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Jesus and the pagan court official 4:43-54

Posted on September 5th 2010 in St. John's Gospel

Jesus now departs from Samaria, and travels to Galilee. His denunciation of Galilee turns on His self-understanding of a prophet who is one who engages in good works and preaches the coming of God, but who does this because He was sent by God. The Galileans had heard about the miracles but had not drawn the essential conclusion as to the true identity of Jesus, and only knew of his family circumstances in Nazareth.

The meeting between Jesus and the pagan court official is the third of three encounters that take place after the Cleansing of the Temple and the Marriage Feast of Cana. The previous two, with Nicodemus, the leading Jew, and with the Samaritan woman symbolise the reception given by Jews and those on the fringes of Judaism.

The dialogue between Jesus and the official starts with a gentle rebuke as to the nature of his faith, but which ends with the official believing the words of Jesus, ‘Go home, your son will live’. The faith of the official led to ‘knowledge’ because he connects the words of Jesus to the healing of his son. The precise use of language in St John is the key to the spiritual dynamics of the text. The title used for Jesus’ interlocutor changes from court official, to man, and lastly to father while simultaneously the dynamics of belief change, from partial faith based on signs, to faith with knowledge, to passing the faith on to others, in this case his family. A similar structure of the new convert leading others to faith may be seen in Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman, who encourages her townsfolk to listen to Jesus.

The final sentence of this section looks back to the first miracle performed in Cana in Galilee, the changing of the water into wine which initiated the public life of Jesus. Now the Gospel will relate a number of visits that Jesus will make to Jerusalem to celebrate various jewish festivals. At each He will replace that worship with that of Himself,.

The Pope’s visit may help rediscover that both Christians and secularists share a common language

Posted on September 5th 2010 in Weekly messages

The visit of Pope Benedict XVI has crept up on me, coming as it does straight after the summer holidays. The lazy days of summer make anything happening in September seems to belong to a different age. However, it is now less than two weeks before the Holy Father arrives in this country. What will he find and how will he be received? The intimations of mass demonstrations to be undertaken by secularists, Darwinists and others in parallel with the Pope’s visit looks to be widely off the mark. ‘Protest the Pope’, an amalgam of the discontented, will probably claim some moral victory but, as a group, will fizzle out in a few weeks once it lacks the oxygen of publicity.

My hopes are rather more positive. Pope Benedict will not gather the crowds that Pope John Paul II did when he came twenty-five years ago but, as a guest of the Queen in his capacity as a Head of State, he has the opportunity to speak to the nation in a formal manner which was denied to his predecessor whose visit was pastoral.

This different opportunity comes at a time when it is perceived by Christians that ‘religion’, and in this sense ‘organised religion’, is being marginalised in contemporary society. There have been instances in recent years of governmental opposition to Catholic schools, the work of catholic adoption agencies, and the nationalisation of the ethos of many Catholic charities through the weight of government grants. This view is true, but is not the full picture. What has been lost in contemporary debate is any comprehension of what used to be called ‘the preambles of faith’, the acceptance of those precious human qualities that could be discovered through the use of reason. Such qualities would be the immortality of the soul, the exercise of freedom, the role of conscience, the need for beauty, and the foundations of good and evil. None of these topics are necessarily religious in the narrow sense but part of the patrimony of humanity. This was the thrust of the Regensburg University Address given by Pope Benedict a few years ago. Unfortunately the arguments over one paragraph concerning Islam has blotted out in the minds of many people his insights on the role of reason, and the contribution of Greek philosophy to the world.

The loss of this middle ground is sorely felt because it makes dialogue so difficult. The secular minded might well treat the discussion of such subjects as a subterfuge for speaking about God, whilst the religiously minded so often seeks comfort in either Biblical fundamentalism or talk about attacks on the Church. So it is just here that Pope Benedict might make us all take notice, secular and religious alike. Two areas in particular might be on the Holy Father’s mind, judging from his previous publications, the care of the environment, and the cause of human development in the Third World and elsewhere. These two topics concern our common humanity and our common future and, even if secularist government and the Church come to them from different angles, both accept their importance. It is these areas that under his guidance might become new ‘preambles of faith’.

At heart the Christian faith is a relationship of love between God who comes close and, on our part, a loving response to just this. This dialogue is formalised in the Sacrament of Baptism, which involves entry into the community of like-minded believers, the Church. This dialogue continues sacramentally in the Eucharist and Reconciliation. To us, as Catholics, this all seems so obvious, but it does not look like that from the outside. Too often the secularist is expected to run, long before even he or she can walk. The preambles of faith, in traditional terms described as ‘philosophical anthropology’, and the reasoned dialogue that such thinking requires, is the place to begin. My hope is that on this state visit the Holy Father may stimulate just such a dialogue in every level of our society.

Jesus and the Samaritan woman (C4: 1-42) Part 3 vv31-42

Posted on August 15th 2010 in St. John's Gospel

The disciples return from the town, and are both shocked and concerned about Jesus, and implore Him to eat. This obvious concern and puzzlement about his source of food is the opportunity for Jesus to explain the real food that nourishes His journey. Jesus has been sent by the Father, and the spiritual energy required for His mission is to be faithful to His vocation, that of following the Father’s will. This is the worship ‘in spirit and truth’ that Jesus mentioned to the Samaritan woman. The completion of His work will take place on the Cross. The Gospel reader knows that Jesus will rise from the dead, and the future completion of His task sets the context for the historic mission of the disciples. There is a harvest ready to reap, as made clear by the occasions of faith so far encountered; Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman.

The meeting between Jesus and the Samaritan woman demonstrates that Jesus initiates faith.  As the one sent by the Father He comes in search for us. Jesus sows the seed of faith which the disciples are to harvest, and so they in turn become involved with His destiny. They may both rejoice in the same outcome, the great harvest already begun. The kingdom of God has already been inaugurated and the disciples must now reap what has already been sown in terms of faith. They began by copying the Baptism of Jesus, now they must look and reap like Him. The encounter with the Samaritan woman demonstrates that there are many just waiting to hear the Good News, but require someone to open up the necessary spiritual conversation that leads to conversion.

The testimony of the Samaritan woman to her compatriots leads them to Jesus, and to a major statement about the identity of Jesus, that He is Saviour of the world. The recognition comes of Jesus’ universal significance comes outside the confines of orthodox Judaism but one that does not deny the centrality of Judaism and the role of God’s chosen people. The true worship of God will now be universal, ‘in spirit and in truth’, but never dissociated from the historic figure of Jesus Christ, the one sent by the Father.