Gospel of John, chapter 14:12

Most people make use of a very small portion of their potential. There are various reasons offered for this: lack of confidence; lack of education, and lack of opportunities in life. In today’s scripture passage, however, the Lord says that the person who puts faith in Him will do what He does. He does not say we need more education or more opportunities to do what He does. All He says is that we need to put our faith in Him. If we put our faith in Jesus, He will give us the opportunity of a lifetime; the opportunity to live life to the fullest; in this life and in the next.

Everybody is offered this gift, but not everybody, regretfully, responds to it.

There is an American Indian legend that tells a story about a young brave who found an eagle’s egg and put it into the nest of a prairie chicken. The eaglet hatched and grew up with the chickens. All his life, he did what the chickens did; scratching in the dirt for seeds, clunking and cackling like other chickens.

One day, the eaglet saw a magnificent bird flying with graceful majesty in a cloudless sky. “What a beautiful bird!” he said to his neighbor. “What is it?” “That’s an eagle, the chief of birds,” clucked his neighbor, “but don’t give it a second thought, you could never be like that.”

And so, the little eagle never gave it a second thought; and he died thinking he was a prairie chicken.

It is all too easy to go through life thinking we’re prairie chickens when we’re called by Jesus to soar like eagles above a mediocre existence. We’re called by Him to live the way He lived, and to do what He did by loving one another as He loved us.

The Lord does not expect you to be foolhardy, but He does not want you to play it safe either. Each moment of your day, He gives you a chance to be more than you are; to be a new person if you put your faith in Him.

As He says: “He who puts his faith in Me will do what I do.”

Fr. Hugh Duffy

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