Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent ‘c’

John 8:12-20

The Pharisees and the scholars of the law of Jesus’ time were expert in memorizing their law and all God’s commandments; they also knew the scriptures. They were so scrupulous in following that law by honoring Sabbath day and repeating their prayers. But Jesus confronts some of them by telling them that if they truly knew the scriptures they would recognize Him as the One who was send by God, they would recognize the Christ. For them their religion was only a number of commandments that they memorized and followed, being afraid that if they broke one of those laws they would be punished. Even today we may fall in that trap. Because we too memorize our prayers, commandments, church’s teachings. We go to mass each Sunday and receive other sacraments. But Jesus challenges us today by asking - why are you doing that? Because this is what your parents told you to do, because this is your family tradition, or only because you are afraid of breaking the law? If this is what motivates you, then Jesus would tell you that this is not enough, we must go deeper, we must take all these things into our hearts, we must do that because of our love for God. We need to ask God to increase our faith because only then will He open our eyes and we will be able to see His presence in all we do. “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”