Jesus Christ, our God eternal
John 8:21-30
Our Lord expresses His meaning from today’s Gospel in the words, “You are of this world,” that is, you are sinners. All of us are born in sin; all have added by our actions to the sin in which we were born. The misery of the Jews then was, not that they had sin, but that they would die in their sin. Amongst the multitude who heard our Lord, there were some who were about to believe; but this most severe sentence had gone forth against all: “You shall die in your sin;” to destroy all hope even in those who should hereafter believe. So His next words recall the would be believers to hope: “For if you believe not that I AM, you shall die in your sin”: therefore if you believe that I AM, you shall not die in your sin.
Jesus saying, “If you believe not that I AM,” proves a great deal. For it was this way that God spoke to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” (Ex 3:14) We are to understand it in this way. Anything, if it can change, cannot be said to truly exist. Analyze the idea of change, and you will find a past and future; contemplate God, and you will find an eternal present without the possibility of a past. So then, “If you do not believe that I AM,” means in fact, “If you do not believe that I am God”; this is the condition, on which we shall not die in our sins. Thanks be to God that He says, “If you do not believe,” not, “If you do not understand”; for who could understand “I AM WHO I AM”?
參考 Reference:
Catena Aurea (St. Thomas Aquinas)
Tractate 38 on the Gospel of John (St. Augustine)