Reflection
for Saturday of the 4th Week of Lent
(Jer
11:18-20; Jn 7:40-53)
Prophet Jeremiah, the suffering servant of God,
narrates his ordeal in the hands of his adversaries. Though God revealed to him
their evil intent, but he was like a gentle lamb that was led to the slaughter.
They planned to wipe him out of the face of the earth. “Let us destroy the tree
with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name
be remembered no more.” Evil intent, like the virus that attacks human body,
will continue to spread to total destruction unless checkmated. So the Prophet
quickly committed his cause to the Lord, who alone judges righteously and can
take vengeance upon those who plan evil.
How does the camp of the evil plotters look
like? It is not easy to work against the good. “Whoever does attack you, for
your sake will fall” (Is 54:15). As the gang up against Jesus thickens, the confusion
among their camp became more obvious. Initially, the Jewish authorities
brainwashed the people against Jesus. But after His teaching in the Synagogue,
there was division among the people. “This is really the Prophet. Others said, ‘This
is the Christ.’ But some said, ‘Is the Christ to come from Galilee?’” “I have
come to cast fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled” (Lk
12:49).
The police officers who came to arrest Jesus
had their authority neutralized by Jesus’ teaching. There was confusion between
them and the Pharisees, who felt so disappointed that the police could not
arrest Jesus. “The officers answered, ‘No man ever spoke like this man!’” They
were silently arrested by Jesus, whom
they came to arrest! There was confusion also among the Pharisees themselves
too. Nicodemus who had contact with Jesus, carefully raised a dissenting voice.
The truth became an arrow that pierced their hearts and scattered them. “They
replied him, ‘Are you from Galilee too? Search and you will see that no prophet
is to rise from Galilee.”
The attempt to threaten and silence Nicodemus
and other witnesses is the general characteristics of evil intent. Since truth speaks in silence, the noisy shutdown
and threats indicate the confusion within the hearts that plot evil and within
their camp. The conspiracy of silence
that promotes evil is a hypocritical silence that denies the truth. The voice
of Jesus was not heard in the reading of today, still He won the day! Let no
evil intent weaken our resolve to always stand for the truth and live a
righteous life.
Fr Jude Chinwenwa Nwachukwu, C.Ss.R
Saints Peter & Paul Catholic Church,
Tedi-Muwo, Lagos.
Saturday March 28th, 2020.
SPIRITUAL
COMMUNION
My Jesus, I
believe that you are really here in the Blessed Sacrament. I love you more than
anything in the world, and I hunger to feed on your flesh. But since I cannot
receive Communion at this moment, feed my soul at least spiritually. I unite
myself to you now as I do when I actually receive you. Never let me drift away
from you. Amen.
----St
Alphonsus Liguori
