“THIS IS THE CHRIST(v. 41)“
(Jn 7:40-53).
Jn 7:40–53
So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?” (46) The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.” So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.” Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, “Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?” They answered and said to him, “You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
Then each went to his own house.
- Some believed in Him, saying: This is the prophet, to whom all must listen, or This is the Christ, that is, the Messiah, the Anointed, the Chosen one which God the Father would send to save humanity.
- On the other hand, the Pharisees, out of their envy, skepticism, or hard-heartedness, did not want to admit that his greatness comes precisely from the fact that He is the Son of God, sent by the Father.
- At it was during his time, his presence obliges each person to define himself: to believe in Him or not; to choose to follow Him, or like the Pharisees, despise Him.
- As Christians, let us ask Our Lord to be coherent to our faith and to our choice of believing in Jesus, in His Church, not only by desire, but above all, through concrete daily deeds.
- May we also overcome our timidity, human respects, in a word, our cowardice, when the occasions arise to defend Our Lord, His teachings and His Church, without fearing what others might think or say about us.
