Word of the day

A reading from the Book of Wisdom
Wis 2:1a, 12-22

The wicked said among themselves,
thinking not aright:
"Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us;
he sets himself against our doings,
Reproaches us for transgressions of the law
and charges us with violations of our training.
He professes to have knowledge of God
and styles himself a child of the LORD.
To us he is the censure of our thoughts;
merely to see him is a hardship for us,
Because his life is not like that of others,
and different are his ways.
He judges us debased;
he holds aloof from our paths as from things impure.
He calls blest the destiny of the just
and boasts that God is his Father.
Let us see whether his words be true;
let us find out what will happen to him.
For if the just one be the son of God, he will defend him
and deliver him from the hand of his foes.
With revilement and torture let us put him to the test
that we may have proof of his gentleness
and try his patience.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death;
for according to his own words, God will take care of him."
These were their thoughts, but they erred;
for their wickedness blinded them,
and they knew not the hidden counsels of God;
neither did they count on a recompense of holiness
nor discern the innocent souls' reward.

From the Gospel according to John
Jn 7:1-2, 10, 25-30

Jesus moved about within Galilee;
he did not wish to travel in Judea,
because the Jews were trying to kill him.
But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near.

But when his brothers had gone up to the feast,
he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.

Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said,
"Is he not the one they are trying to kill?
And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him.
Could the authorities have realized that he is the Christ?
But we know where he is from.
When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from."
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.

This prophecy is too detailed. This plan of action of these wicked people is truly one detail after another. It does not spare anything. Let us put Him to the test with violence and torments, and try His spirit of gentleness… Let us sneak up on Him… Let us lay a trap for Him [to see] if He falls… This is not simple hatred. This is not a plan of action that is bad – certainly – of one party against another. This is something else. This is called hounding: when the demon, who is always behind every type of hounding, seeks to destroy and does not spare any means. (…) And what should one do in the moment of being hounded? There are two things to be done: to dialogue with these people is not possible because they have their own ideas, fixed ideas, which the devil has sown in their hearts. We have heard what their plan of action is. What can one do? What Jesus did: remain silent. It is striking when we read in the Gospel that before all of these accusations, to all these things, Jesus was silent. In the face of the hounding spirit, only silence, never justification. Jesus spoke, He explained. When He understood that there were no words, silence. And in silence, Jesus lived His passion. It is the silence of the just one in the face of dogged fury. This is valid even for – we can say – the little, everyday types of hounding, when someone thinks someone might be talking behind his or her back, they say things and then nothing comes out in the open… stay silent. Silence. Endure and tolerate the hounding of gossip. Gossip is even a form of hounding, social hounding. It is a type of hounding that is not as strong as this, but it is hounding to destroy the other because the person is a disturbance, a nuisance.

Let us ask the Lord for the grace to fight against the evil spirit, to dialogue when we need to dialogue, but before the spirit of hounding, to have the courage to remain silent and allow the others to speak. (Santa Marta, 27 March 2020)