These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.

SATURDAY, WEEK IV, LENT

Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said,
“This is truly the Prophet.”
Others said, “This is the Christ.”
But others said, “The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he?
Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David’s family
and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.
Some of them even wanted to arrest him,
but no one laid hands on him.
(Jn 7:40-53)

A very interesting passage from the Fourth Gospel (the one we call “According to John.” The question of where Jesus is from is a central question of the gospel. The Fourth Gospel avoids the solution of Matthew and Luke that says that Jesus was born in Bethlehem and lived in Nazareth in Galilee. The Fourth Gospel proudly proclaims that Jesus is “from God,” and that we, too, have been born of God.