Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.
Yesterday in the gospel passage, the first sixteen verses of John 5, Jesus healed a man and told him to pick up his mat and go home. Some people did not like Jesus’ curing on the sabbath. Today’s reading gives Jesus’ answer to this complaint.
He said that he worked on the sabbath because God, his Father works on the sabbath. He proclaimed the he and the Father worked together, that he was the Son of this Father, Israel’s God.
Whether we talk about the condition of the world today or prefer to think in terms of the last day, the Son acts in the name of the Father. Whether we talk about giving life or about punishment for sins at the end of the world, the Father and Jesus work together with the same purposes, goals and love.
It is also true that no one can love the Father without loving the Son and no one can love the Son unless the person also loves the Father.
We tend to take this for granted, those of us who have grown up in Christian families. Those, however, who have grown with a heavy emphasis on the oneness and uniqueness of God, would have a hard time honoring Jesus as someone equal to God. We have to respect this.