Friday, March 11, 2016

Foreshadowing Jesus' Encounter with Wickedness

Today’s first reading, Wisdom 2: 1a, 12-22, speaks to us of what happened to Jesus. The wicked, believing that they were correct in their judgment of Him, vowed to kill Him. In the words of Wisdom: “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.”  Is that not what the Pharisees, the Scribes and the scholars of the law did to Jesus?  Is that not what we do when blinded by pride and concerned about our sinfulness being exposed, when we involve ourselves in attacking “prophets” among us?  About whom am I ranting and raving?  Is it possible that they are hitting a nerve within me that wants to cover up my own sinfulness? There is a saying: what I hate in others exists within me.

The author of Wisdom continues exposing the thinking of the wicked, attacking the just one:  “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.  He judges us debased; he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure. He calls blest the destiny of the just and boasts that God is his Father.”


Whom do we find hard to see and to whom do we have difficulty listening?  When do we believe that our thoughts are being censured?  Is God trying to soften our hearts, cleanse us of our pride and remold our thinking?

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