Friday, April 5, 2019
4th Week of Lent
1st Reading:
Wis 2:1a, 12–22
Gospel: Jn 7:1–2, 10, 25–30
Jesus went around Galilee; he would not go about in Judea because the Jews wanted to kill him. Now the Jewish feast of the Tents was at hand. But after his brothers had gone to the festival, he also went up, not publicly but in secret.
Some of the people of Jerusalem said, “Is this not the man they want to kill? And here he is speaking freely, and they don’t say a word to him? Can it be that the rulers know that this is really the Christ? Yet we know where this man comes from; but when the Christ appears, no one will know where he comes from.”
So Jesus announced in a loud voice in the Temple court where he was teaching, “You say that you know me and know where I come from! I have not come of myself; I was sent by the One who is true, and you don’t know him. I know him for I come from him and he sent me.”
They would have arrested him, but no one laid hands on him because his time had not yet come.
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
A little knowledge is dangerous to self-righteous people. The Jews held on to their knowledge about the origins of the Messiah as if such knowledge were unimpeachable. From Scriptures they learned that the origin of the Messiah was supposed to be uncertain (Isaiah 53:1-8). Since they knew “for certain” the origins of Jesus, they concluded that Jesus was an impostor.
Conclusions can never be correct if based on half-truths. That Jesus came from Nazareth was only half the truth because it only covered details of his domicile and pedigree and did not cover the sacred events preceding his days in Nazareth.
If they only considered the miracles Jesus performed and his extraordinary wisdom, they could have revised their conclusion. His miracles were undisputed, and so was the extraordinariness of his wisdom. In today’s Gospel, in fact, the Jews could not but affirm Jesus’ extraordinary wisdom. These gave the Jews a big headache. “He has become a reproach to our way of thinking…” (Wisdom 2:12-22).
The tiniest streak of light has enough power to disturb the darkness. Bearers of truth stand as streaks of light glaring to the eyes of evil people. Against those who stand for the light the wicked will say, “Let us humble and torture him to prove his self-control and test his patience. When we have condemned him to a shameful death, we may test his words” (Wisdom 2:12-22).
A little knowledge is dangerous to self-righteous people. But to people of faith, the minutest knowledge about the truth opens wide the tunnel that leads to the light. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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