Lenten reflections 2017

Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Reading 1 Jer 20:10-13
Gospel Jn 10:31-42

"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."

Meditation:
It's common practice today to make a statement then walk it back: "when I said such and such, I really didn't mean that...". Happens all the time, especially with politicians so when the Jewish leaders accused Jesus of making himself God and confronted him with rocks, it was the perfect opportunity to clarify exactly who he was (Jn 10:33). Jesus could have easily said, "Easy, guys! Don't stone Me. When I said 'I AM', I really didn't mean to imply that I was actually God." Everyone would have gone home and Holy Week would have probably been cancelled, not taken place.

But Jesus not only refused to walk back His claims to be God; rather, he doubled down on it citing the evidence of his works, his obedience, and having been sent by the Father to us (Jn 10:34-38).

'Believe': it's what we've been hearing as we read John's Gospel in particular this Lent. From Samaria to Galilee and back to Judea he called for them to believe and he calls for us to believe still.

Finally, do our works reveal that the Father is in us and we are in the Father. Is our testimony believable?
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Peace.