Homily for Thursday
5th Week of Lent
March 26, 2026
John 8: 51-59
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph Residence, N.R.
Abraham on the move
(Jozsef Molnar)
“Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad”
(John 8: 56).
How is it that Abraham saw Jesus’ day? Jesus’ opponents focus on Abraham’s physical
life: “our father Abraham died” (8:53). Jesus maintains that he’s still alive—not bodily
but spiritually. He’s with God, and with
God all persons, all things, all events are present. There’s no past, no future, only now. In our Eucharist, we stand with Christ
at Calvary and meet him risen in the upper room. We recall Jesus’ rejoinder to the Sadducees
who tested him with a question intended to mock belief in the
resurrection: the God of Abraham, of
Isaac, and of Jacob isn’t the God of the dead but of the living (Matt 22:23-32).
“The Lord remembers his covenant forever” (Resp.
Psalm). The Lord’s promise to Abraham
lives on, not only in his physical offspring—“I will maintain my covenant with
you and your descendants after you thruout the ages” (Gen 17:7)—but especially
in his spiritual descendants: in Jesus
risen from the dead and in all who are joined to Jesus in the new covenant of
his body and blood, who believe in the power of his resurrection to bring to
life and keep alive the children of the covenant. “When I am lifted up from the earth, I’ll
draw everyone to myself” (John 12:32)—everyone who shares Abraham’s faith in
God’s promise, everyone living in a forever now in which Abraham sees the
day of the Messiah and rejoices.
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