After having some initial conflict with the religious leaders in Jerusalem, Jesus decides to return to Galilee. There were threats of arrest and threats against his life at that time. After being back in Galilee for a while, the disciples decide to go to Jerusalem for one of the annual religious feasts and Jesus decides to go, too.
Here we see the profound confidence that Jesus has in God the Father. In the face of the threats, he is confident in the presence of God in his life and that God will move Jesus’ mission forward. Today he cries out as a prophet in the temple, telling the people that they do not know God the Father. This he says in the temple in the midst of the people who considered themselves the most religious of their times. He has complete confidence in his mission and that God will fulfill that mission. Truly turning our lives over to God and knowing God as our Father changes our lives and moves us to reorientate everything.
During the decades of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, Peru suffered a civil war initiated by Marxist terrorists. During that time two Franciscan friars and one diocesan priest were martyred in Chimbote north of Lima because they chose to stay with their faith communities in the face of threats. Many other religious, priests, and lay catechists stayed with their local faith communities in the face of personal danger, threats to their families, and actual torture.
A poor relationship with God leads us to be lukewarm about our faith and Christian lifestyle. It is easy to be mediocre and to simply settle for what is “normal” according to the general cultural norms. Lent is a time to help us stop being lukewarm. It is time to become more radical, more life filled and life giving. True confidence in the presence and action of God the Father in our lives will make us truly hot, truly different. There are many ways to be a witness of faith in the midst of our families and neighborhoods, to point out the true, living God – to live sacrificing ourselves for others, to be martyrs. Let us take time today to ask ourselves how we respond to Jesus’ witness in the temple and his statement:
The one who sent me, whom you do not know, is true. John 7:28
Image: https://church.mt/the-gospel-of-the-day-1st-april-7/.