27/03/2026

Friday Lent Week 5

In Tuesday's Gospel Jesus was confronted by men who had devoted their whole lives to doing the will of God that was revealed to them in the, at that time, incomplete Bible, the texts that recalled the experiences and words of the Patriarchs and Prophets. They were not "evil" but, although confident and sincere in their own belief, they were intrigued by the "something greater" that was the charisma that had attracted many of their contemporaries to follow Jesus.

Similarly today Jesus has to face up to sincere believers who have become so frustrated by the obvious dichotomy between the reality of his person, words and deeds and their unwillingness to accept that they were in truly in the presence of the "something greater" that was always "here" with Jesus. 

On Tuesday their frustration was so great that it seethed into anger and they picked up rocks to hurl at the "Blasphemer". Today they want to arrest him.

For more than three thousand years the people of God have been guided as to how to do God's will on earth; to cooperate with Our Father and live righteously. Our Bible, however, is filled with violence and although we are told "thou shalt not kill" there have always been thousands of us who have accepted the concept of a "Just War" and point to God's support of Israel and Judea in their Old Testament wars.

There is nothing at all about the motives of all the combatants in any of the Middle-East Wars of my lifetime, that are continuing even as I type this, that could be considered to be just. The originating act of partition by the representatives of Britain and France was the morally unjustifiable arrogance of the victors who emerged from the Great War, which itself was one of the long line of failures to  learn from the great reset of revelation that was concluded on Calvary.

Jesus died for our sins to enable us to do on earth the will of Our Father in Heaven. During his trial he declared "My kingdom is not of this world". We have never even tried to implement this and have actually often defied him by claiming that our killing of enemies was done in his name.

Can God really want us to avoid protecting our loved ones? Jesus accepted death on the cross that we might be loosed of our sins. His death is perfect Love. 

"There is no greater love than that a man die for the sake of his friends". 

It is not an easy task to think these thoughts and write them down but it is certainly much harder to be faced with a deadly attack. I have always been protected from that terrifying experience and can only thank God for never having been truly tested by anything remotely resembling combat.

Dear Lord, help me to grow in Faith and to do your will by avoiding my personal sins and placing all my trust in being able to participate in your Church of Love, the New Holy Family you created and bequeathed to all mankind as you hung, dying on the cross.

"Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother."