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.”
A Lenten Reflection
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is questioning his opponents about their awareness 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 whatever one pleases. It is an exchange that speaks powerfully to us and our times as we struggle to understand what it means to be free.
Abolitionist Harriet Tubman once reflected, “I freed a thousand slaves. I could have freed a thousand more if only they’d known they were slaves.” Freedom is the voice of human dignity. It is the way we express our God-given identity as part of an interdependent creation that is meant to complete and to celebrate itself. Paradoxically, interdependence is the key to independence. When we confuse being free with being responsible only to and for ourselves, we disconnect ourselves from the community and the experiences that form and guide us. We are no longer free to be ourselves and can only be whatever our egocentricity allows us to be. This is what the slavery of sin looks like.
During Lent, we are called to face the ignorance that causes us to lose touch with ourselves. 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, finally free to live and grow in our understanding that there can be no freedom outside of truth.
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.