Daily Gospel Reflection – Memorial of Saint Athanasius, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Bishop Robert Barron
May 2, 2023
Gospel: Jn 10:20-30
The feast of the Dedication was taking place in Jerusalem.
It was winter.
And Jesus walked about in the temple area on the Portico of Solomon.
So the Jews gathered around him and said to him,
"How long are you going to keep us in suspense?
If you are the Christ, tell us plainly."
Jesus answered them, "I told you and you do not believe.
The works I do in my Father's name testify to me.
But you do not believe, because you are not among my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice;
I know them, and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
No one can take them out of my hand.
My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all,
and no one can take them out of the Father's hand.
The Father and I are one."
*United States Conference of Catholic
Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus declares that “the Father and I are one.” Jesus appeared two thousand years ago and announced that he had been sent by the Father. There was a strange “something more” regarding Jesus, for he spoke and acted in the very person of God.
The first Christians had to come to grips with this strange duality: somehow Jesus was Son of God, both sent and divine. He was other than the Father, but somehow at the same level as the Father. Things got more complicated when the Holy Spirit came upon them.
Therefore, there seemed to be a Father (the one who sent Jesus), a Son (the one who was both sent and God), and a Holy Spirit (the divine one whom both the Father and Son had sent). Three but yet all the one God of Israel.
We invoke the Trinity when we make the sign of the cross. This juxtaposition of Trinity and cross is by no means accidental. For the cross is the moment when the tensive unity of the three divine persons is on most vivid display.
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