Friday April 8, 2022

Friday of 5th Week in Lent

 

Sign of Contradiction

Jesus, the Son of God, showed in his life and actions that he was no ordinary human being, even in the face of contradiction. Christians, sons and daughters of God without a capital s or d, who take their faith seriously will also meet contradiction. They cannot compromise if this would be tantamount to betrayal or dishonesty with themselves, with their faith, or with others. But they know that they are in God’s hands. And their deeds will speak for themselves. With Jesus, God’s Son, may we do the work the Father has entrusted to us.

 

First Reading: Jeremiah 20:10-13 

 You pushed me into this, God, and I let you do it.
    You were too much for me.
And now I’m a public joke.
    They all poke fun at me.
Every time I open my mouth
    I’m shouting, “Murder!” or “Rape!”
And all I get for my God-warnings
    are insults and contempt.
But if I say, “Forget it!
    No more God-Messages from me!”
The words are fire in my belly,
    a burning in my bones.
I’m worn out trying to hold it in.
    I can’t do it any longer!
Then I hear whispering behind my back:
    “There goes old ‘Danger-Everywhere.’ Shut him up! Report him!”
Old friends watch, hoping I’ll fall flat on my face:
  “One misstep and we’ll have him. We’ll get rid of him for good!”

But God, a most fierce warrior, is at my side.
    Those who are after me will be sent sprawling—
Slapstick buffoons falling all over themselves,
    a spectacle of humiliation no one will ever forget.

 Oh, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, no one fools you.
    You see through everyone, everything.
I want to see you pay them back for what they’ve done.
    I rest my case with you.

 Sing to God! All praise to God!
    He saves the weak from the grip of the wicked.

 

Gospel: John 10:31-42 

Again, the Jews picked up rocks to throw at him. Jesus said, “I have made a present to you from the Father of a great many good actions. For which of these acts do you stone me?”

 The Jews said, “We’re not stoning you for anything good you did, but for what you said—this blasphemy of calling yourself God.”

 Jesus said, “I’m only quoting your inspired Scriptures, where God said, ‘I tell you—you are gods.’ If God called your ancestors ‘gods’—and Scripture doesn’t lie—why do you yell, ‘Blasphemer! Blasphemer!’ at the unique One the Father consecrated and sent into the world, just because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I don’t do the things my Father does, well and good; don’t believe me. But if I am doing them, put aside for a moment what you hear me say about myself and just take the evidence of the actions that are right before your eyes. Then perhaps things will come together for you, and you’ll see that not only are we doing the same thing, we are the same—Father and Son. He is in me; I am in him.”

They tried yet again to arrest him, but he slipped through their fingers. He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and stayed there. A lot of people followed him over. They were saying, “John did no miracles, but everything he said about this man has come true.” Many believed in him then and there.

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
you are a loyal God,
ever faithful to your promises.
Strengthen our faith,
that with Jesus we may always keep trusting in you
in spite of prejudices, ridicule or contradiction.
Give us the firm conviction
that you are irrevocably committed to us
in Jesus Christ our Lord.Amen.

 

Reflection:

The folly of protecting God!

We are close to the Holy Week. From the fourth week of Lent, the Gospel texts for day’s liturgy are almost exclusively from the Gospel of John. In the last two weeks, we have been reading about the progressive revelation that Jesus makes, of the mystery of God the Father on the one side and on the other side, the progressive rejection of the Jews who became more impenetrable to the message of Jesus.

Today’s Gospel presents the second occasion that Jesus’ enemies wanted to stone him. The Jews were celebrating the festival of the consecration of their temple. But why this violence? They want to kill him for insulting their god. This is the irony of our religious practices even today. Many people tend to become protectors of their gods as though god cannot protect himself!

Jesus challenged their idea of God. He did not ask them to deny God but to probe further the truth of that God. “You, a man, are making yourself God.” Jews consider this amounts to blasphemy. But Jesus quotes their Scriptures which have God calling some people, “You are gods”. The ‘judges’ mentioned in the scriptures were accepted as people who were chosen by God and had the responsibility to pass judgement – something which belongs only to God. Therefore, in the scriptures, they were called “gods” (cf. Deut 1:17; Exod 21:6; Ps 82:6).

To accept the challenge that Jesus raised would mean the Jews to change their belief and practices radically, which was not easy to accept. Therefore, they thought if they eliminated him, they could be left in peace and were willing to kill him.

Jesus stood his ground and challenged them based on the signs he performed. Earlier, After his healing of the crippled man, Jesus had similarly nominated the Father as the source of his works: The works that the Father gave me to carry out, these works that I do, they witness that the Father has sent me [5:36].

In referring to himself as the one sanctified by the Father, Jesus used the word that described the festival they were celebrating – the sanctification (consecration) of the temple. Jesus is the new Temple where God would be present and accessible to all. Though they would soon desecrate this “temple” by crucifying him, the Father would re-consecrate (sanctify) him by raising him to new life.

His arguments apparently unsettle Jews, and Jesus was in control of the situation. “His time had not yet come”– although it was ominously drawing closer. When the time came, Jesus would return to Jerusalem to face his destiny.

The final words of today’s gospel, “Many there began to believe in him” provided a positive conclusion to Jesus’ long and tortuous debate with the Jewish leadership and crowds.

 

Video available on Youtube: The folly of protecting God!