DAILY GRACE
March 27, 2020, Friday in the Fourth Week of Lent
Scripture: John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He did not wish to go about in Judea because the Jews were looking for an opportunity to kill him. Now the Jewish festival of Booths was near.
But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were in secret.
Now some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is not this the man whom they are trying to kill? And here he is, speaking openly, but they say nothing to him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Messiah? Yet we know where this man is from; but when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.” Then Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, “You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true, and you do not know him. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.” Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Meditation
“You know me, and you know where I am from.”
One of the first things that we ask people when we meet them is where they are from. Along with knowing a person’s name, this information is an important part of getting to know others. This was just as important in Jesus’ time as it is today.
In this Gospel passage from John, some of the residents of Jerusalem believed that they knew where Jesus was from. It is clear that Jesus’ place of origin was connected with the claim some were making that he was the Christ, the Messiah, the “one who was to come” in the name of the Lord. But others, in order to deny that claim, used the fact that they knew where Jesus came from.
Jesus responded and “cried out,” interrupting his teaching in the Temple. Whenever Jesus responds with such emotion, we need to be extremely attentive because of the depth of what he reveals through such emotion. “You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come of my own. But the one who sent me is true.” With this exclamation, Jesus corrected the mistaken “knowledge” of those who claimed to know where he was from. Unlike us, Jesus situated his origin, his point of departure, not in a place, but in a Person —- the Person of his Father.
Knowing where someone is from is important because it helps us frame someone’s identity. But if we do not know the Father, we will be unable to grasp Jesus’ identity. We cannot put preconceived ideas or judgments drawn from such bits of knowledge as someone’s place of birth onto Jesus. If we really want to know Jesus, we must free ourselves from this very human way of relating to others and allow him to reveal himself to us.
Prayer
I want to know you, O Lord. You told us that you came from your Father and that it was he who sent you to us. You also said that if we know you, we will know your Father also. Help me to let go of any ideas or concepts that I have about you that hinder me from truly knowing you. May I be able to distinguish your voice from other voices that do not faithfully communicate who you are. Open my eyes so that I may see you clearly; open my ears that I may hear your words plainly; open my heart to receive you fully.
Contemplation
“Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him” (Jn. 14:23).