Wednesday, April 10, 2019

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

(Daniel 3:14-20.91-92.95; John 8:31-42)

The ironic lament, “With friends like that, who needs enemies?” helps to understand today’s gospel.  Jesus is shown defending himself against Jews “who believed in him.”  Although it is not certain, the evangelist is probably reading back into the life of Jesus a debate that took place in the early Church.  By “those who believed in him,” John has in mind Jewish Christians with an inadequate understanding of their faith.  They do not recognize that Jesus frees people from the burden of the Law.

St. Paul provides a complete explanation of this idea in his Letter to the Romans.  He writes that only by faith in Christ as God’s only true messenger can one live righteously.  Trying to observe the parts of the Law which describe a righteous life by oneself is impossible.  It would be like digging a canal with a teaspoon.  Faith in Jesus implies loving God and neighbors with more than words.

Many today have a tenuous hold on faith. Like those who are said to believe in Jesus in the gospel, they do not understand what faith implies.  This kind of Christian largely follows secular norms with little attention to worship and doctrine.  We need to remind them of what faith in Jesus entails.  Inviting them to Mass or our small, faith-based communities may provide them some insight into authentic Christianity.  Faith calls us not to abandon such people but to endeavor to show them the light of Christ.

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

(Numbers 21:4-9; John 8:21-30)

Many Catholic children, even those in parochial schools, do not attend mass on Sunday.  If you would ask them why, they say that they sometimes have a soccer game or go out of town.  Their parents, of course, are not attending either.  They may find themselves one day like the Jews in today’s gospel unable to understand Jesus.  They may think that he suffered a needless death that was tantamount to suicide.

We are probably mistaken if we think of the dialogue in the gospel as an actual conversation. More likely it is the evangelist’s rebuttal of the Jewish denial of Jesus as the Messiah.  He uses ideas and phrases from Jesus but directs himself to Jewish critics of Christianity a generation or two later.  These Jews, the evangelist is saying, cannot appreciate what Jesus said and much less did.  They think in worldly ways that Jesus was an imposter who claimed to be God.  They cannot accept that he spoke and acted as God’s real representative. They also think that they did away with Jesus on the cross.  But the evangelist knows that the crucifixion was the supreme sacrament of divine love.  Because he did His will, the Father has raised Jesus from death to glory.

Jesus’ sacrifice is memorialized in the mass, especially on Sunday.  It is not just a lesson in recall but a re-enactment of the sacrifice for our advantage.  Somehow we must draw both children and their parents to this sacrament.  Only in this way will they transcend worldly ways to participate in Christ’s glory.

Monday, April 8, 2019

Monday of the Fifth Week in Lent

(Daniel 13:1-9.15-17.19-30.33-62; John 8:12-20)

Law and order advocates believe that stricter laws, tougher judges, and more prisons are the best ways to remedy crime.  They would praise the sagacity of Daniel in the first reading today.  He ferrets out two culprits willing to see an innocent woman stoned to cover up their lust.  However, hardliners are not likely to approve of Jesus’ more daring way to bring about justice.

In the Gospel of John Jesus repeatedly announces that he has not come to judge the world.  His judgment would not be defective, but neither would it would produce good people.  It would only condemn everyone.  But God loves the world and does not want anyone condemned.  He sends Jesus to save the world by offering himself at the appointed time.  Jesus will turn human hearts to goodness by graciously allowing himself to be crucified.  Those who believe that Jesus’ sacrifice demonstrates God’s love will have eternal life.  Those who deride such sacrifice are doomed to darkness.

We have entered into what used to be called Passiontide when all images were covered in Catholic churches.  Our minds and hearts are to focus on Jesus supreme sacrifice.  Once again, he gives himself willingly to be tortured, reviled, and killed so that we might be justified.

Friday, April 5, 2019

Friday of the Fourth Week in Lent

(Wisdom 2:1a.12-22; John 7:1-2,10.25-30)

There exist manuscripts of Matthew’s gospel which name Barabbas “Jesus Barabbas.”  This would be the full name of the notorious bandit whose release the people demand in all four passion narratives.  Barabbas is obviously a patronym since bar in Hebrew means son of.  Then he would be Jesus, the son of Abbas. But, of course, Abbas means father in Hebrew.  So Barabbas may be in a sense Jesus, son of the Father.  But this is very similar to the way Christians recognize Jesus Christ.  He is the Son of God the Father.  In today’s gospel Jesus notes a similar confusion about his identity.

The Jews think that they know who Jesus is.  They say that he is from Galilee and is the son of Joseph and Mary.  Although that is true in a sense, it does not indicate Jesus’ deepest origins.  As he yells in the temple area, he is from the one who sent him whom the Jews do not know.  Of course, he is referring to God, his Father in heaven.

What is important is that we do not become confused about who Jesus is.  As John, the evangelist, continually emphasizes, he is the Son of God.  He came from God to save us from our sinful desires.  In acknowledging Jesus as the Son of God, we imply that he is our lawgiver and our protector.  He also came to be our best friend.  With good reason then we are wise to follow him.

Thursday, April 4, 2019

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

(Exodus 32:7-14; John 5:31-47)

Astute readers of the gospel will note that there is no trial of Jesus in John’s Passion narrative.  They will ask why Jesus is brought before the Sanhedrin in the Passion narratives of Matthew, Mark, and Luke but not in the fourth gospel’s.  Of course, they have a point.  But it is not that there is no trial of Jesus before Jews in the Gospel of John.  Rather he is continually on trial.  Today's gospel passage presents an example. 

The Jews are harassing Jesus because he has healed a paralytic on the Sabbath.  They want to know by what authority did he do so.  Jesus responds by bringing forth witnesses.  His first witness is John the Baptist who said that he saw the Spirit come down to rest on Jesus.  The second testimony that Jesus presents is his mighty works.  He has turned water into wine and cured the royal official’s son as well as the paralytic.  These deeds likewise testify that Jesus is from God.  The third witness is none less than God the Father who prepared the way for Jesus.  As today’s first reading relates, the Father spared the people in Sinai where they had begun to worship an idol.  Jesus is implying that God was merciful that day so that the people’s descendants might see Jesus in whom their numbers will multiply exponentially. 

We live in a time when fewer and fewer of the people in our midst believe that Jesus is God.  They find him a great man but not necessarily any more divine than the Buddha or Socrates.  We must present ourselves as witnesses to Jesus’ divinity along with those whom Jesus names in today’s gospel.  We do so by talking about him with those whom we meet.  We improve on our verbal testimony by following his teaching of love for all.