Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
In my early years as a Jesuit priest, I served a small Catholic community. Despite the challenges, it was a wonderful experience for me to serve this group. After some time, I left for a new mission, and when I returned for a mini sabbatical in the area, I wanted to reconnect with the community. But, a new leader has taken charge, and for some reason, this person seems to dislike me, or perhaps even harbor resentment toward me. During my sabbatical, this leader employed various tactics to block or even bar me from engaging with the community. I didn't want to make a big issue out of it because this person had the right to reject me, and I understand that I cannot force anyone to like me. Yet, every time I visited the area, I found that this leader continued to prevent me from engaging with community members by using dubious reasons. At first, I felt angry and thought about retaliating against this treatment. But in the end, I eventually realized that my experience pales in comparison to the suffering of Christ, who was rejected by many.
In today's Gospel reading, we encounter the story of how the Jews wanted to kill Jesus. This was not only because He broke the Sabbath but also because He claimed that God was His Father, which made Him equal to God. In response to this threat, Jesus chose to hide Himself, avoiding travel through Judea and walking in secret. Why did Jesus need to walk in secret and hide from the Jews? The reason lies in the fact that Jesus is both God and Man. While in His divinity He could easily escape harm or death at the hands of the Jews, He did not want to rely on His divine power all the time. Instead, He sought to express His humanity by sometimes feeling the need to retreat from those who sought to harm Him. At the same time, He demonstrated His divinity by walking among them unharmed and refuting the accusations that He was merely human.
Later in the story, Jesus states, "The world cannot hate you, but it hates me." This statement reminds us that the reason for this hatred is that His teachings oppose the world, as their actions are evil. Indeed, a worldly person can and will resent those who challenge their pursuit of worldly glory. Similarly, saints are often disliked by the world because they stand against evil actions.