4th Week of Lent, Friday, Mar 24th
Wisdom 2:1, 12-22 / John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
Jesus continues speaking to the Jews; "I did not come on my own."
In 1945 Igor Gouzenko, a staff member of the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, decided to defect to the Canadian government. He took with him secret documents exposing a Russian spy ring. Gouzenko was shocked to discover that the Canadians didn't believe his story. It was too incredible. Finally, Ottawa police took Gouzenko into protective custody, but only after embassy goons broke into his apartment and wrecked it. Nothing is more painful or frustrating than trying to deal with people who find your message too incredible to believe. Jesus, too, knew this kind of pain and frustration. His message was also too incredible to believe.
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How do we handle frustration? "The only real failure is to quit.” Anonymous
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The Bible is the Word of God and through it God speaks to His people and reveals Himself through His Word. Yet, the Bible also has other revelations. Besides revealing to us the mind and the heart of God, there are also instances where it reveals the heart and mind of people who commit evil and hence, also the heart and mind of the devil. If we are surprised by this, then we need look no further than just having to re-read the 1st reading.
It begins with "the godless say to themselves, with their misguided reasoning ... " And there we get a picture of what goes on in the mind and heart of people who commit evil, and also how the devil stirs up the evil thoughts in those who succumb to be his instruments. Yes, they reason with evil intent and that is also why the 1st reading said that they are misled and their malice makes them blind. Furthermore, they do not know the hidden things of God and they have no hope that holiness will be rewarded and that blameless souls will be justified.
The same can be said about those people who were out to kill Jesus. They do not know where He truly came from, and their malice misleads and blinds them. As for us, by virtue of our baptism, we are called to holiness. We know the ways of God and we also know what God wants of us when we are confronted with people who do evil. We need to bear witness to the power of God's love and with love we will slowly but surely overcome evil and show people the ways of God.
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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?
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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
