Him among the greatest figures in human history, perhaps even above most of them. But in the end, they see Him as only a man.

“And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” This is how Saint Luke describes what took place fifty days after Easter: Jesus fulfilled His promise to send upon the apostles the gift of the Father — the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God opened both their minds and their tongues, enabling them to understand God’s marvelous plan of salvation and to proclaim it in a way that everyone could comprehend.

“The end of all things is at hand.” This is not an easy truth to accept, for among all these things, we ourselves are included. Saint Peter wrote these words shortly before he was crucified in Rome—upside down, according to Tradition. Nearly two thousand years have passed since then. How much water has flowed into the sea, and how many people have been born, lived, and died...