Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Intention: For justice in our world, especially for all who are forgotten or excluded, abandoned or abused, persecuted or exploited, that people of good will might rise to their defense and come to their aid.
Today’s Gospel | John 8:31-42
Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in a household forever, but a son always remains. So if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free. I know that you are descendants of Abraham. But you are trying to kill me, because my word has no room among you. I tell you what I have seen in the Father’s presence; then do what you have heard from the Father.”
They answered and said to him, “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing the works of Abraham. But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God; Abraham did not do this. You are doing the works of your father!” So they said to him, “We were not born of fornication. We have one Father, God.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and am here; I did not come on my own, but he sent me.”
Reflection
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is questioning his opponents about their knowledge of their realities. They insist that what they know tells them that they are righteous in the eyes of God. Jesus challenges them, saying that they are not faithful to the truth of what they know, and that their hypocrisy is enslaving them in sin. They argue that they have never been slaves, missing Jesus’ point that there is more to being free than being able to do as they please. It is a point that speaks as powerfully now as it did then, and one to which we would do well to listen: There can be no freedom outside of the truth.
Abolitionist Harriet Tubman once mused, “I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.” Sin’s hold on us owes much to our lack of awareness of our own state of being. Caught up in pursuits that we do not realize are meaningless, we neglect those things that define us: our gifts, our opportunities, our possibilities. Because we squander the truth of who we are, we are no longer free to be ourselves, and can only be whatever our selfishness limits us to be. Nothing is as it appears, nor is it as it should be. We are lost in self-deception, wounding both ourselves and the world. This is what the slavery of sin looks like.
During Lent, we are called to face the egocentricity that causes us to lose touch with reality. It is important that we never allow what we know to stand in the way of what we still need to learn. By opening ourselves to God’s call to authenticity, we can find the faith and the humility to walk away from sinfulness, and to be free to live and grow in the truth of God’s ways.
Prayer
Eternal Father, you sent to us your son to loosen from us the chains of our own sinfulness. During this holy time of Lent, we give you thanks for always being our rescue. You deliver us from our ignorance, from our fears, from our despair. You call us to you to gather around you and be filled with the power of your holy spirit that restores us and redeems us. Grant that as you seek to make us free, we open our hearts and hands to receive this freedom that you give to us through your constant love. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.