Jesus wants to make us accessible.

You may also ask yourself: Am I a true disciple of the Lord Jesus? Who belongs to Jesus? This is what today’s Gospel is about, and let us try to begin by answering our questions. Who is a true disciple of Jesus? The one who perseveres in his words, knows the truth and gains freedom over evil, understands suffering, and knows how to rise above the trifles that confront us in life. Such a person will know that when he is independent of all the things surrounding him when they are not of God and for God, he is genuinely a true disciple.

Jesus says, “If you abide in my word, you will truly be my disciples; you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn. 8:31-32). We see from the text that Jesus is speaking to believing Jews who are talking to him: “We are Abraham’s seed, and we have never been enslaved to anyone” (Jn 8:33). They want to avoid giving up their right to the election because they are of Abraham’s seed. Jesus wants to show them where their fault lies. They are to realize that although they feel they are sons of Abraham, they learn even more than they are sons of God. That is, they must put the sonship of God above the sonship of Abraham. If they genuinely acknowledged God as their Father as they claim to do, they would love Jesus as the Son of God and would persevere in his word. Thus, they would become true disciples of Jesus Christ. Then they would know the truth, and the truth would set them free from sin. But this is not what they want. Jesus tells them: “… you want to kill me because my word has no place in you. I speak the things I have seen with the Father.” (Jn. 8:37-38).

This problem stretched even after the sending of the Holy Spirit, when it happened that the Judeo-Christians, that is, the Jews who accepted the teachings of Christ, did not want the Gentiles who accepted the teachings of Christ to take circumcision as well. They still looked at their election only according to their fleshly descent; that is, they were descended from the lineage of Abraham. To these, Jesus is telling them to accept his teaching, the teaching of “the truth,” and so they are to become a new man.
We today do not base ourselves on any fleshly descent. The door to the teachings of Jesus Christ is open to everyone and is not closed to anyone. The condition is that we not only believe the words of Jesus but that we also put them into practice in our lives. If we live according to the truth, we will gain freedom and the right to a new and eternal life without sin. As long as we live here on earth, we must always be aware of the struggle against evil, so we cannot always want Jesus to protect us from suffering. On the contrary, in the crosses laid upon us, we are to prove ourselves to be true children of God.

From the lives of the saints, we know that when they gave themselves wholly and entirely to Christ when they truly lived Paul’s words: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me,” they recognized that the teaching of Jesus made them accessible. Even today, many believe that when the faith, the teachings of Christ, forbid them something, it takes away their freedom. We must not pride ourselves on being baptized, so we are a parable to God, but we must live our baptism. The life of a believing Christian is worthy of reward or punishment. Therefore, above everything, why we work, what we want, what we possess, and everything, let us set one ultimate and true goal: doing God’s will in all things.

When we are faithful to Christ even in the little things, a life lived in this way will say that we are Christ’s and are his.
The words of James the Apostle: “So also faith, if it has not works, is dead in itself” (Jes 2:17), are true today.