3 April 2020
Friday of the 5th Week of Lent
Tension is mounting in our readings, as we come to the cusp of Holy Week. In today’s Gospel we hear how different people respond to Jesus saying he is the Son of God. Some want to stone him because they believe he is blaspheming “You, a man, are making yourself God” Others say “everything John (the Baptist) said about this man was true. And many there began to believe in him”.
Jesus always has and always will be a divisive person. Bishop Robert Barron makes a crucial point when he says there is no middle ground with Jesus. You either believe he is who he says he is, the Son of God or he is crazy. You cannot reduce Jesus to just one of many spiritual teachers or gurus the world has known. Moses, Buddha, Mohammed, and many others have shared their spiritual insights, but none of them claimed, as Jesus did, that he was the Son of God. This claim you either accept or reject. If you reject it, you must then conclude Jesus was insane, as you would anyone who claimed to be a god.
As we enter Holy Week our focus moves from Jesus’s teachings to his actions. We who accept what Jesus said about himself, that he is the Son of God, tremble as we reflect on his passion and death. The ramifications of believing in a God who has died for us, will take us a lifetime to understand and appreciate.
Let us Pray,
O God, who in this season
give your Church the grace
to imitate devoutly the Blessed Virgin Mary
in contemplating the Passion of Christ,
grant, we pray, through her intercession,
that we may cling more firmly each day
to your Only Begotten Son
and come at last to the fullness of his grace.
Who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.