RBWords

     In the Gospel of John there is no "small talk!"  Every conversation is fraught with meaning.  Last Monday, the dialogue between Jesus and his adversaries began with a discussion about freedom.  The figure that served as the focal point is Abraham, and he continues to be the focal figure as the conversation shifts [there may have been more than one conversation joined together in this section] to Jesus' statement, quoted above.  In the Gospel of John, whenever Jesus begins a statement, Amen, amen, I say to you.... , this is a signal that we'd better pay attention because something important is about to be said!  In this case, Jesus claims to give life to anyone who believes in him.  Again, his audience takes him literally since they do not believe in him.  They are time-bound and they are looking at a 30-ish year old Jewish male who is claiming to be older than Abraham?  Their unintentionally profound question [no doubt crafted by the ever dramatic evangelist] is:  "Who do you make yourself out to be?"  Life and time are bound together for the audience.  Jesus is leading them toward a life that is not time bound.  Abraham and the prophets were figures of time and, like all humans, died.  But Jesus, with another Amen, amen...statement blows away all the categories of time and life by saying, "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM."  This is tatamount to claiming to be the voice of God speaking to Moses from the burning bush [Exodus 3].  That claim means one thing to the audience:  blasphemy!  Jesus has to escape stoning!

     These "spiraling" dialogues in the Gospel of John can leave us a little dizzy!  Patient reading will yield great rewards.  I recommend Fr. Felix Just, SJ's RETREAT ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN from the Now You Know Media folks for a thorough but very spiritual journey through this gospel.  [He was a student parishioner of mine at Univ. of Arizona back in the late 70's.].  I find the dramatic qualities of the Gospel of John enable me to enter the action and am thus challenged to respond over and over again to Pilate's question:  "What is truth?"  In today's gospel passage, that truth is "awesome."  Can we accept it?  AMEN