In St John’s Gospel these words of Jesus often appear : “What I say comes not from me but from my Father...The works I do are not mine but my Father’s...”
He seems to be denying any independence from the Father. He loses all autonomy, but remains Jesus, the human-divine person, incarnate in history. He is apparently conditioned by his culture and the structures of the time, while in reality he is totally free, so free that he can offer up his life and die “for” humanity.
No one has greater love, no one is closer to the perfection of God, than the one who gives up his life for others. Giving up one’s life involves detachment from oneself and from people, giving up one’s own goods and ideas, one’s own culture, one’s own spiritual formation, and one’s own ideas. It means living the evangelical counsels...
What is obedience if not a form of poverty, in not being and not having ? What is obedience if it is not a form of chastity, in being simple, without attachment to oneself, to others, or to things?
Silvano Cola
Scritti e testimonianze
Gen’s, Grottaferrata 2007, p. 75