The words seem hard: "Whoever refuses to believe is condemned already". But belief is not just a matter of saying words one way or the other. First, we need to remember that God sent His Son into the world "not to condemn the world but so that through Him the world might be saved". Jesus is the concrete proof of God's overwhelming love for us and His desire that we respond to that love. Jesus' life - His words and actions - are a light to the world. They tell us the way our human life is to be lived by modelling it on that of Jesus - in His love, His passion to serve, His readiness to forgive, His hunger that justice be done to all, in His concern for the needy and the marginalized, in His sense of freedom and His spirit of peace. Not to believe is to turn our backs on such a life and live in the darkness of hatred, anger, violence, revenge, greed. It is not God who condemns; it is we who choose to stay in the dark. "But the man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God" (Jn. 3:21).