Homily for Friday
5th Week of Lent
March 27, 2026
John 10: 31-42
Salesian HS, New Rochelle, N.Y.
(by James Tissot)
The
last line of the gospel is “many began to believe in him” (John 10: 42). St. John uses the same words concerning the
disciples after they witness Jesus’ miracle at the wedding in Cana (2:11), and
of people generally 3 other times after they hear Jesus preach (2:23, 7:31,
8:30).
When
it comes to faith in Jesus, and more particularly to living our faith in
practice, all of us are beginners, no matter how long we’ve claimed to be
Christians. Our faith is always at least
a little weak, a little tentative. We
stumble. We sin.
Another
way of saying it is that we’ve still trying to be fully converted to
Christ. We’re still learning how to
follow him. That’s why we prayed a few
moments ago to be freed “from the bonds of the sins we have committed in our
weakness” (Collect).
One
of the Devil’s tools is discouragement.
He’d like us to think it’s too hard to follow Jesus, or that Jesus will
discard us when we sin. Yes, sometimes
it is hard to do what’s right—to tell the truth, to do our homework
rather than cheat, to listen to our parents, to break a bad habit of foul
language or impurity. We’re all
“beginning to believe” in Jesus, beginning to learn to be virtuous. Jesus will never turn us away because we’re
just starting out, or are starting over again, when we approach him with our
weak faith. He never stops loving us.
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