TODAYS REFLECTION 4TH WEEK OF LENT SAT MAR 12

TODAYS REFLECTION 4TH WEEK OF LENT SAT MAR 12 (  Jer 11:18-20, Jn 7: 40 -53 )

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Friends in the first reading, the prophet Jeremiah was opposed by his own people because the words he spoke in God's name did not sit right with them. They plotted to silence him and to "cut him off from the land of the living" (Jer 11:19).  Jeremiah responded with meekness and prophetic insight "like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter" (Jer 11:18). Many times we similar or worse situations than Jeremiah how do we respond?  God is not adamant he knows all that concercerns us very  well

Today’s Gospel begins with a division among the crowd about Jesus’ identity and ends with a division amongst the Pharisees and their guards who return empty handed after being sent out to apprehend Jesus. When questioned on this point they can only reply: “Never has anyone spoken like this man.” Their sense of unsettled bewilderment has all the hallmarks of having come face to face with a new truth; a new experience which, if slowly digested, will end in a fundamental change in their lives.

Beloved, truth often causes a kind of division. When spoken, it forces a decision. Human beings were made for truth; we have a natural inclination to receive it. Saint Thomas Aquinas would say that truth is “the formal object of the intellect;” which is a technical way of saying that we were created to be the kind of things which naturally respond to the truth. May the the costly grace and freedom which the Lord Jesus offers to those who embrace the cross for his sake  lead to joy and blessing in this life as well as the promise of eternal happiness with God.