Thursday, March 26, 2020

John 5:31-47

Jesus said to the Jews: 

“If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true. But there is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true. You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth. I do not accept human testimony, but I say this so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light. But I have testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf. But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form, and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf. But you do not want to come to me to have life. 

“I do not accept human praise; moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”

Throughout the Gospels, Jesus seems more intent on concealing his identity as the Won of God that in revealing it.  This is most pointedly true in the Gospel of St. Mark.  Jesus forbids the demons whom he casts out from saying who he is; when Jesus heals someone, especially outside a city, he tells the person not to say that he did this; he even tells his Apostles not to talk to each other about what they have seen and heard, as in the case of the Transfiguration.  In Matthew 16, 16, when Jesus asks his Apostles who they think he is, and Peter answers correctly, he strictly forbids them from repeating this to others.  Why does he act this way?  How does preventing people from learning who he is further his mission?

In this passage of the Gospel of St. John, we hear Jesus saying, “I do not accept human testimony”, and “I do not accept human praise”.  The Son of God has come to announce to the world the Father’s love.  Jesus does this with words: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should have eternal life.”  And he does this with deeds.  The deeds testify and validate the words he speaks: “The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.”  The Son does not seek love and worship for himself, but for his Father.  The crucifixion is the ultimate sign of the Father’s love, and Jesus, in his obedience, shows us how to love the Father, with all our heart, mind, and soul.  For the Son of God, everything was about loving and serving the Father.  He does nothing for himself, but accepts pain, derision, and misunderstanding in order to love and serve the Father.  When he does make himself known as the Son of God, it is in order to point to his Father: If this One who performs these great deeds for us is the Son, how great the Father must  be! 

For the Christian, the imitation of Jesus, which is the heart of the spiritual life, means living like this, for the Father.  The love of the Father must be our motivation for all that we say and do.  Jesus declares himself to be “The Way, the Truth, and the life”, and in this he lowers himself, in his human nature, to be the means to the Father.  We see this plainly when Jesus tells us, in the Gospel of John, to pray in his name.  And so the Church ends her prayers with the words, “Through Christ our Lord”.  In hearing the Son’s words and in seeing the Son’s deeds, we see the Father, and his infinite love for us.

We see this love reflected in the lives of saints like St. Margaret Clitherow.  She lived in England during the reign of Elizabeth I. She was arrested several times for breaking the law for her non-attendance at the mandatory Protestant services.  She also hid priests, who traveled throughout the country offering Masses in secret for small groups of believers, at a time when our religion was outlawed.  It was for this that she was executed, even though pregnant with her fourth child at the time, in the year 1586.  In a time such as now when society and even law presses us to be silent in the face of evil and to be content with merely being nice to one another, we ask St. Margaret to intercede with God for us, that we might be made strong to proclaim God and his love in our own words and actions.