Friday – 5th Week of Lent – A

Today we mark the fifth Friday of Lent. For this liturgical calendar in Year A of our readings, we hear from the prophet Jeremiah, who laments his persecutors and their stubbornness of heart to believe the Word of God that was sent through him. And in the Gospel, our Lord himself, who is a type of fulfillment of the prophet who came before him, and yet so much more as God, the Word of God, who stood in our midst and yet was rejected.

And so we begin with the reading from the prophet Jeremiah, which is a passage from the book that we attribute to him, and which is one of the prophet's famous confession moments where he reveals his interior anguish. And don't forget, Jeremiah is preaching in a time of national collapse between the late seventh and early sixth century before Christ. He calls Israel to repentance, but instead of gratitude, he receives mockery, betrayal, and even plots against his life, and even his friends watch for him to fall. And so he begins in this way: “I hear the whisperings of many: ‘Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!’ All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. ‘Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him’” (Jeremiah 20:10).

But then he says: “But the LORD is with me like a mighty champion; my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph. In their failure they will be put to utter shame, to lasting, unforgettable confusion” (Jeremiah 20:11). And the reading goes on. But notice how Jeremiah becomes a type of Christ. “Terror on every side”—these words echo the mounting hostility that we hear happening around Jesus, especially in today's Gospel. Friends that turn on him, which fulfills the betrayal and the abandonment that Jesus felt, even through the apostles. False accusations—this mirrors the trials that Jesus will undergo and all the false accusations that will be brought against him.

But notice the deeper truth and the deeper movement that is pertinent to our own walk of faith when we suffer these same things. What does Jeremiah say? “The LORD is with me like a mighty champion” (Jeremiah 20:11). And that's the key, my brothers and sisters. The just man suffers, but he entrusts his cause entirely to God. And of course, this is the interior posturing of Jesus in his Passion.

In Psalm 18 today, we hear of someone who has already passed through trial: “In my distress I called upon the LORD” (Psalm 18:6). This is crucial for Holy Week, my brothers and sisters, that's coming up. The Psalm interprets suffering as prayer. Distress becomes relationship, not despair. And this is exactly what we see in Christ, or what we will see in Christ in the coming week, in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the Cross, and when we hear him cry, “Father…” (Luke 23:34). The Psalm teaches us that suffering is not meaningless if it is directed toward God. The cry itself becomes an act of faith.

In the Gospel from John, we are no longer in preparation—we are on the edge of the Passion. This is one of the clearest moments where everything is laid bare. We hear the accusation: “You, a man, are making yourself God” (John 10:33). And this is the heart of the conflict, isn't it? Jesus here is not rejected for his miracles, but rather he is rejected for who he is. “The Father is in me and I am in the Father” (John 10:38). Jesus declares, and this is one of the most explicit declarations of divine unity in all of Scripture, that he and the Father are one.

What was their reaction? “They again tried to arrest him” (John 10:39). They pick up stones. We can sense that violence is now inevitable. Holy Week has already begun in the hearts of his enemies.

These readings, my brothers and sisters, train us to see something very important: that evil often disguises itself as righteousness. They think they are defending God. They think they are doing something good, while in fact they are rejecting God incarnate.

The just man is often isolated. That's another truth that comes out of this. In the reading from Jeremiah, Jeremiah stands alone. Jesus now stands alone. But God's victory is hidden within that isolation. Jeremiah looks defeated. Jesus will appear defeated on the Cross. And yet this is precisely where salvation unfolds.