The first reading from the book of the prophet Jeremiah is similar to yesterday’s readings, because the readings reflect the negativity of the crowd. Negativity is something most of us would rather avoid. To have other people ganged up against us is not what many people believe that Christianity is all about. We shouldn’t provoke a negative response like this from other people. Christians are supposed to get along with each other, treat one another with kindness, and seek unity and peace at all times. But, this isn’t the way the prophets and many other holy people in the bible actually lived, especially Jesus Christ and his apostles. That’s not to say that Christianity means that we are supposed to be at constant odds with one another either. But if we are truly imitating the life of Jesus Christ, then we should expect to have periods in our lives when we experience some friction and negativity from those who oppose us. This is in no way means that we are not good Christians when other people do not agree with us, or have an opposing point of view. On the contrary, the prophets, Jesus Christ, and his apostles were treated the same way.
In the first reading for mass today, the prophet Jeremiah set a good example on what to do when we experience opposition from other people. Jeremiah prayed to God saying, “to you I have entrusted my cause!” We should place our trust in God, pray to know His will more deeply and trust that He will guide us to do the right thing.
Psalm 7 today says “O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.” All of the scriptures today encourage us to seek our refuge in God, instead of other people. This is the firm grounding we need when the winds of opposition try to blow us around in different directions.
The crowd in the gospel today responded to a new development in their lives the same way many of us do too. We voice our opinion about current events to our family and friends and those we work with. Everyone sees current events in a different way. The evening news and the news stories we run across on the internet are not always positive either. There are always a few bad apples in a crowd, especially if their own interests or authority, or even the truth that they think they know, is in jeopardy of changing.
The guards set a good example in today’s gospel though, when they refused to follow the orders of the chief priests and Pharisees, and arrest Jesus. One need only think of the holocaust to understand why they refused to follow the orders of their superiors. It is because the guards knew the truth when they heard it. They knew what was right and what was wrong and no one, not even their superiors could tell them otherwise. Jesus Christ has the words of eternal life. All human beings instinctively know the truth when they hear it. Whether they act on it or not is up to the individual.
Nicodemus recognized the truth too though, and did what he could to influence his peers to give Jesus a chance, but the chief priests and Pharisees would have no part in it. They each left and went to their own home, refusing to listen any further.
How many of us shut down and go off to sulk alone when something upsets us too? Surely we are all a little guilty of this, but it would really be better to try to listen to the one who upset us, to see where they are coming from. Not necessarily to change our minds, but to at least try to see things from their perspective. Actually, this is the first step toward healing any negative situations in our lives.
Understanding where people are coming from is not the same thing as condoning their behavior, but it can help lead us toward the path of understanding and forgiveness.
Speaking of forgiveness. There is still time to go to confession before Lent. Maybe we have been a little too quick to judge people, ourselves. Gossip is also is easy to fall prey to. Or maybe we still hold a bit of a grudge against people who wrongfully accused us of something in the past. Do we have a tendency to shut down and not listen to someone else’s opposite point of view, or go off and sulk by ourselves when someone upsets us? Today’s readings for mass give us a lot of food for thought, especially for confession and identifying tendencies within ourselves that we could work on improving this Lent as well.
Daily Mass Readings:
Jeremiah 11: 18-20 / Psalm 7: 2-3, 9bc-10, 11-12 / John 7: 40-53
