Friday – 4th Week of Lent – A

From today's reading, we hear about these persecutors, the ones who conspired to put Jesus to death, which we will also pick up in the Gospel for today. The first reading is from the Book of Wisdom, and it begins in this way: “The wicked said among themselves, thinking not right, ‘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’” (Wisdom 2:1, 12).

So our Lord came on the scene, and he began to highlight where they were errant in their following of the law. Things like the Sabbath, and not being able to help somebody on the Sabbath, actually went directly against the spirit of the Sabbath, where God commands rest, but also to help people to rest as well and to make their lives a little bit lighter. And so there were a lot of things that Jesus was pointing out that really unnerved them.

The reading goes on to say, “He judges us debased; he holds aloof from our paths and from things impure” (Wisdom 2:16). We hear from Saint James that this is true religion, right? “To care for orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27).

In today's Gospel, we pick up that theme of Jesus being persecuted, and we're told from the Gospel of John, which is a very beautiful Gospel, in that it is given to us by the one who is called the beloved, because, in fact, he calls himself the beloved, not because he wanted to outshine the others. No, but because he wanted us to see ourselves in his place as the beloved sons and daughters of God. And so whenever you see that label, the beloved of Jesus, remember that it is a label that was destined for you. You are the beloved follower of Jesus.

And we're told by this disciple that “Jesus moved about within Galilee; he did not wish to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him” (John 7:1). But the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles was near.

The Jewish Feast of Tabernacles, also called Sukkot, is one of the great pilgrimage feasts of Israel, and it's rich in historical memory and spiritual meaning. What does the Feast of Tabernacles commemorate? At its heart, Sukkot recalls Israel's forty years in the wilderness after the Exodus from Egypt. The people lived in temporary shelters, in booths, in tabernacles, totally dependent on God. It commemorates God's protection, guidance, and providence during that time when they were itinerant, moving around through all kinds of dangerous terrain, but also entering into territories of rival tribes and rival peoples. It is also a harvest festival which gives thanks for the fruits of the land. So in short, it is a feast of remembrance of God's care, gratitude for all the goods that God sends us, the harvest, and trust, dependence on him.

And our Lord is going to be present at this festival. In other words, the Lord that they are thanking, the Lord that they are acknowledging accompanied them every step of the way throughout that desert, throughout those forty years, is now suddenly going to be in their midst beneath the veil of his flesh.

And we're told that Jesus went secretly to this feast. But all of a sudden, he raises his voice. He cries out in the temple area as he was teaching, and he said, “You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true. I know him because I am from him, and he sent me” (John 7:28–29). So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him. We are told, “because his hour had not yet come” (John 7:30).

And we remember that in the Gospel of John, when John uses that expression, Jesus’s hour, his hour had not yet come. At the Feast of Cana, Jesus says to our Blessed Mother, “Woman, what is this to me and to you? My hour has not yet come” (John 2:4). This is always in the Gospel of John, because that hour refers to his passion, his death, and his eventual resurrection, his victory over Satan and over sin and over death.

My brothers and sisters, our Lord came from the Father as a gift, but not all have embraced him. Not all have accepted him. As we enter more deeply into the drama of the Passion of the Easter narrative, we recall that our Lord desires to be loved by us now, by each and every one of us, more and more.

How is our Lenten journey going so far? Have I committed myself a little bit more to prayer? Have I embraced with greater ascetical spirit the gift of fasting? Have I been more generous in my almsgiving, in my thinking of the less fortunate?

To that end, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, may you be blessed and strengthened, illuminated and guided in your heart to choose the better way of following our Lord wholeheartedly.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Go in peace, thanking the Lord for his goodness. Amen.