NOTES for Joh 8:31-47

Christ is speaking to those who have believed, but even they find it hard to take in what they have heard. In human terms, their unwillingness to acknowledge themselves as slaves might even be understandable, except that the children of Abraham were slaves in Egypt for a long time, and every year the whole people celebrated the memory of their liberation. What, then, were those taking part in the festive ritual remembering, if a proud unwillingness to acknowledge themselves as descendants of ancient slaves arose so readily in their hearts? Yet if the memory of past slavery is pushed aside, gratitude to the One Who delivered them from slavery also disappears.

But Christ goes further and names the chief slavery—enslavement to sin, which really is more powerful than social slavery. Since Christ's earthly life, slaveholding has collapsed or been shaken throughout the world, even if not definitively; public opinion is intolerant of it. But who can name a country free of slavery to sin, toward which attitudes are more than tolerant?

Christ denies Abraham's descendants the right to call themselves his children unless they act as Abraham did. It is not enough to have a genealogical or traditional connection with illustrious ancestors who proved faithful to God; we too must show faithfulness to Him in our deeds, or else we may fall under the power of another figure, who seeks to adopt us only in order to destroy us. And this applies not only to the Jews of antiquity, but also to us, who are proud that great saints were our compatriots.