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?

Jesus: A Threat to one's Comfort Zone

“The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus. Jesus answered them, ‘I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me’”  (John 10: 31)?  The people ready to stone Jesus are God-fearing Jews. These are good people who see Jesus as a threat to the way of life to which they have been faithful their entire lives.  They see Jesus not just as another Jew but as a rebel, a dangerous man, who must be put to death, as far as they are concerned. 

The good works of His Father that Jesus showed the people, all of us, would culminate on Calvary, where He would give His life for the salvation of the world.  Jesus saved many people from their illnesses and sinful ways when He walked the streets of Galilee and the surrounding cities. He would save the whole world from the tree of the cross.

Many times, you and I do good works, the works the Father gave us to do before we even entered this world.  The greatest  work that we will do is the work of our redemption, dying with Christ day by day.  That dying is not the death of our physical bodies, when we, too, will leave this world and enter into the glory of our Father but the death that Jesus refers to often in His spiritual teachings.  “…[U]nless a wheat grain falls into the earth and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies it yields a rich harvest. Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life” (Jn 12:24).  Or, his teaching to the apostles who were indignant toward James and John wanting first place in the kingdom:  “You know that among the gentiles those they call their rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. Among you this is not to happen. No, anyone who wants to become great among you must be your servant , and anyone who wants to be first among you must be slave to all. For the Son of man himself came not be served to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mk 10: 42-45).

What is our response when the Spirit asked this kind of dying from us? Are we ready to throw stones at those who threaten our egotistic plans to ursurp power, to lord it over others, to demand service instead of giving service? Are we ready to stone anyone who  makes us aware of that we are protecting the “wheat grain” from falling into the earth and dying”?  Do we abandon the challenges of our faith in Jesus when our way of thinking like “the gentiles” is threatened?

Followed by Kindness and Goodness

In today’s first  reading, Daniel  13: 1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62 and Sunday’s Gospel, John 8: 1-11, we meet God’s justice, forgiveness, and compassionate intervention in the lives of two women: one unjustly accused of adultery and the other guilty of adultery.  Both, according to the Mosaic Law, faced being stoned to death if found guilty.  Injustice exists in both instances: the one accused falsely by two wicked judges and the other accused of this sin without the male partner also being made to accept responsibility for his role.

In the case of Susanna, God inspires Daniel to speak up on her behalf and confront the wicked judges. In the case of the woman in the Gospel, Jesus intervenes and challenges those who confront her and who are using her to trap Jesus. Jesus asks those without sin to cast the first stone and all walk away.

You and I, had we been among her accusers, would also have had to walk away, as we, too, are not without sin.  Jesus is our mediator, the One who intervenes for us, as Daniel intervened for Susanna. Yahweh says to us through the prophet Isaiah, “though our sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool” (Is. 1: 18). That theme is re-echoed in the responsorial psalm of today’s Mass in the words:  “Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life.”  Why? Because we are redeemed, called to and empowered to conversion every moment of every day! Like the good thief on the cross, God says to us: “This day you shall be with be in Paradise.” For you and me, that does not only refer to the day we die, it refers to today.  “Salvation is now,” Paul tells us in 2 Cor 6:2.