CCC Cross Reference:
Jn 7:1 583; Jn 7:10 583
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Reading 1
Wis 2:1a, 12-22
The wicked said among themselves,
thinking not aright:
“Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
Reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
He professes to have knowledge of God
and styles himself a child of the Lord.
To us he is the censure of our thoughts;
merely to see him is a hardship for us,
Because his life is not like that of others,
and different are his ways.
He judges us debased;
he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure.
He calls blest the destiny of the just
and boasts that God is his Father.
Let us see whether his words be true;
let us find out what will happen to him.
For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him
and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
With revilement and torture let us put him to the test
that we may have proof of his gentleness
and try his patience.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him.”
These were their thoughts, but they erred;
for their wickedness blinded them,
and they knew not the hidden counsels of God;
neither did they count on a recompense of holiness
nor discern the innocent souls’ reward.
Responsorial Psalm
Ps 34:17-18, 19-20, 21 and 23
R. (19a) The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
The Lord confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
When the just cry out, the Lord hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.
R. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
Many are the troubles of the just man,
but out of them all the Lord delivers him.
R. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
He watches over all his bones;
not one of them shall be broken.
The Lord redeems the lives of his servants;
no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.
R. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.
Gospel
Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
Jesus moved about within Galilee;
he did not wish to travel in Judea,
because the Jews were trying to kill him.
But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.
But when his brothers had gone up to the feast,
he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.
Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said,
“Is he not the one they are trying to kill?
And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him.
Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?
But we know where he is from.
When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”
So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said,
“You know me and also know where I am from.
Yet I did not come on my own,
but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true.
I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.”
So they tried to arrest him,
but no one laid a hand upon him,
because his hour had not yet come.
Readings from the Jerusalem Bible
First reading Wisdom 2:1 – 22
The godless say to themselves, with their misguided reasoning:
‘Our life is short and dreary,
nor is there any relief when man’s end comes,
nor is anyone known who can give release from Hades.
Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man, since he annoys us
and opposes our way of life,
reproaches us for our breaches of the law
and accuses us of playing false to our upbringing.
He claims to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself a son of the Lord.
Before us he stands, a reproof to our way of thinking,
the very sight of him weighs our spirits down;
his way of life is not like other men’s,
the paths he treads are unfamiliar.
In his opinion we are counterfeit;
he holds aloof from our doings as though from filth;
he proclaims the final end of the virtuous as happy
and boasts of having God for his father.
Let us see if what he says is true,
let us observe what kind of end he himself will have.
If the virtuous man is God’s son, God will take his part
and rescue him from the clutches of his enemies.
Let us test him with cruelty and with torture,
and thus explore this gentleness of his
and put his endurance to the proof.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death
since he will be looked after – we have his word for it.’
This is the way they reason, but they are misled,
their malice makes them blind.
They do not know the hidden things of God,
they have no hope that holiness will be rewarded,
they can see no reward for blameless souls.
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 33(34):16,18,19-21,23
The Lord is close to the broken-hearted.
The Lord turns his face against the wicked
to destroy their remembrance from the earth.
They call and the Lord hears
and rescues them in all their distress.
The Lord is close to the broken-hearted.
The Lord is close to the broken-hearted;
those whose spirit is crushed he will save.
Many are the trials of the just man
but from them all the Lord will rescue him.
The Lord is close to the broken-hearted.
He will keep guard over all his bones,
not one of his bones shall be broken.
The Lord ransoms the souls of his servants.
Those who hide in him shall not be condemned.
The Lord is close to the broken-hearted.
Gospel John 7:1 – 30
After this Jesus stayed in Galilee; he could not stay in Judaea, because the Jews were out to kill him.
As the Jewish feast of Tabernacles drew near, However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went up as well, but quite privately, without drawing attention to himself. Meanwhile some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, ‘Isn’t this the man they want to kill? And here he is, speaking freely, and they have nothing to say to him! Can it be true the authorities have made up their minds that he is the Christ? Yet we all know where he comes from, but when the Christ appears no one will know where he comes from.
Then, as Jesus taught in the Temple, he cried out:
‘Yes, you know me
and you know where I came from.
Yet I have not come of myself:
no, there is one who sent me
and I really come from him,
and you do not know him,
but I know him because I have come from him
and it was he who sent me.’
They would have arrested him then, but because his time had not yet come no one laid a hand on him.
Readings and Commentary from the Navarre Bible
Friday of the 4th Week of Lent
From: Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22
Life Leads to Death (Continuation)
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[1a] For they reasoned unsoundly, saying to themselves, [12] "Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training. [13] He professes to have knowledge of God, and calls himself a child of the Lord. [14] He became to us a reproof of our thoughts; [15] the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange. [16] We are considered by him as something base, and he avoids our ways as unclean; he calls the last end of the righteous happy, and boasts that God is his father. [17] Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life; [18] for if the righteous man is God's son, he will help him, and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries. [19] Let us test him with insult and torture, that we may find out how gentle he is, and make trial of his forbearance. [20] Let us condemn him to a shameful death, for, according to what he says, he will be protected."
The Origin of Evil and Death
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[21] Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them, [22] and they did not know the secret purposes of God, nor hope for the wages of holiness, nor discern the prize for blameless souls.
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Commentary:
1:16-2:24 This section describes the way the ungodly think and behave, and their error in so doing. Righteousness is immortal; but the ungodly think that life ends at death and therefore they try to strike a bargain with death (1:16-2:19). Moreover, they hound the righteous man because he thinks and acts differently from the way they do (2:10-20). They have no idea what life is all about (2:21-24).
1:16-2:9. The sort of thinking attributed here to the ungodly connects up with materialistic and hedonist philosophies, maybe with Epicureanism. The sacred writer probably also had in mind some Jews who, turning their backs on their faith, fell victim to the materialism and skepticism associated with certain streams of Greek thought. Philosophers of such schools based their arguments on two verifiable facts: death is inevitable, and life is short. They had no notion f immortality, and no faith, and therefore only one policy seemed to make sense: seize every chance that life offers for pleasure and enjoyment. It is reminiscent of the "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" (Is 22:13; 1 Cor 15:32).
2:10-20. Not content with enjoying the pleasures of life, the ungodly go further: they persecute the just man because he is a constant reproach to them. They want to see if God, whom the just man calls his father, will protect and rescue him. He calls God his father? Let us see what protection God gives him. If God fails to come to his aid, then they are proved right, and the just man wrong. Their words are echoed in the insults offered by scribes and Pharisees to Jesus when he was on the cross (cf. Mt 27:40-43; Mk 15:31-32; Lk 23:35-37).
Interestingly, the just man calls himself a "child of God" (v. 13). This is something new in Jewish thinking, because prior to this it was the entire people of Israel or the king their representative who was considered a "son of God" (cf. Ex 4:22; Deut 14:1; 32:6; Ps 2; Is 30:1, 9; Hos 11:1). But in the later books of the Old Testament (for example, in Sir 23:4; 51:14) we begin to see the fatherhood of God towards every just person. The title of "child of God" is applied to all the righteous, and more properly to the Messiah, who is the Righteous One.
As the RSV note "e" points out, the Greek word "pais" which it translates as "child" can also mean "servant". The "servant" in the Old Testament acquires special significance from the book of Isaiah forward, where the "Suffering Servant" appears (cf. Is 52:13-53:12). This man will, through his suffering, set Israel free of Its sins. This dual meaning of "pais" prepares the way for the revelation of Jesus Christ, Son of God and Servant of the Lord.
2:21-24. The mistake of the ungodly is to think that nothing lies beyond death. But this way of thinking stems from the wickedness of their lives which prevents them from knowing God's purposes and causes them to despise the way upright people live. The inspired author takes issue with them and spells out God's plan for man and how death came to be (vv. 23-24). But here again "death" has a farreaching meaning: it means losing that incorruptibility which, as the author sees it, lies beyond physical death. The death that entered the world through the devil's envy, the death experienced by those who belong to the devil's "party", means to be reduced to nothing, to become "dishonored corpses" (4:18), through losing the incorruptibility that comes from God. What the author is saying here presupposes the Genesis account of how man was created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26) and therefore with a seed of immortality, and how the devil tempted man to commit the original sin that resulted in the loss of immortality (cf. Gen 3-4). But the author of Wisdom goes further than that: he says that only those who belong to the devil lose the "immortality" (which he terms "incorruption") of the human person as an entity made up of soul and body. On the basis of this interpretation and in the light of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, St Paul teaches that death, both physical and spiritual, reaches all human beings through the sin committed by Adam; but Christ, the new Adam, redeems all from death.
The devil, in Greek "diabolos", means "accuser, calumniator" and is the usual translation given for the Hebrew "Satan". These verses do not quote Genesis explicitly, but Genesis is in the background, for it is there we find the serpent identified as God's enemy and man's. The New Testament writer remind us that the devil was a murderer from the beginning (cf. Jn 8:44); and in its account of the battle between good and bad angels, the book of Revelation will say: "The great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world" (Rev 12:9).
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From: John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
Jesus Goes Up to Jerusalem During the Feast of Tabernacles
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[1] After this Jesus went about in Galilee; He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill Him. [2] Now the Jews' feast of Tabernacles was at hand. [10] But after His brethren had gone up to the feast, then He also went up, not publicly but in private.
[25] Some of the people of Jerusalem therefore said, "Is not this the man whom they seek to kill? [26] And here He is, speaking openly, and they say nothing to Him! Can it be that the authorities really know that this is the Christ? [27] Yet we know where this man comes from; and when the Christ appears, no one will know where He comes from. [28] So Jesus proclaimed, as He taught in the temple, "You know where I come from? But I have not come of My own accord; He who sent Me is true, and Him you do not know. [29] I know Him, for I come from Him, and He sent Me." [30] So they sought to arrest Him; but no one laid hands on Him, because His hour had not yet come.
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Commentary:
1-2. The Jewish custom was for closer relatives to be called "brothers", brethren (cf. notes on Matthew 12:46-47 and Mark 6:1-3). These relatives of Jesus followed Him without understanding His teaching or His mission (cf. Matthew 3:31); but because He worked such obvious miracles in Galilee (cf. Matthew 15:32-39; Mark 8:1-10, 22-26) they suggest to Him that He show Himself publicly in Jerusalem and throughout Judea. Perhaps they wanted Him to be a big success, which would have indulged their family pride.
2. The name of the feast recalls the time the Israelites spent living under canvas in the wilderness (cf. Leviticus 23:34-36). During the eight days the feast lasted (cf. Nehemiah 8:13-18), around the beginning of autumn, the Jews commemorated the protection God had given the Israelites over the forty years of the Exodus. Because it coincided with the end of the harvest, it was also called the feast of ingathering (cf. Exodus 23:16).
10. Because He had not arrived in advance of the feast (which was what people normally did), the first caravans would have reported that Jesus was not coming up, and therefore the members of the Sanhedrin would have stopped planning anything against Him (cf. 7:1). By going up later, the religious authorities would not dare make any move against Him for fear of hostile public reaction (cf. Matthew 26:5). Jesus, possibly accompanied by His disciples, arrives unnoticed at Jerusalem, "in private", almost in a hidden way. Half-way through the feast, on the fourth or fifth day, He begins to preach in the temple (cf. 7:14).
27. In this chapter we often see the Jews disconcerted, in two minds. They argue with one another over whether Jesus is the Messiah, or a prophet, or an impostor (verse 12); they do not know where He gets His wisdom from (verse 15); they are short-tempered (verses 19-20); and they are surprised by the attitudes of the Sanhedrin (verse 26). Despite the signs they have seen (miracles, teaching) they do not want to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. Perhaps some, thinking that He came from Nazareth and was the son of Joseph and Mary, cannot see how this fits in with the notion usually taken from Isaiah's prophecy (Isaiah 53:1-8) about the Messiah's origin being unknown--except for His coming from the line of David and being born in Bethlehem (cf. Matthew 2:5 which quotes Micah 5:2; cf. John 7:42). In fact Jesus did fulfill those prophetic predictions, though most Jews did not know it because they knew nothing about His virginal birth in Bethlehem or His descent from David. Others must have known that He was of the house of David and had been born in Bethlehem, but even so they did not want to accept His teaching because it demanded a mental and moral conversion which they were not ready to make.
28-29. Not without a certain irony, Jesus refers to the superficial knowledge these Jews had of Him: however, He asserts that He comes from the Father who has sent Him, whom only He knows, precisely because He is the Son of God (cf. John 1:18).
30. The Jews realized that Jesus was making Himself God's equal, which was regarded as blasphemy and, according to the Law, was something punishable by death by stoning (cf. Leviticus 24:15-16, 23).
This is not the first time St. John refers to the Jews' hostility (cf. John 5:10), nor will it be the last (8:59; 10:31-33). He stresses this hostility because it was a fact and perhaps also to show that Jesus acts freely when, to fulfill the Father's will He gives Himself over to His enemies when His "hour" arrives (cf. John 18: 4-8). "He did not therefore mean an hour when He would be forced to die, but one when He would allow Himself to be put to death. For He was waiting for the time in which He should die, even as He waited for the time in which He should be born (St. Augustine, "In Ioann. Evang., 31, 5).
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and by Scepter Publishers in the United States. We encourage readers to purchase The Navarre Bible for personal study. See Scepter Publishers for details.
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