Friday, March 26, 2021

 Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

(Jeremiah 20:10-13; John 10:31-42)

In the gospel of John, there is no trial of Jesus before the Jewish Sanhedrin.  As a placeholder in the four-part schema of the Passion, John has an interrogation by the High Priest Annas.  Actually, the fourth gospel describes Jesus being tried by the Jews throughout his ministry.  Today’s gospel provides an instance.

As in the Jewish trial in the other gospels, the Jews ask Jesus if he is the Messiah.  Jesus has called himself the “Son of God,” which the Jews hear as blasphemous.  They are ready to execute him by stoning – the penalty for blasphemy in their Law.  Because the “hour” for his supreme sacrifice has not yet come, Jesus escapes their attempt on his life.

As the teacher is tried so will his disciples be.  We can expect to be tried as followers of Jesus.  People will observe whether we practice what we profess.  Are we always chaste in our words and actions?  We should be as true believers in Jesus. 

Thursday, March 25, 2021

 Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord

(Isaiah 7:10-14.8:10; Hebrews 10:4-10; Luke 1:26-38)

Last week one of the editors of the Wall Street Journal reviewed a book on the Bible.  He criticized the author’s suggestion that people make their own sense about what the Bible says.  The author wrote that in today’s gospel passage, the word for virgin should be translated as young woman because the original Hebrew would have it that way.  The reviewer questioned that interpretation as well as the author’s push for reading Scripture as one likes.  The reviewed found that the original Hebrew word, found in today’s first reading, does usually refer to a virgin.

Like the author of the book under review, many today would like to dismiss the apostolic belief that Jesus had a virgin mother.  The reality is unheard of except for the gospel, but so also is Jesus’ resurrection from death unheard of.  Both of these truths, however, pale in comparison with the core Christian belief that God became human.  If one accepts the incarnation, there should be no difficulty in holding the other two.  One should expect God to be born in a unique way and also not to be constrained by human death.

Today, of course, we celebrate the incarnation, the Son of God’s generation as a human being.  It is duly announced by the angel who interprets the event’s significance.  He will be called Yeshua or God saves.  He will also assume the kingdom of David, but this reign will extend not only for a lifetime and over Israel.  Rather he will rule for all eternity and throughout the universe.  There is good reason today to forget about Lenten penance as we celebrate the coming of the Son of God.

Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Wednesday of Holy Week

 (Isaiah 50:4-91; Matthew 26:14-25)

 Today is often called “Spy Wednesday” presumably because the gospel of today’s mass tells of Judas “look(ing) for an opportunity to hand (Jesus) over.”  It is an especially egregious act.  The gospel mentions that Judas is paid thirty pieces of silver for his betrayal.  This may sound like a lot of money, but actually it is a paltry sum.  It is like paying a hit man only $50 to murder someone.  Rather than think of Judas as greedy, He may be thought of as malicious.  John’s gospel obliquely conveys this idea. It remarks immediately after Judas leaves the supper chamber, “And it was night.”

 Although Peter’s denial is sometimes compared to Judas’ betrayal, the two are very different crimes.  They differ like a flu differs from a cancer.  Peter is under duress when he says that he does not know Jesus.  In contrast, Judas willingly goes to the chief priests seeking to hand Jesus over. 

 We should see our susceptibility to both kinds of sin.  Like Peter, we might deny Jesus, the truth, by lying when threatened by loss of power, prestige, or money.  It is also possible that we betray our commitments like Judas.  Spouses do this in the act of adultery and priests, in any kind of tryst. We can betray friends by revealing intimate secrets.  In any case, let us continually pray to the Holy Spirit for guidance to avoid all infidelity.

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

 Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

(Daniel 3:14-20.91-92.95; John 8:31-42)

Pope Francis was warned that he was taking a risk in going to Iraq.  Believing that the Christians there needed support, he went anyway.  While in the city of Mosul, which was ravaged by ISIS five years ago, the pope spotted three children and an elderly man.  Although they were Muslim, the pope had his car stopped, went over to the children, and blessed them.  A Muslim historian commented that he could see the city as the most beautiful in the world “because I saw it through the eyes of the pope.”  Pope Francis’ love for the suffering encapsulates what Jesus means in today’s gospel.

Jesus is speaking with those Jews “who believed in him.”  They are likely people who are fascinated by his healings but unwilling to change their ways.  Jesus challenges them to be true disciples by “remain(ing) in his word.”  He means that they must acknowledge the Father’s love for them by caring for one another.  The people, however, retort that they are already children of God because they are of the family of Abraham.  Jesus then tells them that being born into a family does not qualify anyone as a child of God.  One must live as he has taught them.

It is not easy.  One Iraqi woman told the pope on his visit that she is trying to forgive the terrorists who murdered her son.  Forgiving one’s mortal enemies culminates the lessons that Jesus gives.  Most of us are still trying to recognize that others have virtues that often surpass our own.

Tuesday, March 23, 2021

 Tuesday of the Fifth Week in Lent

 (Numbers 21:4-9; John 8:21-30)

 Jesus tells the Pharisees that when they lift him up, they will realize who he is and that he has done what the Father wills.  Jumping to that scene, however, we have difficulty finding any such awareness among the Jews.  What is going on?

 John the evangelist only subtly shows Jesus’ divine sonship on the cross.  He notes that Pilate has a sign printed in three languages proclaiming Jesus “the king of the Jews.”  This tells us that, like-it-or-not, the Jews have to face the fact that an objective authority acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah, the anointed king of Israel.  Also, Jesus’ last words, “It is finished,” indicate his identity.  “The “It” here refers not only to his life but also to his mission from the Father of redeeming the world.  Although the Pharisees “realize” this evidence in as much as they objectively see it, most will not be swayed.  Indeed, only one of their numbers comes forward professing belief in Jesus.  Nicodemus, whom we remember from an earlier encounter with Jesus, steps on the scene at this time with enough burial spices for a king.

We should not be any more dismayed by the Pharisees rejecting Jesus than by our own contemporaries.  After all, Jesus conquered no empires like Alexander the Great.  Nor did he write works of wisdom like Aristotle.  Even his mighty deeds were not testified by any other than his followers.  Why then do we accept Him as God?  Certainly there is something to the fact that those followers died in making their testimony.  But we believe also because he has acted in our lives.  His words, which his disciples recorded, have given us a solid foundation.  More than that, when we have called upon him, he has met our needs – not just once but repeatedly.  We cannot help but hand over ourselves to him.