Thursday, December 20, 2007

Jn 7, 25-30 I did not come on my own

(Jn 7, 25-30) I did not come on my own
[25] So some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, "Is he not the one they are trying to kill? [26] And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him. Could the authorities have realized that he is the Messiah? [27] But we know where he is from. When the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from." [28] 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. [29] I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me." [30] So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come.
(CCC 34) The world, and man, attest that they contain within themselves neither their first principle nor their final end, but rather that they participate in Being itself, which alone is without origin or end. Thus, in different ways, man can come to know that there exists a reality which is the first cause and final end of all things, a reality "that everyone calls God" (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I, 2, 3). (CCC 213) The revelation of the ineffable name "I Am who Am" contains then the truth that God alone IS. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, and following it the Church's Tradition, understood the divine name in this sense: God is the fullness of Being and of every perfection, without origin and without end. All creatures receive all that they are and have from him; but he alone is his very being, and he is of himself everything that he is. (CCC 216) God's truth is his wisdom, which command whole created order and governs the world (Cf. Wis 13:1-9). God, who alone made heaven and earth, can alone impart true knowledge of every created thing in relation to himself (Cf. Ps 115:15; Wis 7:17-21). (CCC 221) But St. John goes even further when he affirms that "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8, 16): God's very being is love. By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret (Cf. 1 Cor 2:7-16; Eph 3:9-12): God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange.

No comments: