From: John 10:22-30
Jesus and the Father are One
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Commentary:
22. This feast commemorates an episode in Jewish history (cf. 1 Maccabees
4:36-59; 2 Maccabees 1-2:19; 10:1-8) when Judas Maccabeus, in the year 165
B.C., after liberating Jerusalem from the control of the Seleucid kings of Syria,
cleansed the temple of the profanations of Antiochus Epiphanes (1 Maccabees
1:54). From then onwards, on the twenty-fifth day of the month of Kislev (Novem-
ber - December) and throughout the following week, all Judea celebrated the an-
niversary of the dedication of the new altar. It was also known as the “Festival
of Lights” because it was customary to light lamps, a symbol of the Law, and
put them in the windows of the houses (cf. 2 Maccabees 1:18).
24-25. When these Jews ask Jesus if He is the Messiah, “they speak in this
way”, St. Augustine comments, “not because they desire truth, but to prepare
the way for calumny” (”In Ioann. Evang.”, 48, 3). We have already seen Jesus
reveal, by His words and deeds, that He is the Only Son of God (5:19ff; 7:16ff;
8:25ff). In view of their good dispositions, He explicitly told the Samaritan wo-
man (4:26) and the man born blind (9:37) that He was the Messiah and Savior.
Now He reproaches His listeners for refusing to recognize the works He does
in His Father’s name (cf. 5:36; 10:38). On other occasions He referred to works
as a way to distinguish true prophets from false ones: “You will know them by
their fruits” (Matthew 7:16; cf. Matthew 12:33).
26-29. Certainly faith and eternal life cannot be merited by man’s own efforts:
they are a gift of God. But the Lord does not deny anyone grace to believe and
be saved, because He “desires all men to be saved and to come to the know-
ledge of the Truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). If someone tries to avoid receiving the gift
of faith, his unbelief is blameworthy. On this point St. Thomas Aquinas teaches:
“I can see, thanks to the light of the sun; but if I close my eyes, I cannot see:
this is no fault of the sun, it is my own fault, because by closing my eyes, I
prevent the sunlight from reaching me” (”Commentary on St. John”, ad loc.).
But those who do not oppose divine grace do come to believe in Jesus. They
are known to and loved by Him, enter under His protection and remain faithful
with the help of His grace, which is a pledge of the eternal life which the Good
Shepherd will eventually give them. It is true that in this world they will have to
strive and in the course of striving they will sustain wounds; but if they stay uni-
ted to the Good Shepherd nothing and no one will snatch Christ’s sheep from
Him, because our Father, God, is stronger than the Evil One. Our hope that
God will grant us final perseverance is not based on our strength but on God’s
mercy: this hope should always motivate us to strive to respond to grace and
to be more faithful to the demands of our faith.
30. Jesus reveals that He and the Father are one in substance. Earlier He pro-
claimed that God was His Father, “making Himself equal with God”—which is
why a number of times the Jewish authorities think of putting Him to death (cf.
5:18; 8:59). Now He speaks about the mystery of God, which is something we
can know about only through Revelation. Later on He will reveal more about this
mystery, particularly at the Last Supper (14:10; 17:21-22). It is something the
evangelist reflects on at the very beginning of the Gospel, in the prologue (cf.
John 1:1 and note).
“Listen to the Son Himself”, St. Augustine invites us. “’I and the Father are one.’
He did not say, ‘I am the Father’ or ‘I and the Father are one [Person].’ But when
He says, ‘I and the Father are one,’ notice the two words ‘[we are]’ and ‘one’ ...
For if they are one, then they are not diverse; if ‘[we] are’, then there is both a
Father and a Son” (”In Ioann. Evang.”, 36, 9). Jesus reveals that He is one in
substance with the Father as far as divine essence or nature is concerned, but
He also reveals that the Father and the Son are distinct Persons: “We believe
then in the Father who eternally begets the Son; in the Son, the Word of God,
who is eternally begotten; in the Holy Spirit, the uncreated Person who pro-
ceeds from the Father and the Son as their eternal Love. Thus in the three divine
Persons, “coaeternae sibi et coaequales”, the life and beatitude of God perfectly
One superabound and are consummated in the supreme excellence and glory
proper to uncreated Being, and always ‘there should be venerated Unity in the
Trinity and Trinity in the Unity’” (Paul VI, “Creed of the People of God,” 10).
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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.
| First reading | Acts 11:19-26 © |
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| Psalm | Psalm 86:1-7 © |
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| Gospel Acclamation | Jn10:27 |
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| Gospel | John 10:22-30 © |
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