Tuesday, May 24, 2005
CHRIST IS RISEN!
Vincent of Lerins, Protomartyr of Spain
Kellia: Deuteronomy 3:12-20 Apostle: Acts 10:21-33 Gospel: St. John 7:1-13
St. John 7:1-13, especially vs. 12: "And there was much complaining among
the people concerning Him...." In Chapter Six of St. John's Gospel, one finds hints of growing resistance to the Lord
Jesus. Many who had been drawn to Him "went back and walked with Him no more" (Jn. 6:66). Chapter Seven opens on
the chilling note that "the Jews sought to kill Him" (vs. 7:1). The details of this emerging hatred serve as windows for
examining what leads people to oppose the Lord, His Church, and our Holy Faith. In today's reading one finds three of the
common reasons for opposition: 1) refusal to accept Jesus as God, 2) moral hostility to Him, and 3) the belief that He and
His Church are frauds.
Today's reading discloses that the Lord's relatives did not believe He was a Prophet, much less God Incarnate. "For even
His brothers did not believe in Him" (vs. 5). Similar doubt is reported by St. Matthew on the occasion when the Lord Jesus
preached in his home synagogue at Nazareth. In responding to such doubt, the Lord made His famous statement, "A
prophet is not without honor, save in his own country, and in his own house" (Mt. 13:57). Familiarity can indeed influence
some people to dismiss truths which otherwise might evoke faith in them.
St. John portrays these "brothers," relatives of Jesus' extended family, as chiding and taunting Him and His works. Their
argument followed a simple logic: "obviously you want to influence the world. So, why remain in the 'backwaters' of
Galilee. Go up to the Capital. See how you do there" (vss. 3,4). They were having trouble accepting "Cousin" Jesus even
as a Prophet, much less as God Incarnate. Of course, their doubt preceded His Crucifixion and Resurrection, for afterward
at least two of them, James and Jude, would become leaders of the Church after the Lord arose from the dead (Acts
15:13ff., Gal. 1:18,19, 1 Cor. 15:7; Jude 1).
Resistance to accepting Jesus as God Incarnate, as the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, has a long-standing history.
Early Gnostic heretics claimed that Simon of Cyrene was actually the person crucified while Christ returned to Heaven
(believing God never could become a creature in material form). Since then there have been many famous efforts to deny
Christ's Divinity: Arius, Mohamed, the Unitarians, the secular humanists of this century, and others.
A second type of opposition may be identified readily when the Lord says, "The world... hates Me because I testify of it that
its works are evil" (Jn. 7:7). The resistance to which the Lord Jesus refers is moral reaction against His demands for ethical
purity. Christ, both by His teaching and His life, goads like a thorn in sinful flesh to condemn those who oppose God's
life-giving ethical demands. Moral opposition may be either spoken or unspoken and it may take one of two forms: some
individuals know they are doing wrong, enjoy the way they live, and therefore resist changing. Others have intellectually
rejected the reality of sin and embrace an "adjustable," relative morality as more suitable to their lives, believing that it is
all right to do what one wants as long as it doesn't hurt others and one does not get caught by the law or in a social gaffe.
Finally, the reading discloses a third form of opposition to Christ: "He deceives the people" (vs. 12). Some see Christian
Faith as a total fraud, while others view it as a socially useful myth, which creates a degree of ethical restraint. Such
opponents view the Church as a moral educator, a social club, or a cultural opiate. If pressed, some of these may admit that
greater claims concerning the Lord Jesus are "useful" myths to manage the unthinking and uncritical. To the contrary, we
affirm that, since "grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (Jn. 1:17), we are to repent of all intellectual, moral, and
spiritual opposition, and seek Him in purity.
Remove from us all delusion and fill us with that faith, hope, and love which are in Thee.
