Thursday, March 17, 2016

5th Week of Lent, Friday, 18-03-16

Jeremiah 20:10-13 / John 10:31-42

During the time of Jesus, the people were, by and large, a monotheistic people, i.e., they believe and worship in only one God.

That was the doctrine that was passed down since the time of Abraham and the people kept that doctrine worshipping only one God and it was even a commandment that there shall be no other gods that the people can worship.

Furthermore, the belief was also that there was this unbridgeable void between divinity and humanity.

So for anyone saying that he is the Son of God (hence claiming divinity) or that he is in God and God is in him and claiming God to be his Father, that is certainly an unbearable blasphemy.

So we can understand why the people took stones to stone Jesus - He was saying something blasphemous and revolting to them.

Yet with Jesus, it was not a religious question of blasphemy. Rather, it was an issue about the truth.

People like the truth to be static and maybe historic. Truth that is dynamic and realistic may be too disturbing for people to accept.

That was the case with Jesus and also with the prophet Jeremiah in the 1st reading.

But if we say we believe in God, then God also wants to be dynamic and realistic in our lives.

God is truth. If we believe in God, then we must also accept the people who are proclaiming the truth.

Not to do so would be collaborating with evil and stoning the truth.