Lenten Reflection – 17 March 2018 – Saturday of the 4th Week of Lent
Jeremiah 11:18-20, Psalms 7:2-3, 9-12, John 7:40-53
Jeremiah 11:18 – “The Lord made it known to me and I knew;
then thou didst show me their evil deeds.”
John 7:50-53 – Nicodemus, who had gone to him before and who was one of them, said to them, “Does our law judge a man without first giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet is to rise from Galilee.” They went each to his own house…”
Tomorrow we shall enter Passiontide and the long shadow of the Cross is now cast over our Lenten journey. In today’s first reading, the first of Jeremiah’s ‘confessions’, he is coping with the shocking fact that people are trying to murder him. And how does he cope? In the way that we all must, by turning back to God.
In the Gospel, we hear the sinister note of the forces who are moving towards the destruction of Jesus. It starts (as so often in the fourth Gospel) with divisions among “the crowd”. There are three positions that they variously adopt – i) that Jesus is the prophet; ii) that He is the Messiah; iii) that Jesus is none of the above, because Messiah’s don’t come from Galilee.
The next division is between the servants who had been sent to arrest Jesus and the authorities who had sent them. The servants fail to bring him back because ‘no human being ever spoke like this’ – the Pharisees respond with a bullying argument argument ‘The crowd don’t know the law and they’re accursed.’
The final division is between Nicodemus, battling bravely against the tide and his peers. He wants due process of law whilst they simply re-assert their slogan ‘prophets don’t come from Galilee’.
Significantly, the division remains and no unity is produced amongst the dissidents but ‘they each went to their own home’. And yet, Jesus’ death is now visible on the horizon, less than two weeks away!…(Fr Nicholas King S.J. – The Lenten Journey to Easter)
Have I ever been the cause of division and arguments, perhaps unfairly?
What ideologies might I cling to that blind me from seeing the true and bigger picture?
Have I the strength to battle against the tide of evil?
“Great thing is the knowledge of the crucified Christ. How many things are enclosed inside this treasure! Christ crucified! Such is the hidden treasure of wisdom and science. Do not be deceived, then, under the pretext of wisdom. Gather before the covering and pray that it may be uncovered. Foolish philosopher of this world, what you are looking for is worthless… What is the advantage of being thirsty, if you despise the source? … And what is His precept but that we believe in Him and love each other? In whom? In Christ crucified. This is His commandment: that we believe in Christ crucified … But where humility is, there is also majesty, where weakness is, there shall one find power, where death is, there shall be life as well. If you wish to arrive at the second part, do not despise the first “(Sermon 160, 3-4) St Augustine
Our Lord’s Passion
St Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) Doctor of the Church
In Your hour of holy sadness
could I share with You, what gladness
should Your Cross to me be showing.
Gladness past all thought of knowing,
bowed beneath Your Cross to die!
Blessed Jesus, thanks I render
that in bitter death, so tender,
You now hear Your supplicant calling,
Save me Lord and keep from falling
from You, when my hour is night.
AnaStpaul 