Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada) John 5:31-47 You place your hopes on Moses but Moses will be your accuser Jesus said to the Jews:‘Were I to testify on my own behalf,my testimony would not be valid;but there is another witness who can speak on my behalf,and I know that his testimony is valid.You sent messengers to John,and he gave his testimony to the truth:not that I depend on human testimony;no, it is for your salvation that I speak of this.John was a lamp alight and shiningand for a time you were content to enjoy the light that he gave.But my testimony is greater than John’s:the works my Father has given me to carry out,these same works of mine testifythat the Father has sent me.Besides, the Father who sent mebears witness to me himself.You have never heard his voice,you have never seen his shape,and his word finds no home in youbecause you do not believe in the one he has sent.‘You study the scriptures,believing that in them you have eternal life;now these same scriptures testify to me,and yet you refuse to come to me for life!As for human approval, this means nothing to me.Besides, I know you too well: you have no love of God in you.I have come in the name of my Fatherand you refuse to accept me;if someone else comes in his own nameyou will accept him.How can you believe,since you look to one another for approvaland are not concernedwith the approval that comes from the one God?Do not imagine that I am going to accuse you before the Father:you place your hopes on Moses,and Moses will be your accuser.If you really believed himyou would believe me too,since it was I that he was writing about;but if you refuse to believe what he wrote,how can you believe what I say?’ Gospel (USA) John 5:31-47 The one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. Jesus said to the Jews: “If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true. But there is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true. You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth. I do not accept human testimony, but I say this so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light. But I have testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf. But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form, and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf. But you do not want to come to me to have life.“I do not accept human praise; moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (i) Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent Most of us are aware of our need for human approval. If people approve of us we sense that we are worthwhile. If people do not approve of us we can easily begin to doubt our self-worth. The saying of Jesus in today’s gospel is, to that extent, true to human experience, ‘you look to one another for approval’. Very few of us could make our own the sentiment of Jesus in today’s gospel reading, ‘As for human approval, this means nothing to me’. Human approval means something to all of us and, sometimes, it can come to mean a great deal. In speaking in this way, Jesus is trying to highlight a more fundamental approval than human approval, and that is the approval that comes from God. When Jesus says to his opponents, who were already intent on killing him, that ‘you look to one another for approval’, he immediately goes on to say, ‘You are not concerned with the approval that comes from the one God’. If they were concerned with God’s approval, they would not be intent on killing Jesus who reveals God to us. Jesus suggests in today’s gospel reading that a more important question than, ‘Do people approve?’ is ‘Does God approve?’ At the end of the day, it is God we are seeking to please rather than other people. Like Jesus, we are to put God’s will before the will of others. The life, and. especially, the death of Jesus clearly shows that the lack of human approval can go hand in hand with God’s unreserved approval. This may be very anxious and difficult times for many, but God could not be approve of the many expressions of the very best of the human spirit that we see all round us at the moment. And/Or (ii) Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent Our church is dedicated to John the Baptist and we are alert to the references to John the Baptist in the gospels. In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus says that John testified to the truth. In John’s gospel Jesus says the same about himself as he stands before Pilate: ‘For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth’. It seems that John the Baptist and Jesus have something very fundamental in common; they both testify to the truth; they both bear witness to God who is truth. Yet, Jesus goes on in this morning’s gospel reading to speak of John as a lamp alight and shining, whereas Jesus will go on to speak of himself as the light of the world. John is not the light of the world; he testifies to the light of the world, to Jesus, and that is why he is a lamp alight and shining. John the Baptist exemplifies what we are all called to become. We are not the light of the world, but we are called to testify to Jesus the light of the world by what we say and what we do. If we are faithful to that calling we too, like John, will be a lamp alight and shining. Earlier in John’s gospel John the Baptist spoke of Jesus as the bridegroom and of himself as a friend of the bridegroom. That too is our calling, to live as friends of the bridegroom, making way for him to enter the lives of others. And/Or (iii) Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent Jesus speaks of John the Baptist as a ‘lamp alight and shining’. Later in the gospel of John, Jesus will speak of himself as the light of the world. If Jesus is the light, John is only a lamp. The relationship between Jesus and John could be compared to that between the sun and the moon. The sun is the source of light; the moon reflects the light of the sun. Jesus is the source of God’s light, the light of God’s love and God’s truth. John’s role was to reflect the light of Jesus by bearing witness to Jesus. John’s role is also our role. We are called to reflect something of the light of Jesus to others, the light of God’s love and God’s truth, by bearing witness to Jesus as John did. Like John, we too are called to be a ‘lamp alight and shining’. We cannot look directly into the light of the sun; we can only look at the sun’s light as it is reflected in various ways. In this life, we cannot look directly at Jesus the light; we do not see him face to face. However, we can see his light as it is reflected in the lives of others, and others can see his light as it is reflected in our lives. And/Or (iv) Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent In the gospel reading this morning Jesus speaks of John the Baptist as a lamp alight and shining who gave out light that people were content to enjoy for a time. Whereas Jesus is the light of the world, John the Baptist is a lamp alight and shining. In a sense, John is to Jesus as the moon is to the sun; he reflects something of the light of Jesus to others, but he himself is not the light. John the Baptist expresses the calling of each one of us, in virtue of our baptism. Each of us is to be the moon to the sun that is Jesus, the light of the world. We are all called to reflect something of the light of Jesus to others. When people look upon us they are to see something of the light of the Lord reflected in us. When Jesus speaks of himself as the light of the world he is declaring himself to be the perfect revelation in human form of God’s love and God’s truth. He is the love of God and the truth of God incarnate. Our calling is to reflect something of that divine love and truth that shines so brilliantly in Jesus. If we are to be faithful to that calling we need to keep on entering into the light of Jesus, placing ourselves before that light in prayer and in the sacraments. And/Or (v) Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent In the gospel reading Jesus says to those who are hostile to him, ‘you look to one another for approval and are not concerned with the approval that come from the one God’. We all look for human approval in one way or another. If we receive a lot of approval, we tend to feel good about ourselves; we feel that we must be doing something right. When it comes to leaders of political parties, approval ratings are taken very seriously. Yet in the gospel reading Jesus warns against working for human approval while neglecting the more important approval, the approval that comes from God. The opposite of human approval is human rejection. Jesus experienced the ultimate in human rejection by being crucified. Yet, at the very moment when he had lost all human approval he had the approval of God. God was faithful to him and raised him from the dead. What we call the paschal mystery, the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, shows that the absence of human approval does not necessarily mean the absence of God’s approval. Jesus suggests that it is God’s approval rather than human approval we need to strive for. We will know God’s approval if we receive his Son whom he sent into the world, if, like John the Baptist in today’s gospel reading, we bear witness to God’s Son by our lives. And/Or (vi) Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent At the beginning of this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus speaks about John the Baptist as a lamp alight and shining. Later on in this same gospel Jesus will speak of himself as the light, the light of the world. John may be a shining lamp, but Jesus is the true light. Jesus also says that John the Baptist’s testimony is valid and that he gave his testimony to the truth. Jesus, however, says that his testimony is greater than John’s; his testimony to the truth is fuller because as he will say later on in this gospel, ‘I am the truth’. Jesus is honouring John the Baptist but he is also stating that he is so much greater than John. As Jesus says in that reading, people were content to enjoy the light that John the Baptist gave, but there is a greater light here now. Jesus is calling on his contemporaries and on all of us not to settle for a lesser light, wonderful as that light may be. We can all be tempted to settle for less than what God wants for us and is offering us. We can be content to bathe in a lesser light than the light that comes to us through God’s Son. We can settle for a partial truth rather than continuing to seek after the one who is full of God’s truth and God’s grace. We can place our hopes on one of God’s gifts rather than on God’s greatest gift, his Word who became flesh and dwelt among us. And/Or (vii) Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent In the first reading, Moses pleads with God on behalf of God’s people who have turned away from God and worshipped a calf of molten metal, treating it as their god. This is the fundamental sin of idolatry. Yet, Moses does not give up on the people. He asks God to pardon them and God hears Moses’ prayer; God responds to Moses’ plea. Because of Moses’ prayer there is reconciliation between God and his people. If Moses worked to reconcile God’s people to God, Jesus did so to an even fuller degree. Saint Paul declares, ‘God reconciled us to himself through Christ… in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself’. The work of Moses pointed ahead to the even greater work of Jesus. That is why Jesus can say in the gospel reading, ‘if you really believed Moses, you would believe me too’. There is continuity between Moses and Jesus, but, according to John’s gospel, Jesus brings Moses’ work to completion. As the Prologue to that gospel states, ‘the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ’. Jesus is the fullest revelation of God’s gracious and reconciling love possible in human form. In this Jubilee Year of Mercy we are celebrating God’s reconciling love revealed in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection. God continues to be at work in Christ today reconciling the world to himself. We are asked to respond to that reconciling work of God. The call of this year is ‘Be reconciled to God’, a call which is inseparable from the call, ‘Be reconciled to one another’. We cannot return to God without returning to each other, just as, in the parable of the prodigal son, the elder son could not return to his father without being willing to return to his younger brother. And/Or (viii) Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent Very few of us probably could say with Jesus in this morning’s gospel reading, ‘As for human approval, this means nothing to me’. Very few of us are indifferent to what other people think of us. If we meet with disapproval, we tend to think that there is something wrong with us. We sometimes measure our worth in relation to how others see us. Human approval can confirm us in our sense of self-worth. Human disapproval can undermine our sense of self-worth. Jesus was not like us in that respect. His sense of self-worth was rooted less in how others saw him and very much in how God saw him. In the gospel reading, Jesus goes on to challenge his critics, ‘How can you believe, since you look to one another for approval and are not concerned about the approval that comes from the one God?’ Many of Jesus’ critics went along with undermining Jesus’ ministry because this is what their peers were doing. They were more concerned with the approval of their peers than with the approval of God. Peer pressure is a permanent feature of life in any age. We can all find ourselves going along with the emerging consensus, because not to do so would be to risk the disapproval of others. Yet, Jesus suggests in the gospel reading that the more important question is not ‘What do others think?’ but ‘What does God think?’ ‘How does God see me?’ In the gospel reading, Jesus suggests that one of the places where we can discover what God thinks, what God approves or and doesn’t, is in the Scriptures, ‘these same Scriptures testify to me’, and for us that includes above all the Christian Scriptures. As believers, it is from there we try to take our lead, even if it leaves us at odds with our peers. And/Or (ix) Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent In today’s gospel reading, Jesus refers to John the Baptist as a lamp alight and shining and declares that for a time people were content to enjoy the light that he gave. Jesus will go on to say in this gospel of John, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life’. John the Baptist may be a lamp who gives off some light, but only Jesus is the true light. People like John the Baptist have brought something of God’s light to others but Jesus alone is the light of God. We all need lamps as we go through life, people like John the Baptist who reveal the light of God’s presence to us in some way. We are all called to be a lamp in that sense. If we are to be a lamp for others, we need to keep turning towards Jesus the true light. This activity of turning to Jesus the true light lasts a life-time. In various ways we can turn away from this light of God that shines so brilliantly through the person of Jesus. We can turn towards the darkness, in some form or other, just as in today’s first reading the people of Israel turned from God and worshipped a golden calf that had been made by human hands. This is the human story; it is often our personal story. When that happens, we need to keep turning back towards Jesus, the true light who is always turned towards us. Only then can we live out our calling to be a lamp alight and shining. When we keep turning towards the light, we can become a light for others. Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland. Email: sjtbclontarf@eircom.net or revmartinhogan@gmail.com Parish Website: www.stjohnsclontarf.ie Please join us via our webcam. Twitter: @SJtBClontarfRC. Facebook: St John the Baptist RC Parish, Clontarf. Tumblr: Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin.
26th March >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on John 5:31-47 for Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent: ‘My testimony is greater than John’s’.
Thursday, Fourth Week of Lent
Reflections (9)
See Also
22nd June >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Matthew 6:24-34 for Saturday, Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time: ‘You cannot be the slave both of God and of money’.30th March >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on John 8:51-59 for Thursday, Fifth Week of Lent: ‘Before Abraham ever was I am’.17th August >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflection on Matthew 18:21-19:1 for Thursday, Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time: 'How often must I forgive?’