Commentary on the Gospel of
Coming to Him as Subject
We have a couple of promises in today’s gospel. That as per his Father’s will, Jesus will not lose anyone whom the Father has given him; that he will never turn away anyone who comes to him. But then, how do we reconcile these promises with the outright rejection that Jesus warns about, in Lk 13:22-28: That many would come and knock at his door, saying that they had preached him and dined with him; but he would reject them saying “I don’t know you. Away from me”? As Jesus cannot contradict himself, we can only conclude that the latter group came to him, focusing on him as their object to use, and never as their subject to adore; or, in other words, in their “coming to him” they were only narcissistically coming to themselves. The rejection of even those who dined with him must caution us about the true motives of even our eucharistic engagement.
