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.
