Gospel Reflection For The 20th day of March in the year of Our Lord, 2024
Gospel
John 8:31-42
31 Then Jesus said to those Jews, who believed him: If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. 33 They answered him: We are the seed of Abraham, and we have never been slaves to any man: how sayest thou: you shall be free? 34 Jesus answered them: Amen, amen I say unto you: that whosoever committeth sin, is the servant of sin. 35 Now the servant abideth not in the house for ever; but the son abideth for ever.
36 If therefore the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. 37 I know that you are the children of Abraham: but you seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. 38 I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and you do the things that you have seen with your father. 39 They answered, and said to him: Abraham is our father. Jesus saith to them: If you be the children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham. 40 But now you seek to kill me, a man who have spoken the truth to you, which I have heard of God. This Abraham did not.
41 You do the works of your father. They said therefore to him: We are not born of fornication: we have one Father, even God. 42 Jesus therefore said to them: If God were your Father, you would indeed love me. For from God I proceeded, and came; for I came not of myself, but he sent me
This was perhaps the central misunderstanding of the Jewish people. They believed that their salvation was based on their ethnicity. Truly, God made the descendants of Abraham His Chosen People, but he also said that they must worship Him alone, follow His commandments and teachings. God repeatedly warned them through the prophets that if were they not obedient and faithful, they would not be saved. Indeed, because of their special role and relationship with God, they were held to a higher standard than all other people. Rather than understanding this truth and obeying God, they adopted a view of religion that was both nationalistic and legalistic. Essentially, they made gods of their heredity, their Law and the Temple.
An old Buddhist saying is appropriate to this discussion of Judaism and Christianity: “Wise words are like a finger pointing to the moon.” If we were out together on the occasion of a full moon and you said to me, “Look at that beautiful moon!” and pointed at the moon, my appropriate response would be to turn and look at the moon. Your gesture would be a guide for me. Were I to look only at your hand, not following your intent, I would not see the moon. God gave His promises to Abraham and His Law to Moses. His intent was to give to the Hebrew people a pure religion. It was not for them to put faith in the genetics of Abraham or the letter of the Law. The meaning of the Law, as Jesus said, was to sin neither against God nor one’s neighbor out of love and devotion.
What they forget is that God also said, God also said to Abraham: “On your part, you and your descendants after you must keep my covenant throughout the ages.”
So, in today’s Gospel, we find Jesus offering to the Jews of His time a promise that they could not comprehend. They wonder what He could offer them that they did not have through Abraham and the Law. He says that He will free them from the Law and if they will keep His words, understand and follow His teachings, they may attain eternal salvation. They are confused and offended. How could this simple, poor, humble man from questionable origins offer more to them than God? The answer is simple, He was and is God. They could only see the pointing finger and not the moon. It is wise for us to remember that just like the religious Jews of Jesus’ time, none of us are saved by being born into a Catholic family or through going through the motions of Catholic worship. Each of us, individually, must believe in and worship Jesus as God and follow His commandments. There is no such thing as collective salvation.
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Gospel passages are taken from the Douay Rheims Bible.