Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?

Jer 11,18-20; Ps 7; Jn 7,40-53
6 APRIL

The Gospel is preached to every heart. Every heart is called to give its answer. It can welcome or refuse it, enter it or stay out. If it enters it, it comes in possession of all the promised goods, on condition that it is transformed into daily life, persevering to the end, without ever getting tired or receding from the faith. If the heart remains outside, it is already in death and in death it will remain forever. We cannot pass from death to life except through the reception of Christ, who through his Holy Spirit, through the sacramental work of the Church, from beings that died in sin, makes us live again in him, with him and through Him. Even the signs of the credibility of every Word announced are given to everyone. Everyone receives them and evaluating them with wisdom, intelligence, sacred doctrine and historical memory of the works of God, they must convince us that they can come only from a person with whom the Lord is.

Heads of the people and Pharisees must not be an obstacle to faith for reasons of will. Instead, Scripture in hand they must attest, demonstrate and find the reasons intrinsic to the truth contained in it, that the Word that is preached, announced, to which it is asked to believe, is divergent or contrary to the Holy Law of their God and Lord. But in arguing with Scripture they must take into account two essential truths. Revelation is not a static dictation. It is a history full of life. It is like a tree. It abandons dry branches and leaves and always wears new branches and leaves. Each prophet adds and purifies, renews and completes the prophet that preceded him. With Christ, revelation reaches every fulfilment. With him begins, in the Holy Spirit, the journey towards the whole truth to be understood and lived. If leaders of the people and Pharisees are honest before God and men, they must confess that no Word of Jesus is against the Law of the Lord. They must publicly declare that all the works of Christ are from God. No man has ever done and will never do what Jesus did and continues to do. They have to admit that He is in the footsteps of all the prophets who preceded him, indeed that in Him every prophecy and oath of their Lord is being fulfilled. Since they are blind and guides of the blind, only by will and not by rationality intrinsic to the Law of God, they can appeal to their non-faith.

Some in the crowd who heard these words said, “This is truly the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Messiah.” But others said, “The Messiah will not come from Galilee, will he? Does not scripture say that the Messiah will be of David’s family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?” The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this one.” So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.” Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, “Does our law condemn a person before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?” They answered and said to him, “You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.” Then each went to his own house.

That the reasons of the chiefs and the Pharisees are only of will and not of intrinsic motivations to Scriptures it is attested by their own word with which they think of silencing Nicodemus: Study, and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee! Precisely this word of theirs is charged with all falsehood. First of all because the prophets of the Lord are without a predetermined origin and without any prophecy foretelling their birth. A prophecy exists only for the prophet equal to Moses. But it is precisely this prophecy that condemns leaders and Pharisees. In fact, in it the truth of the prophet is proclaimed by the signs and words spoken by him that are fulfilled. Moreover according to the prophet Isaiah it is right from Galilee that the light will come for the Lord’s people and for the nations. The principle that faith arises from the preaching of the Word and the Word carries within itself all the motivations that attest and confirm its eternal truth, remains eternally valid.

Mother of God, Angels, Saints ensure that we believe in the Word for the reasons of the Word.