Gospel (Jn 8,31-42) - At that time, Jesus said to those Jews who had believed him: «If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples; you will know the truth and the truth will make you free." They answered him: «We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. How can you say: “You will become free”?”. Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave to sin. Now, the slave does not remain in the house forever; his son remains there forever. If therefore the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are descendants of Abraham. But in the meantime you try to kill me because my word does not find acceptance in you. I speak what I have seen with the Father; therefore you also do what you have heard from your father." They answered him: "Our father is Abraham." Jesus said to them: «If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham. Now instead you are trying to kill me, a man who told you the truth heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the works of your father." They then replied to him: «We were not born of prostitution; we have only one father: God! Jesus said to them: «If God were your father, you would love me, because from God I came and came; I did not come of myself, but he sent me."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

This evangelical page must be placed within the tension that was created between the first Christian community and Judaism. The first Christians were put to the test by the hostility of those Jews who claimed the tradition of the Mosaic law. The evangelist John authoritatively reminds Jesus' disciples to "remain" in his Word; not only to listen to it but to live in it, as if it were their own home, that is, to faithfully put it into practice as the most familiar word in their life. Yes, we can say that the Word received and listened to faithfully is the true home that the Christian is called to live in. In short, his life must be enveloped by the Gospel, supported by the Gospel, fermented by the Gospel. Christian freedom consists in nothing other than listening to and following the word of the Gospel. It is the gentle yoke of the Gospel that frees us from the harsh chains of self-love. In fact, freedom does not arise from a law or from a force of will, nor from belonging, even to the "lineage of Abraham". Christian freedom is the fruit of adhering to Jesus with one's whole life. It is being able to live by participating fully, therefore together with all the disciples, in the mission of Jesus in the world. Christian freedom is not the dissolution of any bond in order to be able to do what everyone wants. This is selfishness, or slavery to the fashions of the world and the seductions of evil. Freedom means being freed from the chains of the earth to participate in God's great plan of making all peoples brothers and making the earth ready to welcome the full kingship of God. Faced with this preaching, the Jews who listened to him rebelled against Jesus because by binding themselves to him they thought he would make them his slaves. There is always a presumption of those who are slaves, which is precisely that of denying their slavery, because it is convenient, because it protects them from responsibilities and from the effort of always looking for the direction in which to walk and in any case of being part of a " us”, of that people that Jesus came to gather on earth. “The truth will set you free,” says Jesus. And the truth is Jesus himself. It is adhesion to him - a permanent adhesion - that makes one free from all earthly slavery and that allows one to already enjoy freedom from sin. It is not enough to call oneself "sons of Abraham" to truly be one, Jesus underlines. True sonship, in fact, that which makes one family and friends of God, springs from carrying out "the works of the Father". Jesus replies: "If you are children of Abraham, do the works of Abraham!". But those Jews were far from following Abraham. Not only did they want to kill Jesus, something that Abraham would not even have thought of, but Abraham performed the highest work for a believer, that is, obeying the word of the Lord and entrusting his whole life to him, as the Letter to the Hebrews writes: “For faith, Abraham... obeyed by leaving for a place that he was to receive as an inheritance, and he left without knowing where he was going" (Heb 11:8).