Thursday of the
Fifth Week in Lent
(Genesis 17:3-9; John 8:51-59)
Today’s gospel was part of a longer passage that used to
be read on the Sunday before Palm Sunday. It became the source of the tradition
of covering sacred images during the last two weeks of Lent. The statement that Jesus hid from the Jews
who were about to stone him was taken as a cue to veil all statutes. Today covering images is optional. In any case, the processional cross should
not be veiled until Good Friday. However
much some people think it important to continue the custom, it is external to
the meaning of the passage which is very significant in itself.
In the dialogue with the Jews, Jesus asserts that he
existed before Abraham. He also says that
he has intimate knowledge of the Father.
From these statements the Church has concluded that He is God like the
Father in all things except their mutual relationship. The conclusion is given added testimony when
Jesus says later in the gospel, “’I and the Father are one.’” Christian theologians have reasoned that the
identity of Jesus as God is crucial for the atonement of human sin. If he were not God as well as human, then his
sacrifice could not have made up for the sins of humanity. Only the work of a human
of infinite greatness – a God-man – could restore the justice that was taken
away through sin.
Atonement may sound remote even unimportant as we consider
Jesus’ cruel death. But in thinking
through why that death meant more than any other in history, we have to ask who
Jesus was. Certainly other good people have
offered themselves in sacrifice for the good of others. Certainly other innocent people have
undergone similarly brutal deaths as Jesus.
But because Jesus is God, his death could bear the sins of the world.
