Reading 1 Jer 11:18-20
at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings.
Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter,
had not realized that they were hatching plots against me:
“Let us destroy the tree in its vigor;
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will be spoken no more.”
But, you, O LORD of hosts, O just Judge,
searcher of mind and heart,
Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause!
Responsorial Psalm PS 7:2-3, 9bc-10, 11-12
O LORD, my God, in you I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and rescue me,
Lest I become like the lion’s prey,
to be torn to pieces, with no one to rescue me.
R. O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
Do me justice, O LORD, because I am just,
and because of the innocence that is mine.
Let the malice of the wicked come to an end,
but sustain the just,
O searcher of heart and soul, O just God.
R. O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;
A just judge is God,
a God who punishes day by day.
R. O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.
Verse Before the Gospel See Lk 8:15
and yield a harvest through perseverance.
Gospel Jn 7:40-53
Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said,“This is truly the Prophet.”
Others said, “This is the Christ.”
But others said, “The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he?
Does not Scripture say that the Christ will be of David’s family
and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”
So a division occurred in the crowd because of him.
Some of them even wanted to arrest him,
but no one laid hands on him.
So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees,
who asked them, “Why did you not bring him?”
The guards answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.”
So the Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived?
Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him?
But this crowd, which does not know the law, is accursed.”
Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them,
“Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him
and finds out what he is doing?”
They answered and said to him,
“You are not from Galilee also, are you?
Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee.”
Then each went to his own house.
IN THE NICK OF TIME?
"One of their own number, Nicodemus (the man who had come to Him), spoke up to say, 'Since when does our law condemn any man without first hearing him and knowing the facts?' " –John 7:50-51
In John's Gospel, Nicodemus is introduced as "a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin" who came to Jesus at night (Jn 3:1-2). Later, Nicodemus is referred to more briefly and discreetly as "the man who had come to [Jesus]" (Jn 7:50). After Jesus' death, Nicodemus came to bury Jesus and is again referred to as "the man who had first come to Jesus at night" (Jn 19:39).
The bad news about Nicodemus was that he was a coward. He was silenced by the taunts of the Pharisees (see Jn 7:52). He was not at Jesus' cross but came "afterward" with Joseph of Arimathea to take away the dead body of Jesus (Jn 19:38-39). John may have been including Nicodemus when he said: "There were many, even among the Sanhedrin, who believed in Him; but they refused to admit it because of the Pharisees, for fear they might be ejected from the synagogue. They preferred the praise of men to the glory of God" (Jn 12:42-43).
The good news about Nicodemus was that he probably eventually did come to Jesus and was begotten from above by water and the Spirit and thereby entered God's kingdom (Jn 3:3, 5). Nicodemus' extravagance in providing a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes with which to bury Jesus, a huge quantity worthy of royalty, may be an indication not only of Nicodemus' guilt but also of his conversion (Jn 19:39).
Be a Nicodemus. Give your life totally to Jesus. Don't be a Nicodemus. Give your life to Jesus right now.
| PRAYER: | Jesus, I come to You by night and by day. I come to You always. |
| PROMISE: | "O Lord, my God, in You I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers and rescue me." –Ps 7:2 |
| PRAISE: | Tom's parents never cease praying in confidence for their son's return to the Faith of his childhood. |
|
No comments:
Post a Comment