Handle the Truth

The Roman Catholic Lectionary today presents texts which suggest meditation on the impact people who try to live according to the prompting of the Spirit of God have on those who have rejected God in their lives. The choice of a life based on self serving attention to our passions seems to be easily accepted by the world as the natural way of humanity. The text from the Book of Wisdom shows the emptiness of this direction is revealed in the bright light of the people who practice compassion, care and forgiveness. These people rely on a relationship with God to see their brothers and sisters as God sees them. This choice to focus on the other as instruments of the Love of God arouses the ire of those who have rejected this direction of selflessness. In the passage from the Gospel of John, we see how the followers of Jesus often share the rejection and disdain which He suffered as the confusion, which Friar Jude Winkler comments was sown among the people of Jesus time about His origin and mission, remains today. Our humanity is not comfortable with cognitive dissonance. We struggle to relieve the stress of conflict between different ideas by elimination and selection of our own truth. Too often the truth of the Servant Son of God present with us is the option which our self interest rejects.