I am from him, and he sent me

FRIDAY 27 MARCH (Jn 7,1-2.10.25-30)

A man’s works reveal his nature. The man who lives by sin produces works of sin. The man who lives by grace produces fruits of truth, justice and peace. Jesus is neither a man of grace, nor of truth and nor of light. He is the grace, truth and light: “I am the way, the truth and the life”. “I am” is the name of God. “I am the God way, the God truth, the God life and the God light in my humanity”. Jesus is not strong. He is the Strong. He is not holy. He is the Holy One. He is not almighty. He is the Almighty. All his works attest that the Father is fully in Him and He is entirely from the Father: from his light, truth, eternal life, justice and charity. In the Gospel according to John this relationship of Jesus with his Father appears from the first verse: “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”. If Jesus is God, he will produce the works of God. Being God the Lord Almighty and Creator, nothing is too great, too high and too deep for Him. Seeing his works, noting the difference with all the other works done by men sent by God before Him, who wants can come to faith, not faith in his divinity, but faith in his origin from the Father. Jesus is from God.

In the Gospel of John this truth is the essence of the truth announced by Christ Jesus. You do not want to believe in me. You may not even believe. But you cannot fail to believe that my works are from God. In fact, they are works that only God can do. No man has ever done them. No man might ever accomplish them. Might a man ever give his flesh to be eaten to the whole world for centuries and centuries? Might a man rise from the tomb with a glorious, spiritual, immortal and incorruptible body to never die again? Might a man ever call a dead man already in the tomb for four days? Might a man put some mud on the eyes of a blind man from birth, send him to the pool to be washed and then come back with his eyes that see everything? Might a man ever walk on water, command the sea and the wind, the unclean spirits to come out and keep silence? Might a person ever be healed just because he touches Christ in secret? The works of Jesus are so great that no man might ever accomplish them. If he does them, it is a sign that he is from God, from the Father. That Jesus comes from God, that God sent him, that He acts in the name of God and that He knows God, his works reveal it. Those who do not believe in Him do not believe, not because the signs of credibility are lacking, but because they stifle the truth in injustice, in falsehood and in lies. One does not believe in Him through sin against the Holy Spirit.

After this, Jesus moved about within Galilee; but he did not wish to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him. But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near. But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, he himself also went up, not openly but (as it were) in secret. So some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, “Is he not the one they are trying to kill? And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Could the authorities have realized that he is the Messiah? ut we know where he is from. When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.” So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said, “You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.” So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come.

We can apply to Scribes and Pharisees what the Book of Wisdom teaches: “For all men were by nature foolish who were in ignorance of God, and who from the good things seen did not succeed in knowing him who is, and from studying the works did not discern the artisan; But either fire, or wind, or the swift air, or the circuit of the stars, or the mighty water, or the luminaries of heaven, the governors of the world, they considered gods. Now if out of joy in their beauty they thought them gods, let them know how far more excellent is the Lord than these; for the original source of beauty fashioned them. Or if they were struck by their might and energy, let them from these things realize how much more powerful is he who made them” (Wis 13,1-4). The works of Christ infallibly attest that he is from God.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, free us from all foolishness. Give us true faith in Jesus.