Against Abba's Heart: Meditations on the Gospel of John Chapters 1-4

by Joshua Elzner

Overview

The Gospel of John is in a special way the Gospel of love and intimacy. It is the Gospel of "belovedness," in which we are granted a particularly vivid insight into the immense love that God the Father has for his beloved Son, and (without any diminution!) for each one of us. The Son himself tells us at the Last Supper: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you" (Jn 15:9), which, if translated more accurately, would read: "With the very love with which the Father has loved me, so have I loved you," meaning: "With the Father's love, given first to me, I have loved you." And he also soon adds: "The Father himself loves you" (16:27). During this supper, one of the disciples, the one "whom Jesus loved" (13:23), leans against the breast of Christ, reposing against his very bosom. This is a beautifully intimate moment, for at this meal Jesus opens his Heart vulnerably before those who are closest to him, before his Apostles. In their presence he addresses his heavenly Father in prayer, thereby drawing them into the ineffable bond of love and intimacy between the Father and the Son, with the breath of the Spirit ever passing between them in their ceaseless dialogue.

This book humbly seeks to offer an approach to the Word of God that is fueled entirely by receptivity, wonder-filled openness, and obedient docility...by the attitude of Mary, the first and fullest recipient of the Word of God given to humanity. Indeed, the reason that the Word of God, written over two-thousand years ago, can address us with full force today, with complete contemporaneity, is that it lives within the bosom of Mary-Church, the Mother and Bride in whom we are all conceived, born, and carried throughout this life unto the consummation of union with God in eternity. The Church, indeed, is the true recipient of Scripture, and also its custodian.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798319689122
Publisher:	Barnes & Noble Press
Publication date:	05/22/2025
Pages:	358
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.89(d)

About the Author

I know that your heart yearns, little one,
to create something beautiful, a testament of love,
a reflection, in the dimness of this world,
of the radiant beauty of my own eternal light.
I know the longing within to give birth without,
the desire to create, sharing in eternal creativity.
I want you to know, beloved, and to feel
that the greatest masterpiece which I desire for you
is the unspeakable beauty which is you yourself.
You, the one whom I infinitely love, are the icon,
transparent to my shining glory, enfolded in my grace,
a blaze of fiery light bursting through the eyes,
a figure whose countenance, whose heart, whose life
is a reflection of the life, the heart, the face which is my own.