155. The Lord at the Feast of Dedication. Jn. 10:22–39

Then came the Feast of Dedication in Jerusalem, and it was winter. And Jesus was walking in the temple in the portico of Solomon. The Jews gathered around him and said to him: “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them: “I have told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in the name of my Father, these bear witness to me. But you do not believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I have said to you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the hand of my Father. I and the Father are one.”

Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him. Jesus answered them: “I have shown you many good works from my Father; for which of these works do you stone me?”

The Jews answered him: “It is not for a good work that we stone you, but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

Jesus answered them: “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’ (Ps. 81:6)? If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be annulled, do you say to him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I do not do the works of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

Again they tried to seize him; but he escaped from their hands.