Word to the Wise
Friday, March 16, 2018 - 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, reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training. He professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of the Lord. To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, because his life is not like that of others, and different are his ways." [Wisdom]
I remember an old poster with the words, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?" The Book of Wisdom, written years before Jesus, seemed in the eyes of the early Christian community to describe Jesus. But would it describe any of us?
Religious faith that is publicly lived gets a mixed response in our secular society. There are those who are threatened personally by meeting someone who speaks out against abuses committed either in the name of public or ecclesiastical authority. Even if the faithful person does not speak in a judgmental tone to another, their very life becomes a source of guilt to someone whose commitment is lukewarm or non-existent. The result is a wide-spread privatization of faith which becomes one more option in the secular marketplace of ideologies.
If we live our Christian faith intentionally, it will show and to some folks it will be threatening. Jesus is our best example, which is why the Christian community has seen him in the words of the Book of Wisdom. But are we challenged to see ourselves in those words, too? AMEN