Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.
“Some Jews believed in Jesus”. Generally speaking, the early believers in Jesus had good relations with the Jewish community. In Jerusalem, they could frequent the Temple. When it came to the siege of Jerusalem, however, things began to change, and the believers in Jesus did not support the Jewish population in the fight against the Roman army.
This caused a great break of the Jewish community with the community of believers in Jesus. This later antagonism shows up in the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life. The scribes and Pharisees, who in Jesus’ lifetime were not necessarily enemies of Jesus, became hostile to believers in Jesus after the fall of Jerusalem.
The “some Jews who believed in Jesus” would be Jewish people who, for whatever reason, were in danger of giving up their belief in Jesus. Not mentioning the sojourn in Egypt, they professed their descent from Abraham and their long-standing freedom.
The discussion then turned to talk about who was father and how children imitate their parents. Father Abraham believed in God and did the works of God; his descendants should logically do the same. Satan kills people and Satan’s children logically do the same as Satan. God does good things and God’s children logically do good things. Once we see what a person does, we can know who the parents, God/Abraham or Satan are.
The discussion also included freedom versus slavery. Freedom comes only from the child and heir. Satan enslaves, God’s family lives in freedom.