16/03/2024

Today the Pharisees, who confronted Our Lord as soon as it became apparent from the miracles he had performed; the public discussions that always showed him to be as learned as they were; fearlessness with which he "blasphemed" ( "Your sins are forgiven" "My father") and now the clamouring of the people, who were becoming sure that Jesus was something more than a wandering Rabbi, in the Temple, have to do something as they know now that the "holiness of the Law" was being seriously challenged.

We know that Jesus did not challenge the Law revealed to Moses. He only opened our eyes to the weakness of  his contemporaries' and their forefathers' interpretation of it. They knew the scriptures and had been happy to devote their time on Earth to the meticulous pursuit of "Righteousness"  and to instruct and control the "rabble" who are murmuring against them and are who are, in any case, "damned".

Nicodemus had learned from his personal meeting that Jesus was someone greater than he had ever encountered and had begun to look on him with the eyes of Faith. He cautions against rash action, but the other priests and scribes in their impotent frustration are beginning to attack the person of the man for they cannot counter his growing influence in any other way.

Most of us are prejudiced in some way. First of all we love our own families and want to do good for them. In the world this natural favouring is called "nepotism" and often condemned but never eradicated. We have all come to demand laws to protect us so that the wealth which we cannot take with us is retained according to our wishes. Today if they want to shut out a fair comment about politics our opponents sooner or later try to silence us with cries of "Anti- Feminism", "Anti-Semitism", "Racism".

For the Pharisees the one sure way of winning approval for their opinion was to shout "Blasphemy" and prove it out of the mouth of the one they had accused. The beginning of this process directed against Jesus is remembered by John in this morning's Gospel.

Dear Lord, You know that I see most of the Orders of Clergy active today as lacking in some way. You too advised your followers to listen to the words of the Pharisees but avoid following their deeds. You know that the start of this day has been based on the scriptures chosen by the Institutional Church and that I have been moved by them to seek a sincere understanding of what you faced there in Palestine 2000 years ago. You were a Galilean and of the House of David but your message and your grace is for all mankind and for the creation that we are  the apex. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are only Love without the slightest wish for harm to anyone. We form a body with Mary, Theotokos,  with you as our head and we can pray that for ourselves and each other that all our members living and dead remain within your Love. Amen.