Wednesday of Week 5 of Lent – Gospel

Commentary on John 8:31-42

Contentious dialogue between Jesus and the Jews continues in today’s Gospel reading. There are some sayings here which we would do well to reflect on deeply.

If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

The Pharisees take umbrage at that statement. As descendants of Abraham, they were never slaves to anyone. But in fact, in the long history of their people, the Jews were almost continuously enslaved by invading powers. However, the slavery Jesus speaks about is the slavery of sin.

In responding to Jesus’ words, how many of us who want to be disciples of Christ have truly made his word our ‘home’? How many of us have to admit that we are not really very familiar with Jesus’ word in the New Testament? Yet we cannot truly follow him unless we are steeped in that word.

As well, how many of us really believe that the truth about life, communicated to us through Jesus, makes us genuinely free? How many of us experience our commitment to Christianity as a liberation? How many have left the Church because they felt suffocated and wanted to be free?

What freedom were they looking for? For many, being a Christian is sacrificing freedom in exchange for a promise of a future existence of pure happiness. We can say with confidence that, if we do not find being a Christian a liberating experience here and now, we do not really understand the true nature of our Christian faith. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says:

If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God, and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me.

To know Jesus, to love Jesus and to follow Jesus is the way to God, and it is in God, and only in God, that we will find true happiness, freedom and peace. But the only way to know the truth of that statement is to experience it personally.

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Wednesday of Week 5 of Lent – First Reading

Commentary on Daniel 3:14-20,24-25,28

Today’s First Reading helps us to see that our lives find their centre in God; all else takes second place. The verses come from a different section of a passage we already saw on Tuesday of the 3rd week in Lent.

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had built a golden statue and commanded all his subjects to bow down in adoration before it as a test of loyalty (this is not unlike the requirement that early Christians had to bow down before an image of the Roman emperor as a sign of abandoning their faith in Christ as Lord). Three young Jewish men in the service of the royal court, and who were particular favourites of the king for their outstanding qualities, refuse to worship the statue. They prefer death rather than turn their back on their God.

In his anger, the king threatens to have them thrown into a white-hot furnace from which no god will save them. The young men calmly reply that either their God will save them, because he can, or, even if he does not, they will still remain steadfast in their trust of God. The king, now even more angry, has them thrown into a furnace which has been made seven times hotter.

Later, when he makes enquiries, the king finds that the three young men, now in the company of a fourth (recognized by the king as an angel), are walking around unscathed in the fire. The pagan king is deeply moved by what he sees. First, he is filled with admiration for the God that delivered them from certain death and, second, he deeply respects the young men who disobeyed him and were ready to sacrifice their lives, rather than turn their back on their God. He exclaims:

Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him.

Today’s reading is linked with the Gospel in which Jesus speaks of those who are truly descendants of Abraham. If those attacking him were true descendants, then they would recognise Jesus as truly the Son of God. As it is, they show they are not true descendants.

Reflecting on the First Reading I might ask: What are the idols in my life? Is there anything in my life which I would find very difficult to sacrifice if God asked me to give it up? Is there any thing or any person in my life which comes between God and me?

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