They're After Jesus

The wicked said among themselves, 
thinking not aright:
"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.
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.
Let us see whether his words be true;
let us find out what will happen to him.
For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him
and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
With revilement and torture let us put him to the test
that we may have proof of his gentleness
and try his patience.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him."
These were their thoughts, but they erred;
for their wickedness blinded them,
and they knew not the hidden counsels of God;
neither did they count on a recompense of holiness
nor discern the innocent souls' reward.
WIS 2:1A, 12-22


Jesus moved about within Galilee;
he did not wish to travel in Judea,
because the Jews were trying to kill him.
But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.

But when his brothers had gone up to the feast,
he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.

Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said,
"Is he not the one they are trying to kill?
And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him.
Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?
But we know where he is from.
When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from."
So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and 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."
So they tried to arrest him,
but no one laid a hand upon him,
because his hour had not yet come
JN 7:1-2, 10, 25-30

W

ell, today for a change, you can readily grasp the meaning of the Gospel reading by reading the selection the Church gives us from the Book of Wisdom so you don’t need any long-winded explanations from a hack like me!  Jesus was in trouble because He was unable to keep silent about the abuses He was observing and the management of the temple took umbrage at His criticisms of them and the lack-luster way that they ran the temple, His father’s house on earth. 

What did He find wrong with it?  Well, I believe He saw that the temple was being run as a money-making enterprise that was set to enrich the management team, namely, the High Priest and his friends and cronies. He also pointed out how the leaders gave the appearance of being holy but were, in fact, wolves in sheep's clothing.  We have seen Jesus express His righteous indignation when He cast the sellers of animals and the money changers out of the temple.

What Jesus wanted then, and is demanding from us now, is that our love for Him and for His Father be genuine.  He asks us not for expressions of faith that inflate our ego at the cost of our souls. No, He is asking for us to be humble, gentle, and docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.  He also expects us to take a stand against things that defy the law of God and to be ready to endure as he did the daily persecution from the people in power who will not take kindly to His pointing out the ways that they were failing to live up to what God hoped that they could be.

In our time, like in the time of Christ, evil and darkness holds sway in the halls of our lawmakers.  Today, we have an administration in power that is pro-life in their attitude which is good, but unfortunately, they are lousy at the business of government and all of the things that they rolled out will be rolled back when the other party comes back into power.  The days of injustice that the Christian world suffered under the reign of Obama, will return when the radicalized democratic party, infested with those who hate religion and the free practice thereof and who will do whatever they can to bring devastation to Jesus, His teachings, and His Church.

We must pray for our future and for all those who espouse the ways of immorality that they become convicted of the errors of their ways and return to walk in freedom on the road of the just alongside Jesus.  We, ourselves, must pray and sacrifice for the time that is coming will be worse than it was under Obama.  We will need to work on our prayer lives and be ready to accept the persecutions that will come.  We need to remember that through it all the victory of Jesus is already in place, He will come and take back His world and all will know Him as the Merciful Lord or as the Just Judge as their conduct determines. 

Please remember our departed loved ones who may be in Purgatory.  You loved them while they lived, do not let that love grow cold and cease at the edge of the grave.  Prayers for the dead are a spiritual act of mercy and please God very much.  Pray for your relatives and friends by name and pray for the millions of Protestants who have no one at all to pray for them because their tradition does not admit the possibility of Purgatory.