Persecution Protection Rejection

The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today connect us with people who have lived persecution, sought protection and have been rejected through prejudice.

Struggle in cold wind

The Prophet Jeremiah seeks vengeance as a remedy for those who are trying to kill him as he preaches the Word of God.

The psalmist declares his righteousness as justification for protection from his enemies.

In the Gospel from John, Nicodemus supports Jesus right to be heard as the religious authorities try to use prejudice towards Galileans to discredit Him.

* [7:40–53] Discussion of the Davidic lineage of the Messiah.

Thomas Quinn reminds us that Lent is full of opportunities to shed our resistance to the often subtle will of God, to accept it, and move toward the openness and love that he expects us to have for him and for our brothers and sisters.

If we put this passage in the socioeconomic context of the times, we realize that Galileans generally were resented or distained for their unrefined manner and their lax observance of some of the religious laws.  Their unmistakable accent when they spoke Aramaic also singled them out. Everyone in the crowd heard the amazing words of Jesus, but many would not believe them because of the apparent origin of the speaker. They were deaf to his message, and blind to the presence of the Messiah, primarily because of their personal bias against Galileans. If they had believed that we are all equal and loved by God, Jesus’ message would have been accepted more readily. “Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?”, asked Nicodemus, a Pharisee who knew Jesus. Even today, we often hear the word of God from unexpected sources.

Don Schwager asks when resistance and opposition to God's word rears its head how do we respond?
He quotes Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D., on moving not by walking but by loving.

"We approach God not by walking but by loving. The purer our love for him toward whom we are striving, the more present to us will he be. To him, therefore, who is everywhere present and everywhere whole, we must proceed not by our feet but by our moral virtues - judged not by the object of our knowledge but by the object of our love." (excerpt from Letter 155,13)

Friar Jude Winkler connects the text today to the Confessions of Jeremiah. The state of our faith where trust beyond trust is the relationship that grows as we struggle against opposition.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces psychologist and wilderness guide, Bill Plotkin, who believes that to “save our souls” we need to reconnect with nature.

Through your wanderings, you cultivate a sensibility of wonder and surprise, rekindling the innocence that got buried in your adolescent rush to become somebody in particular. Now you seek to become nobody for a while, to disappear into the woods so that the person you really are might find you.

Fr Richard reviews the list of ancient and modern believers who were recently featured in his blog as being concerned with our connection with nature.

• Pope Francis
• Hildegard
• Irenaeus
• John Philip Newell
• Joanna Macy
• Molly Young Brown
• Thomas Berry

The wisdom of nature, wherein we relate to God and find space for contemplation of the difficulties in life, can’t be understood with our thinking mind. We have to experience it with our being and let it speak to us through all our senses.

References



(n.d.). Jeremiah, chapter 11 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/Jeremiah/11:18 

(n.d.). Psalms, chapter 7 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/psalms/7:2 

(n.d.). John, chapter 7 - United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/john/7:59

(n.d.). Creighton University's Online Ministries. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html

(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/

(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved March 17, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/