145. Jesus in the Temple on the Last Day of the Feast. Jn. 7:37–53

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood and cried out, saying: If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his belly will flow rivers of living water’ (Is 12:3; Joel 3:18). Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for the Spirit had not yet been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

When they heard these words, some of the people said: This is really the Prophet. Others said: This is the Messiah. But others said: Surely the Messiah does not come from Galilee? Does not the scripture say that the Messiah comes from the seed of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David was? So there was a division among the people on account of him. Some of them wanted to seize him, but no one laid hands on him.

The officers then returned to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them: Why did you not bring him? The officers answered: Never has anyone spoken like this man. The Pharisees answered them: Have you also been deceived? Have any of the rulers believed in him, or any of the Pharisees? But this crowd does not know the Law – they are accursed.

Nicodemus, who had come to him by night, being one of them, said to them: Does our Law judge a person before it hears him and knows what he is doing? They answered and said to him: Are you also from Galilee? Search and see that no prophet arises from Galilee. And everyone went to his own home. But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.