John 10: 22-30
The context of the gospel today is the Feast of the Dedication, or Hanukkah. It is the winter festival of
light for Jews when they remember the reconsecration of the Jerusalem Temple
after it had been desecrated by Greek pagan worship imposed by the Hellenist
leader Antiochus IV Epiphanes. We can read about this in the first book of
Maccabees (1 Mac 4: 36f). After the abomination of pagan worship being
performed in the Temple, and after the followers of Judas Maccabeus had
defeated the occupation of the Greeks, the Temple needed to be cleansed so that
right worship could be offered there once again. This was extremely important
because worship goes to the very core of who we are as human beings, if we
offer wrong worship, if we offer worship contrary to God’s directions, then we
commit the gravest of sins – the worship of a false god or idolatry. So the
Jews needed to restore their unique place of worship.
Christ our Lord was always hesitant about public declarations of Him
being the Messiah. One of the reasons for this hesitancy was because He didn’t
want to lead a rebellion like Judas Maccabeus had done. No doubt there were
some very good reasons to fight off the Roman occupation, but this was after
all a transitory issue. What Jesus had come to sort out was not the current
issue but a perpetual issue – the issue that goes to the core of our souls –
the issue of our sin. This was not to say that He wasn’t concerned about unjust
regimes or other injustices, or indeed any other human problem, but they all
have at their core the human problem caused by our sin. So what Jesus didn’t want
to be caught up in was a military or political contest between the Jews and
Romans. What He was interested in was restoring the human soul so that it could
enter into a state of grace, and by entering into grace be able to enter into
heaven. The restoration of the soul in grace would then result in good fruit in
the world but more importantly radically improve the eternal future human
beings can hope for.
As we know the Temple was cleansed by Jesus once more on Palm Sunday, but
on that occasion He also pointed away from the Temple to His own self. The
focus of true worship moved from the Old Covenant to the New. The worship now
offered by God’s people is one centred on Jesus Christ. By Jesus’ perfect act
of worship on the cross, the Son giving Himself totally to His Father, He
enabled all human beings to be able to offer that perfect worship by
identifying themselves with their Saviour. So it is that because we have been
baptised into Christ’s death and resurrection (and if we are in a state of
grace) then through Christ we can participate in that perfect act. That is why
the Mass is the perfect act of worship and the perfect prayer – nothing else
surpasses it.
So let us praise Christ for His inestimable gift of
Himself in the Mass.
Fr Ian
