NOTES for Joh 8:51-59
For some reason, it often seems improper and tactless to us to bear witness to our faith. We can somehow manage to say that we believe in God and go to church. But when the truths of the faith come up, we become remarkably timid. Characteristically, we may argue fiercely with brothers and sisters in the faith, yet in conversation with an unbeliever we are so eager to steer around every difficult point and say, “Well, that is a complicated question... I do not really know...” Jesus speaks bluntly: “If I said that I did not know Him, I would be a liar like you.” It might seem an overconfident claim: I know the Father Himself! But false modesty is entirely foreign to Jesus. He speaks only the truth and does not make it His aim to “spare the feelings” of listeners who may be “unready” for that truth.
What does this mean for us? When we firmly know the teaching of the Church, we have no right to smooth over the difficult points and say that we do not know, are unsure, or were merely passing by. Refusing to bear witness to the truth is already a lie.