Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

 Lectionary: 246

Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.

We could spend our lives contemplating the mystery of John 5, in which the Lord describes his relationship to God the Father. If traces of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity are found on every page of the Old and New Testaments, it is manifest in these words. 

But this is not an explication of a dry, apparently irrelevant teaching of Holy Mother Church. Rather, this chapter invites us to know the intimate, intense, and very personal love of the Father and the Son, that love which is the Holy Spirit. If we do not find ourselves immersed in reassuring, empowering life we're missing the point. 

But the revelation comes with violence. For many it will be no worse than the breaking of an eggshell. For others the truth will smash and destroy; they will fear for their sanity  as they realize they have pursued madness. For all their struggle, sacrifice, and accomplishment in this world, they have given birth to wind. 

The Gospel of Saint John describes the clash of encounter between God and his people; Jesus continually demands faith even as he explains the truth in the plainest possible language. But his explanations mean nothing to those who refuse to follow his argument, who will not recognize him. He comes from the God who is their God and his God, but because they have lost sight of their God they cannot know him. They have built an ideological temple of laws, statutes, and decrees which does not afford space to the Holy Spirit. They feel secure within their temple but do not hear the fierce, outer storm which will leave not one stone upon another. Like every other human construct, it will disintegrate as history marches over it. 

Security, of course, is their god, as Caiaphas will remind the Sanhedrin. After Jesus had called Lazarus out of the grave, 

...the chief priests and the Pharisees convened the Sanhedrin and said, “What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our land and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing, nor do you consider that it is better for you that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish.” 

The Sanhedrin had forgotten under the pressure of Realpolitic that their only security is the LORD. 

Passing through this world as we do, with an eye always to the real world that is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we know our security is built neither of weapons nor of bank accounts. Our religion, so despised by the world, assures us the Lord knows where this world is going even as it reels from crisis to crisis. If we cannot see that end, we're assured our God does. We need not buy into its securities or its apparent wealth. Our aim is not security but service; our freedom is welcoming others into our world and providing the supports they need to live here. 

This freedom is the work Jesus describes in John 5:

For the Father loves the Son

and shows him everything that he himself does,

and he will show him greater works than these,

so that you may be amazed.

For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,

so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.