Jn 5:31-47
If I bore witness to myself, my testimony would be worthless. But Another One is bearing witness to me, and I know that his testimony is true when he bears witness to me. John also bore witness to the truth when you sent messengers to him, but I do not seek such human testimony; I recall this for you, so that you may be saved.
John was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were willing to enjoy his light. But I have greater evidence than that of John—the works which the Father entrusted to me to carry out. The very works I do bear witness: the Father has sent me. Thus he who bears witness to me is the Father who sent me. You have never heard his voice and have never seen his likeness; therefore, as long as you do not believe his messenger, his word is not in you.
You search in the Scriptures, thinking that in them you will find life; yet Scripture bears witness to me. But you refuse to come to me, that you may live. I am not seeking human praise; but I know that the love of God is not within you, for I have come in my Father’s name and you do not accept me. If another comes in his own name, you will accept him. As long as you seek praise from one another, instead of seeking the glory which comes from the only God, how can you believe?
Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. Moses himself, in whom you placed your hope, accuses you. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?
REFLECTION
Today’s first reading is all about God getting angry and calming down after a while. And similar scenes are described many times throughout the Bible, so much so that many Christians are afraid of God the Father—not Jesus, only of his angry Father. But what exactly does the Bible mean to say here?
Simply that anything that harms humans is incompatible with God’s will, who loves all humans as his children. And this incompatibility is expressed by stating that some things make God angry. But this way of speaking is only a metaphor, because God is not in time and cannot change. Nothing can affect him because, as the philosophers say, he is Pure Act. He cannot be calm, get angry, and become calm again—all things which require time, and there is no past-present-future in God.
But we are affected by God’s so-called anger if we have caused it, because this means that we have harmed a fellow human. As long as we do not repent of it, we will not be in a right relationship with God.
There is no anger in God, only pure love.
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