16 December 2022
Friday of the Third Week in Advent
In today’s Gospel, coming from John 5, we are privileged to get a glimpse into the relations of the Holy Trinity. Jesus’s testimony, or backing to who he is and what he says, is not coming from any other human person. When writing academic documents, any legitimate writer must prove that proper research was done by referencing all relevant sources. Jesus, while he sometimes would make a mention of the prophets or past scriptural references, is clear in today’s passage that “I have testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.” The Father is God, the one who begets the Son and sends the Son on the mission of human redemption through the unconditionally loving incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection. This mission is the work of true messiah. And because this messiah, Jesus Christ, is the one who comes to save us, we are to live by the words the prophet Isaiah gives to us: “Observe what is right, do what is just; for [the Lord’s] salvation is about to come, [the Lord’s] justice about to be revealed. Blessed is the one who does this…”