Friday April 1, 2022

Friday of 4th Week in Lent

 

The Suffering Servant 

Men and women who claim to know God a bit and to live consistently as his sons or daughters, are queer and bothersome to unbelievers as well as to those who take their religion as a set of duties or religious rites. There is no place for such eccentrics who go against the current, for their way of life disturbs the established ways of society. It irritates unbelievers and they want to test the faith of those who trust in God. One has to conform or else… The person who voices his plaints in the Book of Wisdom was one of those annoying people. Jesus was another. What about us?

 

First Reading: Wisdom 2:1A, 12-22

      Here’s how the godless think. “Life is too short, too tedious. We have nothing to look forward to at the end, no refreshment, no consolation, no anything; and no one’s come back from the dead with a different tale.”

      And, “Let’s give the just the run around; they’re no good to us. They’re always underfoot, always better-than-thou when it comes to observance of God’s word. What they accuse us of amounts to nothing more than a few white lies.”

      And, “The just are so certain that they know God personally; they even have the audacity to label themselves children of God. They have made themselves a living reproach to us. To see them approach gives most of us the hives.”

      And, “The just are odd, strange, different; we don’t know what they’ll do next. They rank us socially just above forbidden pork; they tiptoe around us as if to avoid contagion; they say they’ll die happily and we’ll die miserably; they brag that God’s their refuge.”

      And, “Let’s see if the words of the just are true; they have to die just as we do,”

      And, “If they claim they’re true children of God, let’s put them to the test; let’s see if God will take up their cause and prevent them from getting hurt.”

      And, “Let’s interrogate them endlessly and torment them  mercilessly; then we’ll see how faithful they really are; let’s stretch their pity to the breaking point.”

      And, “ Let’s condemn them to a really messy death and see if, as their very words always promise, God comes to save them.”

      These were the ravings and ramblings of the godless; but they have a fatal flaw. Malice prevents them from seeing the truth. They haven’t a clue about their obligations to God, nor do they know that holiness is its own reward, nor do they reckon the honor that awaits lives lived in fidelity.

 

Gospel: John 7:1-2; 10-11; 25-31 

Later Jesus was going about his business in Galilee. He didn’t want to travel in Judea because the Jews there were looking for a chance to kill him. It was near the time of Tabernacles, a feast observed annually by the Jews.

He said this and stayed on in Galilee. But later, after his family had gone up to the Feast, he also went. But he kept out of the way, careful not to draw attention to himself. The Jews were already out looking for him, asking around, “Where is that man?”

That’s when some of the people of Jerusalem said, “Isn’t this the one they were out to kill? And here he is out in the open, saying whatever he pleases, and no one is stopping him. Could it be that the rulers know that he is, in fact, the Messiah? And yet we know where this man came from. The Messiah is going to come out of nowhere. Nobody is going to know where he comes from.”

That provoked Jesus, who was teaching in the Temple, to cry out, “Yes, you think you know me and where I’m from, but that’s not where I’m from. I didn’t set myself up in business. My true origin is in the One who sent me, and you don’t know him at all. I come from him—that’s how I know him. He sent me here.”

They were looking for a way to arrest him, but not a hand was laid on him because it wasn’t yet God’s time. Many from the crowd committed themselves in faith to him, saying, “Will the Messiah, when he comes, provide better or more convincing evidence than this?”

 

Prayer

Our God and Father,
we claim to be your sons and daughters,
who know that you love us,
and that you call us to live
the life of Jesus, your Son.
Give us the courage
to live this life consistently
not to show off, not to reprove others,
but simply because we know
that you are our Father
and we your sons and daughters,
brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

 

Reflection:

The Word of God cannot remain silent

All of us experience times when we struggle to explain something and no matter how hard we try, others fail to get the point we are trying to make. How often do I struggle with my accent and wrong pronunciations to make my point clear to my parishioners or the Community! And of course, I thought that the problem was theirs! How could they not understand what is so clear to me?!!

As we approach the closing weeks of Lent, we hear today from St. John the evangelist who makes a great reflection on the journeys that Jesus made to Judea and reveals incidents that the other evangelists do not.

John notices that Jesus was confining his activities to Galilee. He did not want to go to Judea and the vicinity of Jerusalem because there were people there who wanted to kill him. Jesus does not expose himself unnecessarily to danger and waits for “his time.”

It is the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, but today’s reading does not mention about the feast. The feast of Tabernacles was one of the three major feasts of the Jews. Many Jews came from all over the land of Israel and from other countries on pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast. The family members of Jesus are urging him to go up to Jerusalem and show himself to the world instead of confining himself to the village. Jesus declined, but after they had left, he probably accompanied by the apostles, went up to the feast secretly. The secrecy is easy to understand in light of the threats against Jesus. But what happens next is not so easy to understand. How do we explain first the secrecy and then the lack of it?

Jesus is a source of some confusion in the minds of many people. On the one hand, the people are aware that Jesus has become a target of their religious leaders and yet he goes about openly and speaking freely and without fear. The Word of God cannot remain silent.

Jesus then tells them: “Yes, you know me and you know where I come from.” That is only partially true; rather, they think they know.

Do we really know who Jesus is? There are many conflicting opinions out there. But to know the real Jesus, we must go back to the Scriptures, read them, pray with them and strive to live by the Word of God. Lent gives us an invitation to spend time with the Word of God, and to make it a practice that goes far beyond Lent.

 

Video available on Youtube: The Word of God cannot remain silent