It is
Saturday, in the West the Octave of His Glorious Resurrection, so we continue
to pray in the Roman Canon: …..celebrating
this most sacred day…..and in the East this is Bright Saturday. This morning, there is a heavy spring snowstorm.
The light reflecting off the new fallen snow makes is bright indeed, while our
brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka bear the burden of such danger all Holy
Masses, including for Divine Mercy Sunday, have been canceled.
We
experience the power of created light overcoming darkness because the moon and
stars illumine the night. Human ingenuity over the millennia – from fire to oil
lamps to gaslights to electric lights, along the streets, in homes, fractures
the darkness.
All
those: sun, moon, stars, human made sources of light, are as feeble and as
translucent as a single drop of water.
The
True Light, the Real Light, the Powerful Light, uncreated, always existing,
always ‘is’: infinite of infinite, translucent, as solid as rock.
Light
as we experience it is a result of something which still eludes physicists. The
theory is light comes from created energy know on electromagnetic spectrum and
photons, known also as light quantum. Man-made sources of light are as numerous
as that radiating from a camp fire to electricity firing up a light bulb.
Light, not having mass per se has no weight!
Only
one Light, the real Light, is not composed of anything, has not, for want of a
better expression an ‘external’ source, but simply IS, and is not as a
‘something’, but as SOMEONE, God, the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
Thus we
pray in the Nicene Creed:…..God from God,
Light from Light, true God from true God.
St. John in his Prologue, speaking of Jesus, affirms the truth that: What came to be through Him was life, and
this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it. [Jn. 1:3-5]
In
Genesis 1:3,4:….. God said: Let there be
light, and there was light. God saw that the light was good. God then separated
the light from the darkness.
It is
critical we never forget we have been created to dwell in light, not darkness.
In hell
there is no light.
Satan
does not radiate light; he only brings darkness. Which is why St. John
specifically notes, as Judas leaves the Last supper to do his dark deed: And it was night. [13.30] Satan cannot
enlighten anyone. He only darkens.
Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I
am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but
will have the light of life.” [v.12]
During
the Exodus the chosen people were led, illumined, at night, by the pillar of
fire. During the feast of the Tabernacles in the temple, huge candelabra were
lit to remind the people of God as light, their, and yes our, light. During the
time Simeon held Jesus, held Light Himself, in his arms, Simeon prophesied that
Jesus would become a light to the entire world. [cf. Lk. 2:32].
Commenting
that Jesus declared Himself, while in the ‘full glare’ of the burning
candelabra, to be the light of the world, the Ven. Archbishop Sheen also notes
that: He who was standing in the temple
in which the lights were gradually dimming proclaimed Himself the Light of the
World….He affirmed that He is the Glory and the Light of that Temple. He was
declaring Himself more necessary for the life of souls than the light of the
sun is for the life of our body. It was not His doctrine, nor His law, nor His
commandments, nor His teaching, that constituted this light; it was His Person. [cf. Life of Christ,
Fulton J. Sheen, pp.179/80; Image Books, 1990].
Essential
to experiencing the life-giving power of Christ as Light is to follow Him, be
His disciple.
It is a
matter not only of ascent of our wills saying Jesus is our Light, but of the
daily nitty-gritty of choosing, through living the Gospel with our lives
without compromise, to walk only in the light of Christ, following in His
footsteps.
Deviation
from such following, stepping off the illumined path, is to choose to walk in
darkness.
A most
hazardous choice which can imperil our very souls, risking our plunging into
the abyss of an eternity of dark fire.
So the Pharisees said to him, “You
testify on Your own behalf, so Your testimony cannot be verified.” [v.13]
It is
indeed pathetic that these men who claimed to be experts in the Scripture,
certainly they knew the law about two witnesses, [cf. Deut. 17:6],
deliberately, consistently close their hearts to everything in the Scriptures
pointing to the Messiah, to Jesus Himself.
It is
also the choice, right there in the presence of the Life-Giving Light Himself,
to stay in the cold darkness of pride and hate.
What
also leaps from this encounter is Christ’s patience with them, patience which
flows from His merciful and loving Heart:
Jesus answered and said to them,
“Even if I do testify on My own behalf, My testimony can be verified, because I
know where I came from and where I am going. [v.14]
Just as
the illuminating and comforting pillar of fire led the Chosen People through
the desert, so the Hebrew Scriptures were an illumination about the promised
Redeemer, which is precisely why Jesus can speak truth to the Pharisees that
indeed His testimony can be verified.
A
profound truth in Jesus’s assertion He knows where He came from and where He is
going, is a type of ‘I am’ statement, for every time Jesus says ‘I am’ He is
affirming His divinity.
Likely
it shook the Pharisees to the very core, yet that core, i.e. their consciences,
was engulfed in the clammy darkness of refusing not only light, but Light
Himself.
But you do not know where I come from
or where I am going. [14.cont.]
In the
Roman Rite for the ordination of a deacon there is a point where the bishop
hands the deacon a copy of the Holy Gospels and, as the ordinand and bishop
both hold the book at the same time the bishop, among other words says: Believe what you read, teach what you
believe, and practice what you teach.
If the
Pharisees truly believed what they read, taught only what they believed, and
lived what they preached, Jesus would not have had to constantly challenge
their lack of fidelity to the very faith and Scriptures they constantly
asserted they knew better than anyone.
You judge by appearances, but I do not
judge anyone. [v.15]
Since St. John began this section with the reference of Jesus speaking ‘to them
again’, it may well be that some of them would have known the truth that Jesus
did not condemn the woman caught in adultery. Perhaps they had been there, left
and then come to the Temple.
And even if I should judge, My judgment
is valid, because I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me. [v.16]
Real
judgement of human beings, in the reality of salvation, is of the Divine. Jesus
asserts His judgement is valid because it is enacted in union with the Father.
Each Person of the Holy Trinity is distinct, yet not, in the poverty of human
language, ‘separate’, but mysteriously one as God: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
This is the mystery of One God, Three Divine Persons. Every divine act is
Trinitarian.
Again,
the ‘I am’ is a statement of the other great mystery of faith: the Incarnation,
that is the one person Jesus, within whom co-exist the two natures: the Divine
and the human. Jesus here is urging His hearers to embrace the truth that as
man, He does not judge, but as God He rightly does so. Also, Jesus is once
again referencing the Law about witnesses: Even
in your law it is written that the testimony of two men can be verified. I
testify on My behalf and so does the Father who sent Me.” [vs. 17,18]
Once
more our Most Gracious Lord, the patient one, the Teacher, is giving them the
opportunity to step out of the darkness into the light.
© 2019
Fr. Arthur Joseph
While
every Sunday is a ‘Little Easter’, today is Pascha, the day of Jesus’ Holy
Resurrection, the day, in matins of the Orthodox, the Eastern lung of the
Church – for we must always breathe with both the Eastern and Western lungs of
the Church – we pray: It is the day of
the Resurrection, let us be radiant for the feast, and let us embrace one
another. Let us say, Brothers, even to those who hate us, let us forgive all
things on the Resurrection, and thus let us cry out: Christ is Risen from the
dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs lavishing
life.
With
the Sequence in Holy Mass this morning the Church in the West proclaims: Christ the just one paid the price,
reconciling sinners to the Father.
Not
every human being is baptized, filled with the radiance of Christ Risen. We who
are, are mandated by baptism to radiate Christ to everyone.
Billions
of our brothers and sisters, some unknowingly, are still on a hungry journey in
search of Christ our life.
Some,
however, perhaps in ignorance, perhaps not, give themselves over to the cold,
hate-filled darkness of satan, and horrific acts of evil against other human
beings result.
No one
except Christ is able see with pure eyes into the heart of someone else. We can
only observe objectively that such and such an act is an evil act.
Referring
to the violent terrorist attack against people participating in Easter Mass in
two Catholic Churches, Sunday service in an Evangelical Church, vacationing in
three hotels, all this in Sri Lanka, with hundreds dead and injured, Pope
Francis condemned the violence and added: “Before
the many sufferings of our time, may the Lord of life not find us cold and
indifferent,….May He make us builders of bridges, not walls.“
One may
well ask what is the connection between all the above and Jesus with the Woman
caught in adultery?
There
is a similarity between the hatred of those who accused her, were seeking to
kill Jesus, and what lurks in the heart of every perpetrator of terrorism.
Those
who are incapable of repentance for their own sins are not only incapable of
reconciliation with other human beings, but the poison of self-hatred, which
renders repentance impossible, keeps us in a bondage which hobbles the ability
to cooperate with the Holy Spirit and thus to live out the Great Commandment: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with
all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind…….You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.” [22:37-39]
Another
connection flows from the Resurrection of Jesus and the encounter in the Garden
of the Resurrection, between Jesus Risen and another, formerly adulterous,
repentant woman: ……she turned around and
saw Jesus there, but did not know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why
are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to Him, “Sir, if you carried
Him away, tell me where you laid Him, and I will take Him.” Jesus said to her,
“Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,” which means Teacher.
[cf. Jn. 20: 1-18]
Only by
encountering the Risen Christ, not simply in baptism but through lives that
strive to be peaceful, holy, without sin, and attentively gazing upon Jesus the
Beloved, who never takes His loving eyes away from us, will we then hear Him
speak our name, and at that moment our eyes become open to see Him, yes to see
ourselves as a real person created in the image and likeness of God.
Without
such hearing, and accepting, without such seeing and surrendering to His loving
embrace, we remain strangers to ourselves, split, bent towards self, through
sin walking, as it were, beside ourselves, and every other human being is as
unrecognizable to us as all the creatures paraded before Adam until the Lord
put him to sleep and when Adam awoke he opened his eyes, was able to see one
like himself.
Only
when we recognize every other human being as one like ourselves are, we able to
love one another, forgive one another, to see our real self, repent and forgive
ourselves.
It is
to experience the immense grace, so long as we live on this earth, in each
moment to begin again: for His merciful love, His Divine Mercy, His
radiant-healing Beauty shines upon us in every moment.
This
Risen Jesus, though not yet having suffered, died, risen, is the very Jesus
present to the woman and it is no accident how St. John phrases the beginning
of verse 10: When Jesus had raised
Himself up…..
Jesus,
loving this deeply hurt, embarrassed, frightened human being spoke “Woman” with
tenderness, love, respect, the way we should speak the name of any person or
group for everyone is a brother, a sister, even if we have not , or will never,
on this earth, meet them face to face.
V. 10
cont.: ….and said to her, “Woman, where
are they? Has no one condemned you?”
Jesus
knew full well where they were, like most predators in the animal kingdom, and
most human beings given over to crime, hiding away from daylight, more deeply,
trying to hide away from Christ our Light, from whom no one can hide.
Jesus
is comforting this frightened woman through His question assuring her she is
now safe from harm.
She replied, “No one, sir.” [v.11]
We,
through baptism, have the power to lift the burden of condemnation off the
backs of those who sin against us by being Christ-like forgivers of others.
Imagine
the relief beginning to pour into this woman’s life as she realized those who
had condemned her and were prepared to murder her were gone!
V.11
cont.: Then Jesus said, “Neither do I
condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”
While
it is true, as sung in this morning’s Holy Mass in the sequence: Christ the just one paid the price,
reconciling sinners to the Father., to participate in this reconciliation
we must have truly contrite and repentant hearts, compassionate and forgiving
hearts for others AND avoid further sin.
That
latter may seem as a sort of moving horizon goal for most of us, nonetheless it
is something which, constantly asking the help of the Most Holy Spirit, we must
always work towards and if we fall then go to, rejoice in, the grace of
sacramental confession-reconciliation, resuming the journey in the Light of,
and walking with, Jesus Risen.
Walking
with open, humble, honest, yes often with wounded, confused hearts, with Jesus
Risen, like the Emmaus disciples we within, the journey, when He speaks and
enlightens all we have spoken of, encounter Jesus glorified in the Holy
Eucharist wherein He feeds and strengthen us with Himself.
The
more we strive to be faithful disciples the more we will radiate the Light of
Christ Risen and the less hatred and violence there will be within the human
family.
© 2019
Fr. Arthur Joseph
And everyone went to his own house. [7:53] There is a suddenness to this
simple line. Clearly after the long back and forth between Jesus and the crowd,
the crowd amongst it self, they were either exhausted and out of argument, or
perhaps simply having much to ponder, either way it is a rather abrupt moment. It
also is reminiscent of St. Luke’s words after Christ has died on the cross: When all the people who had gathered for this spectacle saw
what had happened, they returned home beating their breasts…..[23:48]
This
evening we cross the threshold into Holy Week and, revealing his profound
understanding of Divine Mercy, which we are about to witness in chapter 8 of
the Holy Gospel according to St. John, St. Gregory Nazianzen urges us: If you are a Simon of Cyrene, take up your
cross and follow Christ. If you are crucified beside Him like one of the
thieves, now, like a good thief, acknowledge your God. For your sake, and
because of your sin, Christ Himself was regarded as a sinner; for His sake,
therefore you must cease to sin.
But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
[8:1]
The
very name of the place, Mount of Olives, refers to a place which is an
important one in salvation history: As
David went up the ascent of the Mount of Olives, he wept without ceasing. [2
Sam.15:30]; On that day God’s feet will stand on the Mount of
Olives….[Zec.14:4]; When they drew near Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the
Mount of Olives…[Mt.21:1]; As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the
disciples approached Him privately and said, “Tell us, when will this happen,
and what sign will there be of your coming, and of the end of the age?”
[Mt.24:3]; As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple
area…[Mk. 13:3]; As He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany at the place called
the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples.[Lk.19:29]; During the day,
Jesus was teaching in the temple area, but at night He would leave and stay at
the place called the Mount of Olives.[Lk.21:37]; Then going out He went, as was
His custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him. [Lk.22:39]
Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near
Jerusalem, a sabbath day’s journey away. [Acts 1:12]
The
above passages link the Mount with the promises of a Redeemer, Jesus, and with
the constant communion in love and prayer between Jesus and the Father, the
entry into Jerusalem the week of His Passion, the place of the agony in the
Garden and the Ascension of Jesus. But
early in the morning He arrived again in the temple area, and all the people
started coming to Him, and He sat down and taught them. [v.2]
There
is here a statement of both ordinariness in the life of Jesus and of
fearlessness. He knew the Pharisees hated Him, were constantly seeking ways to
trap Him that they might eventually kill Him. St. John now presents us with one
of these traps, particularly vile because the evil men use a vulnerable human
being, a woman, to set the trap.
Then the scribes and the Pharisees
brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and
made her stand in the middle. [v.3]
How
could they have possibly caught her? Clearly either she was a known prostitute
and they had the police arrest her, or some neighbour spied upon her, or some
wife whose husband was having an affair with her reported her, however it
happened no mention is made of the man who was complicit in this. Perhaps he
was the one who denounced her and struck a deal to save himself.
The
evil behind what the scribes and pharisees is about should not be ignored,
because it goes to the heart of what Jesus will say shortly as a challenge to
anyone who would judge or condemn another human being, either in our hearts,
thoughts, or by some external action.
Interior
judging of others quickly morphs into anger and anger devours both the angry
person and everyone around them.
Love is
of Christ.
Anger
is of satan.
They said to Him, “Teacher, this woman
was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses
commanded us to stone such women. So what do You say?” [v4,5]
Their
sneers and disdain for the woman, their hatred of Christ, wafts across the ages
as a stink that hangs in the air. This too oozes from anyone who disdains
another human being.
They said this to test Him, so that
they could have some charge to bring against Him. [v.6]
There
is a way human beings, with crafty questioning, test others regarding their
faith, political alliance, race, and so forth, to be sure they are ‘one of us’.
To do
so is to test Christ Himself.
Jesus bent down and began to write on
the ground with his finger. [v. 6 cont.]
Nowhere
else in the Gospel accounts is mention made of Jesus writing.
Scholars
have speculated for millennia as to what Christ might have written since St.
John does not say. Clearly whatever He wrote was not considered by St. John as important
as what Jesus says and does.
But when they continued asking Him, He
straightened up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be
the first to throw a stone at her.” [v.7]
Jesus
does not enter a legal dispute with them, rather His answer implies: The hands of the witnesses shall be the
first raised to put the person to death, and afterward the hands of all the
people. [Deut.7.17]
Frankly
that makes these men, who by their very presence indicate they were witnesses,
on top
of all the other evil darkening their hearts, clearly lacking any shred of
compassion.
Again He bent down and wrote on the
ground. [v.8]
It may
appear Jesus is showing disdain by appearing to ignore them. Rather what
clearly Jesus is doing is allowing them time to be stirred in their
consciences.
It is
to be hoped that such stirring would have motivated them to compassion, but
what happens next might indicate self-preservation as clearly, if anyone of
them threw a stone, the people would have reacted, harshly no doubt, at such
blasphemous arrogance, for Jesus pointedly said only the sinless one could
throw the first stone.
And in response, they went away one by
one, beginning with the elders. So He was left alone with the woman before Him.
[v.9]
In the
pre-Vatican II ritual of prayers for souls at the hour of death, one prayer has
the line: We implore You, O Lord, do not
remember the faults of his [her]youth and his [her]ignorance…..
It is a
grace, perhaps this is what the elders experienced, to be mindful that what we
may have done out of youthful ignorance, if repeated in adulthood, is a far
heavier burden in old age.
If
graced with enough years to be an elder, our hearts, from life experience and
hopefully wisdom, should have transformed into hearts like Christ’s own.
We elders should be living icons of
compassion.
© 2019
Fr. Arthur Joseph
Even in
our day, the evil of those in power sending police to arrest dissenters is,
tragically, very common. In democratic countries where such oppression does not
happen there are still ways in which, those in power, by stirring up public
opinion, assure that people can be cowed into silence through massive pressure
from so-called voices on social media.
The Pharisees heard the crowd murmuring
about Him to this effect, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent guards
to arrest Him. [v.32]
Perhaps
the Pharisees might be given some slack if there existed any evidence their
primary concern was for the safety of the people in case Jesus was just another
person inciting rebellion against the Romans, a fool’s errand given the
military might of the Romans. However, the preponderance of the evidence is
that their main fear was losing their own power over the people, something
certain religious leaders, such as in some Muslim countries, do even today with
their ‘religious police.’
We who
live in countries with religious liberty, an aspect of human dignity and a
human right, should pray for such freedom for all our brothers and sisters,
whatever their religious belief, who live in countries where freedom is denied
them.
Vs. 33,34: So Jesus said, “I will be
with you only a little while longer, and then I will go to the one who sent Me.
You will look for Me but not find me, and where I am you cannot come.”
Not
just here but also in chapters 8:21; 13:13 & 33; 16:16 Jesus tells the
crowd and His disciples that He will be going and that they cannot follow,
because He is referring here to His passion, death, entombment, resurrection
and ascension.
Only
after Pentecost and the descent and gift of the Holy Spirit can anyone truly
follow Jesus into the depths of the Holy Gospel, into the depths of
discipleship.
Without
their knowing it the people, as they continue to discuss Jesus’ words, actually
are pointing to the future: So the Jews
said to one another, “Where is He going that we will not find Him? Surely He is
not going to the dispersion among the Greeks to teach the Greeks, is He? [v.35]
There
is a very human beauty in the somewhat anxiousness experienced when someone we
either care for or are seeking to know better seems to abruptly say they are
leaving but that we can neither know where they are going, nor follow. It is
also very human, as in their wondering if He is going off to the Greeks, to try
and figure out where is the where someone is abruptly announcing they are going
to!
The
Greeks, as Gentiles, are representative of all the peoples of the world to whom
Jesus will go/be brought by the Apostles and over the millennia by the Church
Herself.
V.36= What is the meaning of His saying, ‘You
will look for Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come’?”
In all
the back and forth between Jesus and the crowd, between those within the crowd
amongst themselves we see a fascination with Jesus, for some perhaps mere
curiosity about Him, nonetheless this back and forth allows for Jesus,
sometimes admittedly in words that are oblique, nonetheless containing deep
truth, to teach.
Vs.37=On the last and greatest day of
the feast, Jesus stood and cried out….
That
last day is the 8th day, and the 8th day is the day of
the Resurrection, the day when all things are made new, during the Christmas
and Easter octaves the Church prays ‘this IS the day’, the day of Jesus’ birth,
the day of His Holy Resurrection.
The
crying out of Jesus reveals His sense of urgency to accomplish the work of
redemption, His passionate love for us, His hunger that we would come to Him,
to the Father through Him, open ourselves to the sanctifying action of the Holy
Spirit.
Vs. 37 cont. & 38= “Let anyone who
thirsts come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as scripture says:
‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him.’”
There
are three great gifts for us in these words: 1] a reminder that Jesus is our
real bread, our real drink, cf. 6:30ff; 19:34. 2] the renewed promise of living
water first promised in 4:14; 3] living water is a gift of the Holy Spirit, and
the great sacraments of Baptism and Holy Eucharist are seen as flowing from the
Heart of Jesus to be bestowed upon us by the Holy Spirit in:.. one soldier thrust his lance into His side,
and immediately blood and water flowed out. [19:34]
V.39=He said this in reference to the
Spirit that those who came to believe in Him were to receive. There was, of
course, no Spirit yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
The ‘no
Spirit yet’ means that as yet the Holy Spirit had not come upon anyone other
than Christ Himself in the fullness of the meaning of the descent of the Holy
Spirit, indeed further on Jesus says: …..I
tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the
Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. [16:7]
Vs.40-44=Some in the crowd who heard
these words said, “This is truly the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the
Messiah.” But others said, “The Messiah will not come from Galilee, will he?
Does not scripture say that the Messiah will be of David’s family and come from
Bethlehem, the village where David lived?” So a division occurred in the crowd
because of Him. Some of them even wanted to arrest Him, but no one laid hands
on Him.
Sadly,
no matter what Jesus teaches, no matter how obvious His love for the people,
again and again their response is to argue, some asserting Jesus in indeed the
Messiah, others the opposite.
In what a chaotic situation was Jesus trying
to teach!
Yet,
within the hearts of those sent to arrest Jesus, a stirring of faith: So the officers went to the chief priests
and Pharisees, who asked them, “Why did you not bring Him?” The guards
answered, “Never before has anyone spoken like this one.” [vs.45,46]
Obviously,
these men would have heard many a false prophet, or a revolutionary, speak over
the years, as this was a time in Israel when there were many false prophets and
revolutionaries seeking to stir up the people against the Roman occupiers, thus
their astonishment at the words, if not the person, of Jesus.
Then
the arrogance and hostility, the disdain for the people, of which they were
allegedly the shepherds, the hatred for Jesus, seen as a threat to their power,
spills forth from the darkened hearts of the Pharisees: So the
Pharisees answered them, “Have you also been deceived? Have any of the
authorities or the Pharisees believed in Him? But this crowd, which does not
know the law, is accursed.” [vs.47-49]
Those
are the words of people deeply in bondage to satan, the words of people who
know, but seek to deny, what the truth is, but to accept the truth would mean
being humble, and anyone connected to satan, who is total, stupid pride, are
proud and stupid themselves.
Nicodemus,
whom St. John reminds us came to Jesus under the cover of darkness, shows a
modicum of faith, a modicum only because Nicodemus argues for Jesus in terms of
the law, not by argument from what the prophets clearly stated: Nicodemus, one of their members who came to
Jesus at night, said to them, “Does our law condemn a person before it first
hears him and finds out what he is doing?” They answered and said to him, “You
are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from
Galilee.” [v.50-52]
A
foreshadowing of Jesus’ treatment when those same self-righteous leaders will
falsely accuse, interrogate, and hand Jesus over to Pilate to be put to death.
On this
very day in countries around the world with oppressive regimes thousands of our
brothers and sisters are likewise dragged before tribunals where truth is
ignored, justice and the rule of law a farce, by imprisonment, torture,
execution, these our brothers and sisters, are, bluntly put, disposed of.
Because
He took such suffering upon Himself no one is alone in such darkness, Jesus is
right there with them.
© 2019
Fr. Arthur Joseph