Friday 15 February 2019

ST. JOHN 7: 1-10


                                                             



In verses 1, 11, 13, 35 St. John uses the term ‘the Jews’, as he does frequently throughout this Gospel.

It has been a great sin of Christians to have seen this as referring holus bolus to every Jewish person, rather than narrowly to the Jewish religious authorities of the day, as is confirmed by their rejection and persecution of Jesus.

Hatred, violence, persecution, genocide, wars, all are rooted in the darkness of human hearts which choose to blame an entire race, religion, nation for the sins of individuals.

When such darkness spreads within a population, often through the actions of governments, the evil surfaces in brutal violence such as the holocaust.

Pope Francis teaches us the truth that: We cannot honour the Creator without cherishing the sacredness of every person and of every human life: each person is equally precious in the eyes of God, who does not look upon the human family with a preferential gaze that excludes, but with a benevolent gaze that includes. Thus, to recognize the same rights for every human being is to glorify the name of God on earth. In the name of God the Creator, therefore, every form of violence must be condemned without hesitation, because we gravely profane God’s name when we use it to justify hatred and violence against a brother or sister. No violence can be justified in the name of religion. [1]

v.1 = After this, Jesus moved about within Galilee; but He did not wish to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill Him.

Of all the Evangelists St. John is the one who speaks of Jesus’ hour and, as here, repeatedly shows us how careful Jesus is to assure none of His choices, nor the actions of others, pre-empts the time willed by the Father.

But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near. [v.2]

Occurring in the autumn, and still celebrated by our Jewish Brothers and Sisters in our own day, primarily this was a celebration of the time when the Israelites lived in tents during the Exodus and sometimes included celebration of the blessing of harvests. To this day walk near a synagogue on those holy days and a ‘booth’ can be seen, as in ancient days, hence sometimes the feast is referred to as that of Booths.

Along with Passover and Pentecost, Tabernacles was one of the most important feasts and often there would be huge crowds of pilgrims in Jerusalem.

So His brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, so that Your disciples also may see the works You are doing. No one works in secret if he wants to be known publicly. If you do these things, manifest yourself to the world.” For His brothers did not believe in Him. [vs. 3-5]

‘Brothers’ here does not mean blood brothers, Jesus had no siblings, but is a generic term, common in our day when people say of a non-sibling ‘my brother or my sister.’, these men may have been cousins, clearly they were not disciples for indeed Jesus’ extended family thought Him mad as St. Mark tells us: He came home. Again the crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. When His relatives heard of this they set out to seize Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.” [Mk.3:20,21]

So Jesus said to them, “My time is not yet here, but the time is always right for you. The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me, because I testify to it that its works are evil. You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, because My time has not yet been fulfilled.” After He had said this, He stayed on in Galilee. [vs.6-9]

With Jesus never a word He speaks is superfluous. Each word is gift, a treasure to be taken deep within ourselves. Here, when Jesus notes “My time is not yet here….”, it is yet another way of saying: “……I came down from heaven not to do My own will but the will of the One Who sent Me. [6:38]

Fr. Leon-Dufour notes: So much does Jesus make this will of God His own that He Himself calls it on one occasion, according to St. John, “My hour”…….It is in terms of this hour that He organizes all His wonderworking and prophetic activity….But when “the hour to pass from this world to the Father”….the hour of love carried to its term, the Lord goes freely to His death, with power over the events, just as a priest fulfills the rites of the liturgy….Thus, though the events appear to follow one another without coordination, everything is directed toward a purpose which will be attained in its own time, day, and hour. [2]

When Jesus then assures those challenging Him, that “….the time is always right for you. The world cannot hate you….You go up to the feast….”, at that precise moment this is so because the waves of hatred and persecution have not yet hit Jesus, nor His followers, but that day will come, as Jesus tells the Apostles during the Last Supper:  “If the world hates you, realize that it hated  me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will also keep yours. [15:18-20]

Then, once again repeating the teaching about redemption and time:  “I am not going up to this feast, because My time has not yet been fulfilled.”: Jesus is not going to the feast, that is to Jerusalem, because it is the place where, when it is the time/hour, He will be executed, and Jesus is extremely careful to preserve the sacredness of the time/hour, chosen by the Father.

St. John adds that Jesus stays in Galilee.

Yet without telling us how soon after this Jesus heads out, St. John immediately notes: But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, He Himself also went up, not openly but, as it were, in secret. [v.10]

All four accounts of the Evangelists in the Gospel frequently mention moments such as the above where Jesus sends others on ahead and then Himself later goes to where He has sent them. Indeed, all the Gospel accounts are filled with movement. This was strikingly portrayed in the 1964 Italian film Il vangelo secondo Matteo, [The Gospel According to Matthew], directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini. In almost all the scenes in the film Jesus is in motion: walking, gesticulating, indeed all at a rather quick pace, conveying the urgency in His Heart to complete the mission of our redemption.

Movement, things in motion, is constitutive of all creation for the cosmos itself, the very earth on which we live, sunlight, moonlight, starlight, clouds, wind, rain, snow, summer’s heat and winter’s cold, oceans, rivers, trees, plants, indeed every part of our bodies, mind, soul, all are always in motion, even when we sleep there is movement, of heart and lungs, brain through dream and: I bless the LORD who counsels me; even at night my heart exhorts me. I keep the LORD always before me; with Him at my right hand, I shall never be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad, my soul rejoices; my body also dwells secure. [Ps. 16: vs. 7-9]

The great, most powerful movement/motion of all is God’s LOVE, the prime movement within the Holy Trinity, the movement expressed outwards which has such force creation ensues, we are breathed into existence, resurrection, first of Jesus then gifted to us, baptismal water regenerates and we emerge as true children of the Father, disciples of Christ, temples of the Holy Spirit, in the liturgy by the power of the Holy Spirit through words spoken by the priest, himself transformed by the same originating power from mere man to being in persona Christi, and bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ, this most powerful movement, action, is the Triune God, WHO IS LOVE assuring us with every breathe we take, within the confines of chronological time we are Beloved, and offering us, at the end of chronological time,  to be perpetually Beloved, when we are gathered up into the Triune embrace of communion of love for all eternity.

Our primary movement, then, also must be a love that is reciprocal: This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. [15:12], this is what keeps us as pilgrims moving towards, through each moment of our graced lives, to the hour of our own death and entrance into the place, the unending movement, the unending moment of Love’s embrace.

The gift of the Holy Spirit, the Sanctifier, that we might not deviate from the path which leads to communion of love with the Most Holy Trinity is, if we accept it, the grace to imitate Christ in all things, thus: We can do nothing which will be more pleasing to the Heart of Jesus than to unite ourselves to Him in His love for His Father and in His carrying out of His holy will. [3]



[1] https://zenit.org/articles/abu-dhabi-pope-francis-address-to-interfaith-meeting-at-founders-memorial-full-text/

[2] Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Revised Edition; p. 244; Xavier Leon-Dufour; The Seabury Press, New York, New York, 1973

[3] Christ The Ideal of the Priest, Bl. Dom Columbo Marmion; p. 326; Sands & Co., 1952

© 2019 Fr. Arthur Joseph