Memorial of Saint John of the Cross
(Isaiah 41:13-20; Matthew 11:11-15)
The violence to which Jesus refers in the gospel seems to be
Herod’s seizure of John. Shortly, Jesus
will receive word that John has been beheaded.
Jesus too will suffer a violent death.
In truth the Kingdom as Jesus says, is being taken over by violent men.
However, God will upend the violence. With the resurrection Jesus’ Roman
executioners will fall to the ground as if they were dead. As Second Isaiah predicts in the first
reading, the Lord God will redeem those subject to violence.
As much as any theologian, John of the Cross describes the
suffering of those who participate in the Kingdom. Their ordeals are as much existential as it
is physical. Often, he says, they feel
that they are abandoned by God in their need. They experience, in John’s words, “the dark
night of the soul.” ‘ Their
faithfulness in this trial, however, opens them to God’s mercy as He acts on
their behalf. They come to know God as
their loving redeemer who in death will save them from oblivion.
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