The Just One

Homily for Friday of the Fourth Week in Lent

The Book of Wisdom is filled with advice, admonitions, warnings, and proverbs. However, today is an exception as we hear words that are unwise and hateful. As the very first line of today’s reading tells us, the words we hear today come from the wicked of the world. The words we hear are words that threaten and announce “the just one.” “Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us…” These wicked voices continue by describing the judgment that they feel as they live in the presence of someone who is good. How often have we heard it said that it is difficult to live with a saint? However, these words take us even further as they speak of destroying a good person simply because of the goodness that he or she embodies. Though the Book of Wisdom is not a prophetic book, this particular passage is prophetic in that it describes precisely how Jesus will be perceived by his own people.

The Gospel text for today takes us to Jerusalem and the Feast of Tabernacles. The city was full of visitors who had come for the celebration of this feast. The people ask the question that the Jewish leadership never wanted to ask or hear: is this man the Christ?

The contrast between those committed to Christ and those opposed to him is foreshadowed in both of the readings that we proclaim today. We hear the thoughts of the wicked as they pour out their disdain for the just one of God. We hear the jeers and mockery that Jesus experiences as he preaches openly in the temple. In their blindness, the Jewish leadership is determined to condemn Jesus to death as they see his presence as obnoxious and an affront to their very existence.