John 10.31-42 – Friday of the V Week of Lent
The climate is very tense in today’s Gospel of John, and the story conveys it with great clarity. Jesus risks being killed several times, because what he says now becomes unbearable for the doctors of the Law, for those who consider themselves guardians of the sacred and authoritative interpreters of Scripture. Yet Jesus does not speak against Scripture, but starting from Scripture. He recalls the Law and the Prophets to show that everything leads to Him.
The problem, then, is not the lack of references, but the closure of the heart. They don’t want to question themselves. They do not accept that that man, who will soon be hanging on a cross, could be truly the Son of God. In the midst of this climate of tension, there is a phrase that strikes me deeply every time I read: “John did not perform any sign, but everything that John said about him was true.” John the Baptist did not perform sensational miracles, he did not leave any extraordinary gestures. Yet his greatness is all there: he told the truth about Jesus. He was able to point to him, recognize him, bear witness to him. John’s real miracle was not something visible, but his fidelity to the truth. And perhaps this is precisely the heart of the Christian vocation: not to do extraordinary things, but to be true. Say with life what you believebear witness with authenticity to what you love.
If one day someone were to remember us, the greatest thing that could be said is precisely this: that we told the truth about Christ, that we did not betray what we recognized as true. It is a perspective that undermines many spiritual ambitions. We are not called to amaze, but to be faithful. Not to seek the sensational, but to live in the truth. And this truth is not an abstract idea: it is a relationship. It is Christ himself. For this reason, speaking truthfully about Him means, first of all, letting ourselves be involved by his presence, to the point that our life becomes, even without fanfare, a credible testimony.
