Food for Soul! 28

John 8:31-42

31 Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. "If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples, you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free." 33 Surprised, they said, "But we're descendants of Abraham. We've never been slaves to anyone. How can you say, 'The truth will free you'?" 34 Jesus said, "I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead- end life and is, in fact, a slave. 35 A slave is a transient, who can't come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through. 37 I know you are Abraham's descendants. But I also know that you are trying to kill me because my message hasn't yet penetrated your thick skulls. 38 I'm talking about things I have seen while keeping company with the Father, and you just go on doing what you have heard from your father." 39 They were indignant. "Our father is Abraham!" Jesus said, "If you were Abraham's children, you would have been doing the things Abraham did. 40 And yet here you are trying to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth he got straight from God! Abraham never did that sort of thing. 41 You persist in repeating the works of your father." They said, "We're not bastards. We have a legitimate father: the one and only God." 42 "If God was your father," said Jesus, "you would love me, for I came from God and arrived here. I didn't come on my own. He sent me.

Food for thought! If you make my word your home...!

In today's gospel, Jesus reminds us that what makes us special is not the family we come from; it is not the job or title we hold; it is not church we go to; it is the word he tells us. Jesus says, "If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples, you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free." Three things that we become: his disciples, learn the truth, be free. This is exactly the opposite of what the Jews expected to hear. 

The Jews thought that because they have Abraham for a fore father they were special; that because they were bodily descendants of Abraham, they were special in the eyes of God. Jesus is saying that in, other words, that holiness is not hereditary; it is not inborn; it is not automatic. It is personal. This is why St. Paul reminds us, "work out your own salvation. Do it with fear and trembling." Don't take salvation for granted. Don't think that because you belong to a family or a church or a tribe you are special because of that. Instead, belonging to a great name or great family or great church should always inspire us to ever new effort. 

We cannot afford to live on a history and a tradition and a spiritual capital of the past generations; neither can we live on the achievements of our past times. So, never say, "In the past I used to be active in faith, I used to attend Mass, I used to ...!" Don't be too confident of your past achievements. That is what the Jews in the gospel were trying to do by saying "Our father is Abraham!" God will judge us not according to our ancestors nor according to our past merits, but according to how we embraced the word of God and day after day lived it in our daily life.