31 March 2017
Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Both readings in today’s Mass have the same theme: the persecution of the just one. The text in the first reading gives an anticipated description of Jesus in his passion. The Gospel tells us that he went up to Jerusalem “in secret,” that is probably alone, to face the sufferings and death that awaited him there.
Injustice is something that is unsupportable for me. That I know from experience. At the same time, I also know from experience that when I bear it with silence I begin to enter into an atmosphere that, I suppose, is akin to sanctity: forgetting myself and imitating Jesus. How is this done?
Today’s Gospel gives me a hint. Jesus was taken to be a man like all others. And yet, there was something more, an aspect of his personality that was hidden, unperceived by most and yet instinctively perceived by some. What was its origin?
He was by nature united to the Father and the Holy Spirit. My prayer invites the Holy Spirit to form this attitude of Jesus in me. It enables me in turn to see injustices, disappointments, and hurts as Jesus saw them, as he bore them.