Gospel John 10:22-30
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.”
Reflection This encounter between the Pharisees and Jesus happens on a feast day that remembers the dedication of the temple. The temple was everything to the Jews. It was a sign of their strength and their power. And it was grounded in a story of the Old Testament, an Old Covenant. And the rigidity of that covenant was found in the law and Jesus came to destroy the law and open up a different way of approaching life and no longer looking to something you're told to do, but rather open to something that God wants you to become. The truth.
You are free of the law, you are encountering on a daily basis the holy of holies that was hidden, kept from many in the center of the temple. The temple is now your heart and God lives there.
Closing Prayer Father, give us patience with those who refuse to see the truth. Let us pray for them and ask God to bless them, to break open the place they are hiding in. They don't want to be free. They don't want to see. Help us to be agents that free them so they can experience the fullness of the teaching of God, the fullness of love. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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