First Reading: Jeremiah 11:18-20
I am like a trusting lamb led to slaughter.
I knew their plot because the Lord informed me;
at that time you, O Lord, showed me their doings.
Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter,
had not realized that they were hatching plots against me:
“Let us destroy the tree in its vigor;
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will be spoken no more.”
But, you, O Lord of hosts, O just Judge,
searcher of mind and heart,
Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause!
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 7:2-3, 9bc-10, 11-12
R./ O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and rescue me,
Lest I become like the lion’s prey,
to be torn to pieces, with no one to rescue me.
R./ O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
Do me justice, O Lord, because I am just,
and because of the innocence that is mine.
Let the malice of the wicked come to an end,
but sustain the just,
O searcher of heart and soul, O just God.
R./ O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;
A just judge is God,
a God who punishes day by day.
R./ O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
Gospel Reading: John 7:40-53
The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he?
Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said,
“This is truly the Prophet.”
Others said, “This is the Christ.”
But others said, “The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he?
Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David’s family
and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.
Some of them even wanted to arrest him,
but no one laid hands on him.
So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees,
who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?”
The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.”
So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived?
Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.”
Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them,
“Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him
and finds out what he is doing?”
They answered and said to him,
“You are not from Galilee also, are you?
Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
Then each went to his own house.
If there’s one thing we all like, it’s living peacefully, with certain routines that make life more pleasant. It’s what psychologists today call the «comfort zone,» which is the same as saying, in a more traditional way, «there’s no place like home.» In fact, there’s nothing worse than being «taken out of our comfort zone.» It upsets us and leaves us confused. We prefer to go back home, to what we’re used to.
Well, faith is precisely something that takes us out of our comfort zone, that shakes us up, away from what we’ve usually thought was good, to take us to another dimension. It’s not just about recognizing that God exists. It’s much more. Suddenly discovering that everyone is my brother or sister because God is our Father forces us to change our relationship with them. Discovering that God is my father and creator, that he’s no longer a controlling judge and prosecutor of my every action, changes my relationship with him. All of that also changes my relationship with myself, with my life.
That’s a lot of changes. And it’s not easy to assimilate them. In fact, change, any change, is what’s hardest for us in life. Realizing that things are no longer going to be the way they were makes us very nervous. Because deep down, we love routines, doing the same things, the same way.
The Jewish people had that problem with Jesus. His presence, his way of speaking and acting, took them out of their comfort zone, forced them to rethink, redo, and rebuild their relationship with God and with others, Jewish and non-Jewish. It took them out of their comfort zone of what they had always thought, what they had been taught since childhood. And it opened them up to a new world, which, like novelty does to us, scared them. The easiest thing was to condemn Jesus, the agent provocateur of change, and thus get rid of him. To leave things as they were and for everyone to feel comfortable again.
We are also faced with that dilemma: to accept the living presence of Jesus in our lives, with all that that means, or to go back to the same old things, to our prejudices, to our rosaries and our masses…
Fernando Torres, cmfIntroduction
It is hard for a person who “has been seduced by God,” as Jeremiah says, to be rejected by the very community to which one has dedicated one’s life, and before, which one bears witness to the spiritual. He is a source of division. So was Jesus. Are we willing to take the risk of being a Christian, of being signs of contradiction with Christ? If we can, it will surely hurt. We will be contradicted and ridiculed. Can we accept this with equanimity? It has become our responsibility when we were baptized.
Opening Prayer
Almighty God,
when people encountered your Son,
he became a source of division:
he affected their lives
one way or another.
May we accept him fully
and empty ourselves to make room for him
in our everyday life, even when it hurts.
Help us, that with him,
we may always seek and do your will.
We ask you this through Christ, our Lord.
General Intercessions
– That we may accept with serenity when we are contradicted or ridiculed because of our faith, we pray:
– That all those who suffer may put themselves into the hands of God, we pray:
– That Christians may always take side in favor of what is right and good, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
God, our Father,
your Son came among us
to live before our eyes
the life of a loving Son
and a faithful servant.
He is now here in our midst.
Like him Lord,
may we not seek popularity
or peace at any cost.
So, we ask you to give us the courage
to go against the current of opinions
when faithfulness to you demands it.
We ask you this through Christ, our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
God, to be faithful to you
and honest with ourselves,
is not always comfortable.
Neither was it for your Son, Jesus.
We pray to you today:
May our hardships and misunderstandings
not fill us with bitterness,
but may they be useful in a small way
to bring life and hope
to us and to our neighbor,
as we are united with Jesus,
your Son and our Lord for ever.
Blessing
If we are contested because of our faith and its implications, may God give us the insight and strength not to be afraid but to bear witness to the Lord and to do what is right and good. May Almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
