The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today challenge us to participate in the witness of Christ to the world through works, Divine Immanence, and Sacred Scripture.
Testimony and Works
The reading from the Book of Exodus describes the dialogue between God and Moses resulting from the Golden Calf.
* [32:11–13] Moses uses three arguments to persuade the Lord to remain faithful to the Sinai covenant even though the people have broken it: (1) they are God’s own people, redeemed with God’s great power; (2) God’s reputation will suffer if they are destroyed; (3) the covenant with Abraham still stands. The Lord’s change of mind is a testimony to Israel’s belief in the power of intercessory prayer.1
Psalm 106 is a confession of Israel’s Sins.
* [Psalm 106] Israel is invited to praise the God whose mercy has always tempered judgment of Israel (Ps 106:1–3). The speaker, on behalf of all, seeks solidarity with the people, who can always count on God’s fidelity despite their sin (Ps 106:4–5). Confident of God’s mercy, the speaker invites national repentance (Ps 106:6) by reciting from Israel’s history eight instances of sin, judgment, and forgiveness. The sins are the rebellion at the Red Sea (Ps 106:6–12; see Ex 14–15), the craving for meat in the desert (Ps 106:13–15; see Nm 11), the challenge to Moses’ authority (Ps 106:16–18; see Nm 16), the golden calf episode (Ps 106:19–23; see Ex 32–34), 2
In the Gospel of John, witnesses to Jesus are identified.
* [5:1–47] The self-revelation of Jesus continues in Jerusalem at a feast. The third sign (cf. Jn 2:11; 4:54) is performed, the cure of a paralytic by Jesus’ life-giving word. The water of the pool fails to bring life; Jesus’ word does.3
Angela Maynard comments that witnesses were an important piece of Jewish proceedings. Jesus reminds the Jews that HIS most important testimony is the accomplishment of the works of the Father.
This teaching is easily translated to our lives today. It’s one thing to preach beliefs and what we perceive to value. It’s nice if another can testify to this. Most importantly, we understand what one truly holds dear by their actions.4
Don Schwager quotes “Christ is our Master who teaches us,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354- 430 A.D.
"There is a Master within Who teaches us. Christ is our Master, and his inspiration and his anointing teaches us. Where his inspiration and his anointing are lacking, it is in vain that words resound in our ears. As Paul the Apostle said: 'I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow.' Therefore, whether we plant or whether we water by our words, we are nothing. It is God Who gives the increase; His anointing teaches you all things." (excerpt from Sermon on 1 John 3,13)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on John 5:31-47 comments that every time we experience healing—of a physical illness or an emotional wound or a broken relationship—He is at work giving life to us. Any time we have been freed from the guilt of our sins or received insight into God’s love, Jesus is at work giving life. These works testify that Jesus is the Son of God, who is consubstantial (one in being) with the Father. They testify to the power and love of God.
God is not bound by human limitations of place and time. Jesus is always working to give life to you, when and where you need it. On the Sabbath, he can give life. On holidays, wedding days, or even Thursdays, Jesus can give you life. So ask him today to free you from sin and to give you life in abundance (John 10:10). “Thank you, Jesus, that you are always bestowing life on me.”6
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the chutzpah of Moses in his dialogue with God. We should be able to be forceful, like Moses, in our prayer. The radiance of Moses is akin to our radiance of Jesus in our works.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces mystic and theologian Howard Thurman (1899–1991) who describes the fear experienced by those who, as he puts it, have “their backs against the wall” through oppression and injustice.
The ever-present fear that besets the vast poor, the economically and socially insecure, is a fear of still a different breed. It is a climate closing in; it is like the fog in San Francisco or in London. It is nowhere in particular yet everywhere. It is a mood which one carries around with oneself, distilled from the acrid conflict with which one’s days are surrounded. It has its roots deep in the heart of the relations between the weak and the strong, between the controllers of environment and those who are controlled by it. In the great expression of affirmation and faith found in the Sermon on the Mount [see Matthew 6:25–34] there appears in clearest outline the basis of [Jesus’] positive answer to the awful fact of fear and its twin sons of thunder—anxiety and despair. . . . The core of the analysis of Jesus is that humans are children of God, the God of life that sustains all of nature and guarantees all the intricacies of the life-process itself. Jesus suggests that it is quite unreasonable to assume that God, whose creative activity is expressed even in such details as the hairs of a person’s head, would exclude from God’s concern the life, the vital spirit, of the person themselves. This idea—that God is mindful of the individual—is of tremendous import in dealing with fear as a disease. In this world the socially disadvantaged person is constantly given a negative answer to the most important personal questions upon which mental health depends: “Who am I? What am I?”7
Our experience of works, Presence, and the Word is testimony to the Spirit acting in our lives to testify to Life in relationship with Jesus.
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