A proposition of faith

Homily
Monday of the 3rd Week of Advent
John of the Cross, priest and doctor
Year for Priests

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Jesus many times will be elusive in the Gospels. It can almost seem like he is being difficult, or coy, or evasive or deceptive. He does not answer the question posed him in today's Gospel, even though He easily could have. But Jesus is not just toying with the chief priests and elders who approach him. Looking upon them with love, he knows the answer to their question lies within them. He sees the possibility of the chief priests and elders coming to faith in Him, and instead of telling them who He is, and giving them the possibility of doubting what He says, Jesus instead gives the scribes and Pharisees every opportunity to profess faith. Unfortunately, in this episode, they do not.

Beginning with his birth in the most humble and obscure of circumstances, Jesus comes among us not to command faith, but to propose it. Being deeply in love with us who enjoy the real freedom that comes from our being created in the image and likeness of God, God in his plan for the redemption of that freedom does not take any of it back, but instead lowers himself so much that it remains possible for us to disbelieve in Him. Surely, God could have revealed Himself in such a way as to overpower our freedom, in effect, taking some of it back. But he chose instead to reveal himself in such a way that would appeal to our freedom, and in such a way that it would take the very best that is within us to believe in Him and to enter into a relationship of true love with Him. +m