Word to the Wise
Thursday, April 10, 2025 - 5th Week of Lent - Thurs
[Gen 17:3-9 and John 8:51-59]When Abram prostrated himself, God spoke to him: "My covenant with you is this: you are to becomessss the father of a host of nations. No long shall you be called Abfram; your name shall be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a host of nations." [Genesis] "Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Or the prophets, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?" "Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad." So the Jews said to him, "You are not yet 50 years old and you have seen Abraham?" Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM." [John]
"Who do you make yourself out to be?" The collection of controversial debates in chapters 7 and 8 in the Gospel According to John comes to a climax with a revelation as startling as it is true. "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM." "Father Abraham" stood at the very origin of the Chosen People. God's covenant with him created the Jewish people, as we read in the Book of Genesis. Jesus doesn't claim to be "older" than Abraham. Jesus claims to be beyond all time! The meaning of this is not lost on the audience, because they picked up stones to throw at him for blasphemy!! A mortal human standing in front of them was claiming to be immortal! The question they asked is turned around by Jesus to be: "Who do YOU make yourselves out to be?"
Christian identity is the result of an encounter with the one whom God has sent. This is at the center of the Gospel According to John, but it is at the center of our lives, too. Do we try to challenge Jesus to tell us who he makes himself out to be? Is the encounter an encounter with a love beyond any other love we could experience, as both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI have written? Or is it an encounter of controversy and skepticism, as our secular culture would have us believe. In the case of the Jewish adversaries, it was an encounter over their very identity. They took refuge in being children of Abraham, a human figure with whom God made a covenant. How could a carpenter's son from Nazareth be greater than Abraham or Moses?
The question posed to Jesus must be posed to ourselves. St. Francis of Assisi is quoted as asking in prayer: "My God, who are you? And who am I?" The events of Holy Week, just ahead of us, can help us respond! AMEN