Thursday, April 1, 2004
5th Week of Lent

1st Reading: Gen 17:3-9
Gospel: Jn 8:51-59

Jesus said to the Jews, "Truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never experience death." The Jews replied, "Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died and the prophets as well, but you say: 'Whoever keeps my word will never experience death.' Who do you claim to be? Do you claim to be greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets also died."

Then Jesus said, "If I were to praise myself, it would count for nothing. But he who gives glory to me is the Father, the very one you claim as your God, although you don't know him. I know him and if I were to say that I don't know him, I would be a liar like you. But I know him and I keep his word.
"As for Abraham, your ancestor, he looked forward to the day when I would come; and he rejoiced when he saw it."

The Jews then said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?" And Jesus said "Truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." They then picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and left the Temple.

Commentary

IN Genesis 17:17 Abraham, who was a hundred years old, "fell on his face and laughed" when God told him he was to have a son. This laughter was interpreted by Jews as joy that he had seen the beginning of the messianic "day": that is, that the Messiah would one day be born of his line. Fifteen to twenty centuries later Jesus said, "Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day." After all those questions about his identity, this is his clear statement that he is the Messiah, the Promised One. More: he said, "Before Abraham was, I am." This echoes God's revelation of his name to Moses, "God said to Moses, I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you'" (Ex 3:14). This is Jesus' clearest claim to divinity in the gospel. It brings to a head all the questions about his identity in the preceding passages. His statement was not lost on his hearers, who took up stones to kill him for blasphemy.

Before Abraham was, "I am," not "I was." This was a moment "out of time", to use T.S. Eliot's phrase. Ordinary grammar buckles under the strain, past present and future tenses fuse into one. Many centuries later Julian of Norwich would say, mysteriously, "I saw God in a point."

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