Fr. John Eudes Bamberger, OCSO
4th Friday in Lent
Wisdom 2:1, 12-22; John 2:1-2, 10,25-30
In his First Epistle to the Corinthians Saint Paul writes that” Christ is “ The Power and The Wisdom of God” (v.25). That being the case it is legitimate to interpret the inspired Later on Wisdom that is the source of today’s first reading, as providing insights into the interior life of Christ our Savior. This ext is particularly informative in that we have just heard that wrongly disposed men have a spontaneous hatred for the truly wise man. They plot to he judges them to be debased and refuses to join their company. He approves the behavior of the just and speaks of God as their Father. Instead of listening to his message that invites them to reconsider their way of life, they make plans to kill him.
If the Jews of our Lord’s day had reflected on this Sacred text they may well have led to give a more receptive hearing to the preaching of our Lord. Even though this Book of Wisdom was not in the canon recognized officially by the Jewish authorities it was venerated by many to such an extent that the Christian Church declared it to be truly inspired and included it among the Books of the Old Testament Writings. So Saint Paul conceived Christ as the embodiment of true Wisdom and teaches the Corinthians to take Jesus as their teacher of the true way to God.
When our Lord declared in words recorded in St. John’s Gospel only that he knows the God who sent him he implies that he is the source of the knowledge of God. That the Jews understood that he made such a claim is clear from their intent to stone him to death for asserting it.
Certainly in giving Himself to His followers in the Eucharistic sacrifice, Christ makes this same claim to each of us. It is by receiving Him in this Eucharist with loving faith and obeying His will in our daily life that we respond with trusting faith to His claim to be the Son of God with a grateful spirit.
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