Please read the passage before the commentary.
How well do we know people, our roommates, next-door neighbors, friends, spouses, children? How well did the people of Jesus’ time know him? They claimed to know his family, his place of origin, his hometown. They knew what they saw, but they had not seen his coming from the Father.
We have similar deficiencies. We tend to underestimate the potential of people familiar to us; we know them too well to know them deeply. Deep within each of us, beyond family likenesses, beyond speech dialects, beyond all externals, is something unique to each, a calling from God to a particular work in life. Family members tend to marry into different families. Poor homes produce rich entertainers. Famous people have less-well-known parents and siblings. We need to be aware of this.
The evangelist said that they did not know him as the Christ, the one especially anointed by the Lord. His statement states his purpose for writing his gospel account: he wanted them to recognize Jesus as the Christ, the one sent by the Father. John wrote for the people’s conversion. The Church encourages us to read the Scriptures so that we can know Jesus and be converted. We are given texts such as these to ponder and come to conversion. The Church sets these readings before those called to baptism to help them come to believe in the Lord Jesus and be converted and healed.
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