Friday of the
Fifth Week of Lent
(Jeremiah 20:10-13; John 10:31-42)
Today’s gospel looks forward to next Friday when the
Passion of the Lord will be celebrated. The
action takes place on the Feast of the Dedication, known as Hanukkah
today. The Jews are celebrating the
rededication of the temple altar that was defiled during the despotic reign of
Antiochus Epiphanes. In the vision of
John the Evangelist the Jews do not realize that they are committing a more
serious crime in trying to kill Jesus.
The Jews pursue Jesus because he has called himself the “’Son
of God.’” They rightly conclude that making
such a claim Jesus is equating himself to God.
Jesus defends himself by observing that Scripture itself calls some
people “’gods.’” He says that he has
even more right to the title because God has consecrated him and sent him into
the world. Being consecrated or
dedicated like the temple altar, Jesus’ body becomes the place of true sacrifice
when he dies on the cross.
Although we anxiously await now the annual commemoration of
Jesus’ paschal sacrifice, we celebrate the same sacrifice today. In every Eucharist Jesus’ body becomes the
locus of the perfect sacrifice where our sins are forgiven and we receive the
blessing of eternal life. We do not need
any church structure, much less the Jewish temple, to realize these
benefits. All that is necessary are bread
and wine, the words and actions of a priest, and our faith.
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