From the responsorial psalm: “‘Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of our fathers, praiseworthy and exalted above all forever; And blessed is your holy and glorious name, praiseworthy and exalted above all for all ages.’ Glory and praise for ever!”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 8:31-42)
Jesus speaks to some of the Jews who believe in him. In a seemingly contradictory way, he tells them that they are trying to kill him because his word has no room among them. Jesus openly says that he is sent by the Father and tells them what he has seen and heard from him. But his hearers deny that they are enslaved to anyone or anything. “We are descendants of Abraham,” they tell Jesus, “and have never been enslaved to anyone.” Jesus replies, “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.” In the present, are there others who insist that they are free from sin, or are there times when we ourselves have no place for the word of the Lord?
God, help me understand today’s Gospel not as a long-ago story that ended in the death and resurrection of Jesus. It carries on today in the hearts of all people, where each of us has a choice to find a place for you there. Jesus saw a hesitancy among some of the people who believed in him, and the mark of true discipleship he made clear is an interior conviction to remain in his word, to choose truth, and to be set free in it. Help me act on this today as I recall the short verse before the Gospel: “Blessed are they who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance.”