We continue with Jesus’ escalating exchange with his fellow Jews in the Gospel of John who had once come to believe in him, and now, in today’s gospel are vehemently proposing he be brutally executed. In the first reading from the Prophet Jeremiah, we have a prophecy which speaks of the dynamic that is thus unfolding: “All those who used to be my friend watched for my downfall, ‘Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we will master him and take our revenge!’” Jeremiah 20:10.
Up until then, Jesus had been gradually revealing who he is and they were fine and receptive and he knew they would be. He also knew however that the more he revealed, the less receptive they would become and hence the “secrecy” we hear of in the gospels, especially in Mark’s, when Jesus commanded that certain things not yet be revealed. He was basically being prudent as regards the sequence of events he knew were to unfold with time, but which would otherwise have been accelerated had Jesus prematurely disclosed too much, not giving him enough time to teach everything else that was pertinent for our salvation. He absolutely knew that once his divinity was disclosed to them, they would turn into ravenous wolves who would want to tear him apart. The beginning of his preaching was okay. They didn’t understand it all, and showed a willingness to at least grapple with some of the things the Lord was trying to convey. The later revelations however, proved too difficult for them to accept. They were even initially more convinced due to the miracles, which John calls “signs”… signs of who Jesus actually was, moving among them. In today’s gospel Jesus asks “for which of these signs” they planned on killing him since now, in speaking of his divine nature more clearly, they are shaken to the core--literally beyond belief so that a misguided righteous indignation possesses them to invoke the death sentence by stoning. In their mind, Jesus’ sin was blasphemy, because through his shocking words, he was clearly revealing that he was God.
- One of the first things we see therefore, is how slow we ought to be to draw our conclusions about God, and for this we need a well-formed spiritual maturity of patience and humility. In fact, the same virtues we try to improve when dealing with our fellow brothers and sisters, will generally be the virtues required when working out our salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord. Any effort we put towards improving our relations with others, will always benefit our priority number one relationship with God. For example, we must exercise patience with others, and even with ourselves so as to avoid self-deprecation and despair. This in turn will help us to be patient and wait upon the Lord as his ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. He transcends our limited capacities and intellect. As Saint Peter once admonished us in this regard, "But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" 2 Peter 3:8. We need to avoid the sin of presumption. We presume too many things about God instead of just trusting in him who is able to save those who call upon him. Jesus revealed a plethora of splendid yet difficult truths for the human mind to comprehend. He has spoken of punishment and reward beyond our imagination.
He has asked for a heroism the likes of which transcends the status quo and the complacency of the worldly way of doing things. He has elevated the bar! He not only makes things new, but he enhances that newness. Hence in baptism when we sink into that water, what emerges is a new creation, unlike the purification baptism preached by Saint John the Baptist. And newness takes time to appreciate and to discover. Sometimes, even a lifetime!
Perhaps you’re not at the stage yet where you can describe the radical newness God has called you to. Perhaps there is still yet much to be done so as to really commit to Jesus’ words and experience what is being described here. Many of you however, have already experienced this abundance of life that Jesus came to bring us. Think back on how you felt that first time, that out of love for Jesus, you truly forgave someone who hurt you in a very grievous way. Think of how special it was to think that Jesus had made that much of a difference in your life. Or, how through his grace and the newly found faith you now enjoyed in him, you were able to conquer some vice that was previously insurmountable!
Jesus was asking of these initial followers, his initial converts, the same kind of radical trust and reassessment but it was too shockingly difficult to accept that the man they had known was now telling them he is equal to the Father; “…you are only a man and you claim to be God.” He was asking too much. The apostles came to believe, but they too lost faith. The difference is they came back. They were given the grace of repentance and cooperated with it. It’s not about the crisis. It’s what we do with it when it creeps into our life. God gives us the grace, but that grace can be rejected.
The rejection of a new and challenging message was also felt by a number of founders of religious orders who called for a radical way of gospel living so as to evangelize and strengthen the Church. One of the reasons Francis retired to Mount La Verna for an extended period of time to fast and pray, was so that he could deal with the rejection of many friars which left him heartbroken. He was not loved by every friar. He was not respected and simply obeyed by all. To the early friars who accepted him at first but then rejected him later when he began introducing more difficult disciplines, Francis became a thorn to their more relaxed way of embracing religious life. They had to resort to calling Francis rigid, excessive, scrupulous, even crazy. It depended on how they felt about it, and not what they were willing to pray over and discern. This too was the downfall of the Jews in today’s gospel, who felt that Jesus was out of his mind, possessed, or at best, misled or delusional. We have many authors today who make a living of presenting Jesus under those umbrellas, but what matters is the truth, and that alone is what will set us free and not our whims or conditional discipleship. The truth! This is what Francis was contemplating throughout his summer period of fasting in 1224 on Mount La Verna from the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the Feast of St Michael the Archangel. Just a couple of weeks before Saint Michael’s feast, on September the 14th (the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross), God honoured his body with the sacred wounds of the Passion—a divine seal of approval and justification in the face of the crushing rejection of his fellow friars. God honours the truth and those who suffer for it. They branded him with delirium. God branded him with the stigmata. As if to say, “No, no, he’s not crazy. He’s actually imitating Jesus perfectly.”
As we approach our Lord’s darkest, yet most heroic hour, let us spend time with him and assure him that come what may in life, in good times and in bad, in ecstasies and in storms, in the highs and lows, we will always wish to stay close to him first and foremost and demonstrate our unwavering union with him, yet we begin with the small things: avoiding the occasion of sin, mastering how to deal with temptation, being more generous with others, denying ourselves so as to give more to the poor… these little things are what pleases him the most. May we be given the grace and the courage to embrace not only these but everything else above and beyond that he may ask of us.
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It’s amazing just how blind the Pharisees are to His goodness, and the miraculous nature of his works,.... to actually God standing in front of them ) maybe why he told the rich man( and Lazarus) miracles and signs wouldn’t matter to his brothers ) and yet when He crosses the Jordan to the place where John had baptized a baptism of repentance they believed, A real testament to the darkness of our minds and intellects our sins make, And interesting detail I observed in a reflection.