From the responsorial psalm: “The LORD is close to the brokenhearted; and those who are crushed in spirit he saves. Many are the troubles of the just man, but out of them all the LORD delivers him. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.”
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John (Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30, today’s readings)
So Jesus cried out in the temple area as he was teaching and said, “You know me and also know where I am from. Yet I did not come on my own, but the one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true. I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.” So they tried to arrest him, but no one laid a hand upon him, because his hour had not yet come.
Although by leaving Galilee Jesus risks his life, he travels to Jerusalem for the feast of Tabernacles when Jewish people remember God’s provision for them as they wandered in the desert. Jesus goes to Jerusalem, aware that some of the Jews are trying to kill him. Similarly, the wicked as described in the first reading plan to kill the just one who believes “God will take care of him.” Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem fail to recognize that Jesus is the Messiah, saying, “When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.” Some of them simply want Jesus dead. But in full communion with the Father, Jesus knows the Father and knows that he will take care of him. “I know him,” Jesus says, “because I am from him, and he sent me.” And God did provide. John tells us that no one laid a hand on Jesus because it was not yet his time.
God, help me recognize that as the Book of Wisdom teaches, there will always be the wicked and the just one. The wicked are many, and like the unclean sprit that Jesus drove out, Legion is its name and its way of being and speaking; it seeks to test gentleness and patience with many snares. Defend me, Lord. Give me the grace of single-mindedness to keep my eyes fixed on the cross. Through the cross, you took care of your Son in his passion, death, and resurrection, bringing him into your glory. Through the risen Christ, you offer the promise of salvation and the hope of eternal life. Saint Isidore, pray for us!
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.