Now it was the Feast of the Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. [v.22]
In the First Book of Maccabees unfolds before us the immense tragedy inflicted upon the Jewish People by King Epiphanes resulting in the destruction of the Temple and most of Jerusalem itself, with countless deaths among the people, leading eventually to the Maccabean led revolt.
The feast is sometimes referred to as Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, occurring for eight days each December.
When St. John notes simply “it was winter”, he is pointing to the reality of the time of year when days are short, days of less sunlight. It is a time of year when shepherds must be ever more vigilant over the flock because winter storms are fierce and can be deadly if the flock is left out in the open.
Jesus as Good Shepherd watches over us, never leaves us vulnerable. IF we are vulnerable it is because we have abandoned the safety of membership in the flock, the safety of Jesus’ overwatch.
The entire history of the first Chosen People, our Jewish Brothers and Sisters, is marked by persecution, the worst of which occurred last century in the genocide of the Shoah, the Holocaust. Yet to this day, some seventy-five years after the liberation of the camps towards the end of WWII, still anti-Semitism, as a deadly evil, is not yet purged from human hearts. If it resides in a Christian heart, even if not acted upon, it is doubly evil in that to hate anyone is a deadly sin and to hate a Jewish person is to hate the very people from whom Christ Himself took His Incarnation.
And Jesus walked in the temple, in Solomon’s porch. [v.23] Some translations have ‘walked about’, others ‘walking up and down.’ Who has not, in common parlance, paced, that is moved about waiting perhaps for a child to be born, or for someone to arrive for a meeting, a movie, for perhaps a proposal of marriage to be accepted, or not. Such movement is anticipation of either joy or anxiety.
Suddenly the pacing ends, the waiting is over for: Then Jews gathered around Him and said to Him, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” [v.24]
It appears this group may well have been pacing parallel to Jesus, perhaps urging one another to gather up the courage to walk over to Jesus and put the question! They had failed consistently in their attempts to best Jesus with trap-questions, so it is highly unlikely that – for most probably they were the same Pharisees who had been dogging Him since He first began His public ministry – they were seriously seeking an encounter with the Messiah.
Religiosity, while defined in dictionaries as the holding of a strong religious belief, actually is a form of pride, neo-gnosticism, and usually is accompanied by a rigorist and legalist interpretation of divine revelation, in particular when applied to others, thus those who embody such bondages tend also to be obstreperous, hard of heart.
Most teenagers, and lots of adults too, experience the incredible pain of unrequited love or love that is outright rejected.
Jesus Christ IS love Incarnate. He is the living Icon and Word of Trinitarian love, yet because He is also a true human being, the constant rejection of His love for them by the Pharisees, by anyone then or now, was a profound dagger into His Sacred Heart, a Heart which would be visibly torn open, shredded almost, by the soldier’s lance as He hung upon the Cross having given His life for us, His beloved.
In the conversation/teaching/challenge which follows, as Jesus reiterates the truth that He is indeed the Christ, the Messiah, revealing again He is the Good Shepherd, His oneness with the Father, we should be mindful of how His Heart pains with unrequited love for His interrogators.
Jesus answered them, “I told you and you do not believe. The works I do in My Father’s name testify to Me. But you do not believe, because you are not among My sheep. My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all, and no one can take them out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.” [vs.25-30]
Euphemisms are used by religious zealots and others as a means of hiding the truth: hate-filled violence is always a mortal sin, always a blasphemous act which usurps what is God’s alone: the gift of life.
Call it reproductive rights it is still abortion, the murder of pre-born human beings; call it honour killing, it is still the murder of women and girls; called it assisted dying it is still assisted self-murder and, as some do, hiding behind rigorist interpretations of certain texts in some religions used to justify abusing those of another religion, is still murder of the innocents.
Just as we can commit adultery in our hearts: Mt. 5: 27 ff, so too we can commit murder in our hearts: Mt. 5: 21ff.
The Jews again picked up rocks to stone Him. [v.31]
Though Jesus knew what was in their hearts, when He speaks it is not per se seeking a ‘because- why’ answer. Rather, if we listen with our hearts, we hear Love Himself giving an opportunity for reflection, pursuant to which, if accepted, the grace of conversion, softening, opening of hearts to Him is there if they accept it: Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?” [v.32]
Hard heartedness is akin to having one’s heart encased in concrete and to free anything so encased takes the smashing of the concrete.
The only sledgehammer capable of doing so is that of the knock on the door of hearts by Jesus who loves us, seeks to free us, but once the concrete hardness is done away with, He honours our freedom and waits at the door of our being for us to open to Him, invite Him in – or not.
The Jews answered Him, “We are not stoning You for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making Yourself God.” [v.33]
Another aspect of hard heartedness is the stupidity of arrogance, of being smarter than God, revealed here in their answer which ignores not just what Jesus has clearly taught them, but the very Scriptures they pride themselves on knowing exposes their arrogant stupidity.
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? If He called them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe Me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in Me and I am in the Father.” [vs.34-38]
In our own day there are those who to refuse to hear the truth of the Gospel of Life. They remain encased in the concrete prison of the culture of darkness and death, imitating the Pharisees in their arrogant hatred for Life Himself standing before them and speaking with them. These the haters of life, of Christians, therefore of the Lord and Giver of Life Himself, in their own way: Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand. [v.39]. By various means they continue to seek to silence Christians. They may seek to silence the words of Christ spoken to their hearts, but they cannot silence the Redeeming Person of Christ nor can they overcome Christ who is the Light of the world and thus neither can they silence the resounding light of Christ every Christian radiates, through baptism.
© 2020 Fr. Arthur Joseph
