Children of the Father

March 29, 2017
Wednesday,
4th Week of Lent
1st Reading: Is 49:8–15
Gospel: Jn 5:17–30

Jesus said to the Jews, “My Father goes on working and so do I.” And the Jews tried all the harder to kill him, for Jesus not only broke the Sabbath observance, but also made himself equal with God, calling him his own Father.

Jesus said to them, “Truly, I assure you, the Son cannot do anything by himself, but only what he sees the Father do. And whatever he does, the Son also does. The Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does; and he will show him even greater things than these, so that you will be amazed.

“As the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so the Son gives life to whom he wills. In the same way the Father judges no one, for he has entrusted all judgment to the Son, and he wants all to honor the Son as they honor the Father. Whoever ignores the Son, ignores as well the Father who sent him.

“Truly, I say to you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; and there is no judgment for him because he has passed from death to life. Truly, the hour is coming and has indeed come, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and, on hearing it, will live. For the Father has life in himself and he has given to the Son also to have life in himself. (…)

D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)

None of the Rabbis used the title “Father” in calling out on Yahweh. It was only Jesus who addressed Him this way. So Jewish leaders accused him of the crime of blasphemy. By calling God his “Father” he placed himself on equal footing with Yahweh. But Jesus did not intend to claim such equality. “Though he was in the form of God Jesus did not deem equality with God…” (Phil. 2:6-8). It was pure filial devotion that Jesus addressed God as Father.

God is our Father too. “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). As adopted sons and daughters we should behave like children of the light (see Luke 20:36). How sad that many of us create a dark nook for a hideout by making compromises with the devil. We still remember the NBN-ZTE scandalous deal in recent Philippine political history, how the government tried to escape liability by inventing terms like “permissible zone of corruption” and “moderate greed”.

To declare that there is such space as permissible zone of corruption, and that greed is moral when done moderately is a repudiation of one’s relationship with Jesus. Would anyone, having so repudiated such relationship, have the guts of claiming Jesus’ Father as his father too? – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.

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