Readings: Wisd. 2:1.12-22; Ps. 34; John 7:1-2.10.25-30
Rev.
Fr. Emmanuel Emenike Onyia.
WHAT
HAS A VIRTUOUS MAN DONE TO WICKED MEN OF THIS PASSING WORLD?
There
is no doubt that our societies today are full of evil and wickedness of
humanity against one another. So, every day we struggle against the malice of the evil ones, and people are
doing everything they can to overcome them.
This
ugly action is evident in our readings today. In the first reading, we heard
how unsound some people can be in their thinking. This no doubt reveals the
thoughts of the wicked people who rejected the message of God’s truth and
persecuted the prophets saying, “Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man, since
he annoys us and opposes our way of life, reproaches us for our breaches of the
law and accuses us of playing false to our upbringing. He claims to have
knowledge of God, and calls himself the son of God”. Such are the ways of the
evil ones.
In a
similar way in our Gospel, we heard of the opposition against Jesus and the
efforts his enemies made to try to harm him. This happened in fulfilment of
the prophecy about the suffering Servant of God. It is at this point that Jesus
made one of the most revealing statements at the Temple before everyone who
gathered at the temple, not long before the beginning of his Passion. He stood
firmly against all those who had doubted, rejected and persecuted him, showing
how those who refused to believe in him and his truth were blinded by their
pride and arrogance, their unwillingness to listen, and their lack of knowledge
and faith in him.
Dear
friends, what has the virtuous man done to the wicked men of this passing world?
Why all this wickedness? As we draw closer to the season of Holy Week, the
readings begin to speak about the coming of the Lord’s Passion, the suffering
servant of God. For out of pride and selfishness the Pharisees turned against
the Lord Jesus. Their malice and worldly concerns and also their ugly desires
truncated their faith and obedience to God. In the same way, the root of all this evil in our world today is none other than pride, selfishness, arrogance
and over-ambition in our hearts.
Therefore,
as we struggle against the evil of our time we can take consolation from
today’s Psalm which tells us that the Lord is close to the broken-hearted;
those whose spirit is crushed he will save. For many are the trials of the just
man but from them all the Lord will rescue him, for the Lord ransoms the souls
of his servants and those who hide in him shall not be condemned. This is a
reminder that God will not forget his faithful ones, but those who have acted
with injustice and evil will have to answer for their misdeeds unless they
repent from their sins.
.jpeg)
No comments:
Post a Comment