Diocese of Toledo, Ohio

Browsing From the Pastor

Is Jesus God?

            I know I've mentioned this in homilies during the week, but there are people who assert that Jesus is not divine, is not God because never once does He make an explicit claim in any of the Gospels. However, there are multiple instances throughout Jesus' public ministry in which He reveals He is the Word from the beginning who is with God and is God. In St. Matthew's Gospel, perhaps the best of the gospels, Jesus will begin by saying, “You have heard that it was said,” and proceed to quote something from the Law, and then Jesus states, “But I say to you,” and gives a new commandment. In doing this, Jesus displays His authority over the Law—an authority exclusive to God. In the healing of the paralytic, Jesus first says, “You sins are forgiven.” The crowd becomes outraged, not because Jesus ignored the man's physical ailment, but because Jesus told the man his sins are forgiven. The forgiveness of sins is reserved to God alone!

            Today's gospel reading from St. John's Gospel (8:51-59) is another way Jesus is revealing to the crowds and to us that He is divine, the Son of God. As Jesus is going back and forth with His interlocutors, Jesus states, “Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.” What a strange thing to say; it would have made more sense if Jesus said “I was.” However, by saying I AM, Jesus is harkening back to God's words to Moses at the burning bush. When Moses asked God's name, God's response is I AM. By saying I AM, Jesus is identifying Himself with God. We see how this is played out throughout all of St. John's Gospel in what are called the I AM statements:

I am the Bread of Life (6:35)

I am the Light of the World (8:12)

I am the Gate (10:9)

I am the Good Shepherd (10:11, 14)

I am the Resurrection and the Life (11:25)

I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life (14:6)

I am the Vine (15:1, 5)

            As Jesus reveals Himself through these statements, He reveals that, as God, He is our food, our light in darkness, our Shepherd, the entry through which we come home, our rising from the dead. He is the way home to the Father; He is the Truth about the Father and about ourselves; apart from Him is death since He is the life and vine, sustaining us.

            Someone recently posted on social media a graphic which read, “Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God.” How true this is, especially entering into Holy Week, we see how overwhelming, never-ending, reckless is the love of God for us in His Son, Jesus Christ. We see how true this is in our first reading from the Book of Genesis (17:3-9). God enters into a covenant with Abraham. What is a covenant but all-encompassing, totally self-giving of one to another. God enters into a covenant with us through Jesus: He gives all of Himself to us. As with any relationship involving covenants—think of marriage—God asks only one thing of us: to give ourselves totally, overwhelmingly, and recklessly back to Him.

 

Prayer taught to the children of Fatima:

I believe, I adore, I hope, and I love You, and I ask forgiveness for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope, and do not love You. Amen.

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