THE GOD WHO IS FULLY HUMAN!

Friday, April 15, 2011

Lenten Weekday

By Lorenz S. Centino, Jr.

John 10: 31 - 42

31        The Jews took up stones again to stone him.

32        Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?"

33        The Jews answered him, "It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God."

34        Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, `I said, you are gods'?

35        If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken),

36        do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, `You are blaspheming,' because I said, `I am the Son of God'?

37        If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me;

38        but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

39        Again they tried to arrest him, but he escaped from their hands.

40        He went away again across the Jordan to the place where John at first baptized, and there he remained.

41        And many came to him; and they said, "John did no sign, but everything that John said about this man was true."

42        And many believed in him there.

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS:

A BLESSED FRIDAY!!!

Words are the most common medium of communication that we human used. By words we express our thoughts and feelings. By words we can share to others our dreams, visions and desires. However, words can also easily misrepresent and mislead. It can cover falsehood with explanations and justifications to make something to appear to be true. Words can easily be used to LIE. Moreover, at times, our words are not enough to capture what we want to communicate. That is why words can easily be misunderstood. There are certain things that we want to impart that our words cannot clearly and fully communicate. At times, only action can best impart what we want to communicate. In fact there is an adage that says ACTION speaks LOUDER than WORDS.

In the Gospel today we find again Jesus in a dangerous situation wherein he could be harmed or killed because the Jews were there ready to stone at him again. But before any stone would be cast at him he asked them if the GOOD WORKS that he did would make him liable to be stoned. Jesus asked, "I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?" Jesus was not just asking them to recall the good works he performed, but he also wanted them to see that all those good works are from the Father. He was leading the violent people to see that he is working for God. He wanted them to understand that he is doing the WORKS of GOD. But these violent people are really BLIND to understand the prophetic meaning of his good works that made the Kingdom of God present in their midst. They failed to really recognize who Jesus is by the good works that he did. They could have appreciated the good works that Jesus did, but they become worthless because of how Jesus associated himself with God. They said, “It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God." For them Jesus is just an ordinary man.

Indeed, Jesus is a man, a fully human being. And it is this very condition that blinded many to consider his good works as “WORKS of GOD”. By simply recognizing Jesus as an ordinary man they failed to come to the realization that GOD can be HUMAN to bring us to the fullness of life. It is this mystery of the INCARNATION of Jesus that God, in the most HUMBLE way, reveals His LOVE to us. Jesus, who was with God in the beginning and is God himself, took our human nature so that he can RESTORE its GLORY from being tainted and corrupted by SIN. So that by his own BODY he will carry our SINS on the Cross, and by his RESURRECTION he will restore to our humanity the lost destiny to be home with God in his Kingdom.

Despite the blindness of many Jews, there were those who came to recognize and believe in Jesus. Many come to believe, as the Gospel today indicated, because of what John has TESTIFIED about Jesus. They come to faith because they saw how the testimony of John about Jesus was TRUE. Claiming to be Christians, followers of Jesus, we are challenged today to examine how far do we make testimony to Jesus, may it be in WORDS or ACTIONS, so that skeptics may come to BELIEVE and those whose faith are shaken may fully surrender themselves to him. May we, in our own way, become John to others that will make them come to the knowledge and faith in Jesus. In being so, we are doing the WORKS of GOD in our humanity!