You know neither me nor my Father

Homily
22 March 2010
Monday of the 5th Week of Lent
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center

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Once again, in today's Gospel passage we see that Jesus has the opportunity to command faith, but He does not. He has the opportunity to produce a sign, but seeing that he is being tested in an atmosphere of doubt, He sees no opportunity to elicit faith, so He does not perform a sign for them. Jesus instead, seeing the doubt of the Pharisees, speaks about His identity, where He is from, and about His relationship with His Father. He aims to try to get the Pharisees to think more deeply, as to the source of the signs Jesus had already performed and the source of His teaching.

Jesus says that those questioning Him neither know Him nor know the Father. He is challenging the superficiality of those who purport to know God well. He shows that rather than knowing God well, they know only how to doubt, and how to be judges. They know only how to be Gods themselves, and how to close themselves off to God's wishing to reveal Himself. Most of all, Jesus is exposing the lack of an interior life on the part of those Pharisees who question Him. In talking about His own identity and His relationship with His Father, Jesus shows that in their own hearts the Pharisees are far, far away from the kingdom of God.