Here's a little more from Passion Sunday. The Gospel of the Mass is John 8:46-59. St. John shows us the hatred of the Sanhedrin. They do not recognize Jesus as greater than Abraham, that He is the Son of God, eternal. They accuse Him having a devil. How can he be greater than Abraham and the prophets? He tells them "Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made I AM. He declares His divinity, using the same name that Almighty God gave to Moses, who asked whom he should tell the Israelites sent him. God told him to tell them that I AM sent him.
In a Reflection from the Fathers of the Church in our weekly bulletin yesterday, was an excerpt from a sermon of Pope St Gregory the Great (590-604) which he gave in St. Peter's Basilica on a Passion Sunday, regarding the words of this Gospel.
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Recall to mind, dearest brethren, the patience of God. He had come to forgive sin and He said: Which of you shall convince Me of sin? He did not disdain to make clear to us that he was not Himself a sinner: He who had come to justify sinners by the power of His divinity. But truly fearful is that which follows. He that is of God heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God. If he who is of God can hear the words of God, and he who is not of God cannot hear them, then let each one ask himself whether or not he hears the word of God in the ears of his heart, and he will then know to whom he belongs.
The Truth bids us long for our heavenly home, and to tread under foot the desires of the body, to turn from the glory of this world, not to desire what is another's, to be generous with what is ours. Let each one reflect within himself, whether this voice of God has become loud in the ear of his own heart, and then he will know if he belongs with God. For there are some who do not trouble to listen to the commands of God even with their bodily ears, and some who do listen to God's words, but do not lay hold of them with any desire of the soul. And there are some who freely receive God's words, and are even moved to tears by them. But when their tears are dry they go back again to their evil ways They do not in truth hear the words who take no thought to put them into practice.
Recall then to mind, dearest brethren, the life of your own soul, and with serious concern dwell upon that which has come forth from the mouth of Truth itself: Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God.
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