THE WORD
Jer 20,10-13 / Jn 10,31-42
The Jews again picked up rocks to stone him. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?” The Jews answered him, “We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy. You, a man, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize (and understand) that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Then they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power. He went back across the Jordan to the place where John rst baptized, and there he remained. Many came to him and said, “John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true.” And many there began to believe in him.
IN OTHER WORDS
What would happen if the Lord JESUS were to appear again this time and did all the things that he had used to do like, heal the sick, forgive sinners, raise the dead, call for repentance, and preach in the name of his Father in Heaven? How would we welcome him? What kind of reception would he receive from us?
Hopefully, we would not be treating HIM in the way he was received by the people during his time. In today’s gospel, we read a line that is sad and ugly, and it says: “the Jews again picked up rocks to stone him.” What a cruel way to welcome the Lord in their place.
We must remember however that to stone a person was not something unheard of during that time. We all know the story about the woman who was about to be stoned for her adulterous affair. If not for the intervention of JESUS, she would have died under the mounds of stones.
A civilized society like ours doesn’t resort to stoning to express our anger, hostility or punishment on somebody. We have our laws to take care of that. The few times that we probably remember picking up a rock was to stone unfriendly dogs from approaching us. But surely never have we been so cruel and inhuman to pick up rocks to stone people, especially those who have not done us any wrong.
But why did it happen, of all people, to JESUS our Lord? The story of today’s gospel tells us the reason – JESUS was being accused of blasphemy, of speaking about himself as the Begotten Son of God sent to preach and to bring God’s word to them. Were they right to accuse him?
The people were wrong. They simply refused to recognize and to acknowledge that JESUS was indeed the Lord and Savior. If there were persons who were guilty to be stoned, they should be the same crowd for their “hearts are hardened like stones” incapable of repentance and acceptance of JESUS in their lives. We could be like them too.
We may not be “stoning” JESUS in the real sense, but we can stone him if we are not moved to mercy and compassion to extend our hands and hearts to people who are less fortunate than ourselves.
Our heart is like a stone if we continue to neglect our prayer life and fail to participate in the
Eucharist especially on Sunday.
Today, we are invited to look into the state of our hearts. What kind of hearts do we have today in relation to God and faith? Is it so hard that we cannot move it to welcome our Lord JESUS in our lives? Or is it rather tender and loving that we can easily allow our Lord to enter and stay with it?
Let us remember that if we cannot do something to make our hearts open and available for the Lord, then, sadly, if we are part of the crowd that was picking up rocks to stone JESUS. I hope and pray that this might not be the case.
- Fr. Gerry Donato, SVD | DWS, Tagaytay City
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
