RBWords

     The dramatic quality of the Gospel of John continually offers us the challenge of reflection through the way the story of Jesus is presented.  A couple of verses before the passage in today's gospel selection, we are told that Jesus decided to go into hiding for awhile.  So, he leaves the stage, but suddenly we hear a cry from backstage!  It's almost like an echo of familiar themes from the previous scenes.  We can go back to the Prologue and see what we were told to expect in the story.  Here we can reflect on whether or not the promise of the Prologue has been kept.  It's like a second bookend has been put into place because the next chapter will begin the Passion Narrative.  The mixture of literary and dramatic metaphors serves to remind us of the complex but rewarding effort to understand this gospel!

     Belief/unbelief, Father/Son, light/darkness, judgment/condemnation - these are powerful themes.  They are dramatically presented but they are not missing from everyday life and the situation in our world.  We can experience the way these (and other equally powerful themes in the gospel drama) play out in our world.  The newspaper or TV or computer screen present them every day!  At times it can seem overwhelming.  The gentle shepherd delivers a stark message:  It's me or the wolf!  The wide range of options that we love to ask for are not part of the picture here.  The choices being faced by the Johannine community were stark.  They had to give up Jesus if they wanted to stay in the synagogue community.  The bitterness of the division shows its face often in the gospel.  In our own time, the choice is between the indifference and consumerism of the secular culture and the difficult challenge of living our faith in that culture.  We can't have it all!  AMEN