Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Friday of the 5th Week of Lent, Cycle C - March 18, 2016

Friday of the 5th Week of Lent

March 18, 2016    8:30am

 

In an interesting way, today’s gospel contains the core message of Saint John’s entire gospel.
John begins his gospel by identifying Jesus as the Word and Son of God.
At the end of the gospel, Thomas acclaims Jesus as “My Lord and my God.”
Today, in the middle of the gospel, it is Jesus’ identity as Son of God that brings about the opposition to him.

So, our acceptance of Jesus as the Son is central to our faith.
It makes Jesus the measure of our thoughts, words, and actions.
It makes Jesus the standard for who we are to become as persons.
And this takes us to something that Jesus says to those rejecting his identity in today’s passage.

He says:
“Is it not written in your law, `You are gods?’
…It calls them gods to whom the Word of God came.”
So, besides defending his own identity as the Son, Jesus is also calling us sons and daughters of God.
And this idea in a sense completes the theology of John’s Gospel.
We begin to be sons and daughters of God through baptism.
And, through our acceptance of Jesus as the Son, we also are to begin a life-long process of becoming sons and daughters.
This is a process.
We are to view our entire life as a journey toward becoming sons and daughters of the heavenly Father, with Jesus the Son as our way.

That in summary form is the theology of John’s entire gospel.

It is also a great context for understanding our penitential practices in this season of Lent.