So that you may realize (and understand) that the Father is in me and I am in the Father

22 MARCH (Jn 10,31-42)

Jesus had affirmed that He and the Father are one. He often had declared himself to be the Son of God. This truth of Lord Jesus, read by an evil heart and a wicked mind, could have accused Jesus of blasphemy. With a similar charge, there was an immediate stoning. It was enough that one took a stone and hurled it and all would have followed him. For Jesus the moment is very delicate.

Jesus cannot die stoned. He must be lifted up from the ground, nailed to the cross. He must be made an attraction to the world of the Jews and Romans. For this accusation to be immediately withdrawn, Jesus uses his supreme knowledge, intelligence and wisdom. He gives the expression “Son of God” a general, moral and creatural sense. Instead of giving it the true, small, perfect meaning that befits its ontological truth, he gives one that is easily acceptable to all. This way He might continue to teach without any one being scandalized and able to accuse him of blasphemy. Here’s what the Psalm teaches on the man son of God, or also on the children of Abraham and children of God.

God takes His stand in His own congregation; He judges in the midst of the rulers. How long will you judge unjustly And show partiality to the wicked? Selah.  Vindicate the weak and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and destitute.  Rescue the weak and needy; Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.  They do not know nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are shaken. I said, “You are gods, And all of you are sons of the Most High. “Nevertheless you will die like men And fall like any one of the princes.” Arise, O God, judge the earth! For it is You who possesses all the nations. (Psalm 82 (81) 1-8).

Wisdom always comes to Jesus’ help. If he had not been led by the Holy Spirit –all wisdom, knowledge and intelligence is only his – Christ the Lord would have already been stoned to death after the third day of his preaching. At that time religion was so corrupt that it had become impossible to introduce in it the true Word of God, his true will and his real thoughts. But with the intelligence of the Holy Spirit he was able to bring everything to fulfillment. Nothing remained to be done. On the contrary, everything has been done to perfection. This law is also applied to every one of his disciples. Only the intelligent, knowing and wise disciple in the Holy Spirit can preach the true Gospel. The others can only preach an altered, counterfeited and modified gospel.

The Jews again picked up rocks to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”‘? If it calls 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.” (Then) they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power. He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained. Many came to him and said, “John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true.” And many there began to believe in him.

There is a truth that never might anyone contradict. It is a historical truth. Every historical truth imposes itself on its own. Never  might anyone deny it. The signs that Jesus does, or his works, attest that God is with him. Rather, he is in Him. If God is in him, he is in Christ Jesus, he is in him with his omnipotence and with his Word. If God is in a person, he is with the person with all of himself. If he is with him in his creative and renewing, healing and saving omnipotence, he is also with his perfect, holy and true Word. If the works are true, even the Word of Jesus is true. If works and Words are true, it is clear that Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Jesus. The works of the Father that are in Jesus attest to it. Never is God with one of his divine qualities in a person. God is all of himself, with all his divine properties, when he is in a person. In Jesus he is with all of himself.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us dwell in God.