On the Gospel of John 8: 31-42

Rev. Marcel E. Okwara, CSsR

Friends, in those Gospel, Jesus tells the Jews who believe in him, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” On hearing that the Jews fired back and told Jesus that they were descendants of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone and therefore do not need to be set free. But Jesus countered their argument, “Amen, Amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in a household forever, but a son always remain.”

From this Gospel, we can see that everyone of us in a sense is a slave. From the most holy Christian to the less serious one, each of us is a slave. We are slaves to whatever sin we commit. We are slaves to our inadequacies and limitations. We are slaves to anger, immorality, lies, pride, wickedness, hypocrisy, slander, jealousy, backbiting, unforgiveness, tribalism, racism, pull him down tendency and every form of dysfunctionality in our lives. of course some people are more enslaved than others. A serial rapist and a killer, a terrorist, kidnapper, a cultist, a fake medicine dealer etc is obviously more enslaved than let’s say someone who curses another. But the truth is that each of us, in one way or another is a slave, a sinner. We are all dysfunctional.  

But we are not totally condemned, completely depraved slaves, with no hope of freedom. The good news is that we have a Savior— Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the hope of humanity. If we continue to look to him and look up to him and strive to remain in him, the more free we become. He is the one setting us free. He is the one making us better. He is the one shaping us in his own image. He is the one transforming us and remolding us and remodeling us. But if we stay afar from him, his transformative power may elude us. Stay close to Jesus. Remain in him.

Another good news is that we have a sacrament called the sacrament of confession. Through this sacrament, we are forgiven, restored, set free and encouraged to remain in Jesus and in his word. Now, the sacrament of confession is not a license to keep sinning. It’s a sacrament that above everything it does for a Christian, also reminds a Christian of the ugliness of sin and the need to stay connected to Jesus and his Church.