“You seek to kill me because my word has taken no hold in you” (Jn 8:37). If my word were taken hold of, it would take hold of you. If you were taken, you would be included, like fish, in the nets of faith. For the word of God is and ought to be for believers like a fish hook: it takes hold when taken hold. But it does no harm to those who are caught: they are caught for salvation and not for destruction. (In Ioannem Tr. 42, 1; PL 35, 1700)

Rev. Joseph A. Komonchak, professor emeritus of the School of Theology and Religious Studies at the Catholic University of America, is a retired priest of the Archdiocese of New York.

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