Word to the Wise
Friday, March 15, 2013 - 4th Week of Lent - Fri
[Wis 2:1a, 12-22 and John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30]The wicked said among themselves, thinking not aright: Let us beset the just one because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings...
As Lent moves into its final weeks, I find myself once more drawn into the drama of the sequence of events. I am helped by the scriptures, which today offer an insight into the thinking of those who found Jesus to be a threat. The Book of Wisdom was put into writing, so the scripture scholars say, not long before Jesus was born! The passage today is almost eerie in its description of the kind of thinking indulged by those who feel threatened and resentful about someone who confronts them about their destructive and immoral conduct. Their reaction is "torture" and "death" to the Just One. The Gospel of John speaks of Jesus' awareness that his life was in danger. But even after going to the feast of Tabernacles almost in disguise, he could not refrain from confronting his adversaries!
How many of us, myself included, have remained silent because we feared the same fate as the one who was being criticized and threatened because he or she stood up for what is right and true at the risk of persecution? Are we cowards? Consider the new Pope Francis I! Besides having to govern the immense reality of the church, he becomes the target of everyone with a quarrel or resentment (justly or unjustly) against the church! If he confronts us with our own conduct in his teaching and preaching, will we think like those described today in the Book of Wisdom? While we wish him well, do we also wish that he will not "disturb"us, but only those with whom we disagree? These are uncomfortable thoughts, but it is Lent and a time to confront the ways in which we think and act. Perhaps Pope Francis I will "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." AMEN
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