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.
“When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.”
(Jn 8:21-30)
This passage recalls the passage where Moses, after receiving the mission to go to Pharaoh, asks the Lord, “And whom shall I say has sent me?” And the Lord answers, “Tell them that I AM has sent me.” The claim that the gospel is making is that Jesus, lifted up on the Cross, is I AM, that Jesus Crucified is God.
Thus was innocent blood spared that day.
(Dn 13:1-9,15-17,19-30,33-62)
“Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?”
She replied, “No one, sir.”
Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.
Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
(Jn 8:1-11)
The stories of Susanna and the Woman Caught in Adultery form a wonderful contrast. In the story of Susanna “innocent blood [was] spared that day"; in the gospel, even the guilty are spared. As Jesus would say, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”
“And when I am lifted up from the earth,
I will draw everyone to myself.”
He said this indicating the kind of death he would die.
(Jn 12:20-33)
Jesus being “lifted up” transforms “the kind of death he would die” into his exaltation in glory. This Sunday begins the period we call Passiontide, with its focus on the Cross and Resurrection of the Lord.
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.
The faith of Abraham,
who is the father of all of us, as it is written,
I have made you father of many nations.
He is our father in the sight of God.
(Rom 4:13,16-18,22)
Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.
When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph,
a righteous man . . . .
(Mt 1:16,18-21,24)
In the recent apostolic visit of Pope Francis to Iraq, he visited the birthplace of Abraham, our father in faith, for Jews, Christians, and Moslems. Today is the feast of Saint Joseph, a righteous man in the faith of Abraham.
