There is something truly heartbreaking in the following words from St. John when we consider that for three years Jesus has been pouring Himself out teaching, healing, in a word loving, those to whom He has come to bring Good News of salvation and hope. Even in our own day, and if we be honest frequently in our own hearts, battered as they are by the world, the flesh and the devil, at times we too are, even if only momentarily, unbelievers even with the shining light of Christ easy to see, even with the loving words of Christ easy to hear, if we immerse ourselves daily in the Holy Gospels: Although He had performed so many signs in their presence they did not believe in Him, in order that the word which Isaiah the prophet spoke might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed our preaching, to whom has the might of the Lord been revealed?” [vs.37,38]
Fulton
Sheen teaches succinctly: No one can remain indifferent once he has met Him.
He remains the perpetual element in the character of every hearer…..Whether one
believes or disbelieves Him, one is never the same afterward. [1]
For
this reason they could not believe, because again Isaiah said: “He blinded
their eyes and hardened their heart, so that they might not see with their eyes
and understand with their heart and be converted, and I would heal them.” [vs.
39,40]
In
words such as those from Isaiah, and some of Christ’s as well, we confront the
fact that while it appears God’s action is contradictory to the call to
conversion and faith, yet it is not that God deliberately blinds us or hardens
our hearts, rather, because He lovingly creates us with free will, He does not
interfere with the choice we have made to not see, not hear, to harden our hearts
and not accept the truth right in front of us, someone who loves us and seeks
to free, heal, redeem us: Jesus Christ.
Isaiah
said this because He saw His glory and spoke about Him. [v.41] The book of Isaiah in the Old
Testament points towards Christ in many passages, in particular in chapter 53
revealing the glory of Jesus the Suffering Servant.
Nevertheless,
many, even among the authorities, believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees
they did not acknowledge it openly in order not to be expelled from the
synagogue. For they preferred human praise to the glory of God. [42,43]
Among
the numerous disruptions of daily life in this pandemic is the obvious
acceleration and deepening of secularization and with that comes the increase
of knee-jerk, rash, hateful judgement of others expressed around the world
through violence against women, children, Christians.
When
contemplating the Holy Gospel, it is critical we not allow satan to tempt us to
rashly judge those who refuse, then or now, to accept Christ, His love, His
teachings for such judging speaks to the state of our own hearts this very day
towards others.
As St.
John Paul II wrote before he became pope: When the devil says in the third
chapter of Genesis: “your eyes would open and you would become like God”, these
words express the full range of the temptation of mankind, from the intention
to set man against God to the extreme form it takes today……Perhaps we are
experiencing the highest level of tension between the Word and the anti-Word in
the whole of human history.[2]
Jesus
cried out and said, “Whoever believes in Me believes not only in Me but also in
the one who sent Me, and whoever sees Me sees the one who sent Me. I came into
the world as light, so that everyone who believes in Me might not remain in
darkness. And if anyone hears My words and does not observe them, I do not
condemn him, for I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world.
Whoever rejects Me and does not accept My words has something to judge him: the
word that I spoke, it will condemn him on the last day, because I did not speak
on My own, but the Father who sent Me commanded Me what to say and speak. And I
know that His commandment is eternal life. So what I say, I say as the Father
told Me.” [vs. 44-50]
Here
just before He enters the fulfillment of His earthly life, laying down with
love His life for us, Jesus has spoken iconic words encapsulating all His
teaching, healing, in a word His passionate love for us fulfilled in His
Passion, Death, Resurrection and gifting us with Himself in the Holy Eucharist.
[1]
LIFE OF CHRIST; Fulton Sheen; p. 273; Image Books, 1990 ~ Italics are mine
[2]
SIGN OF CONTRADICTION by Karol Wojtyla, Pope John Paul II; p. 34; The Seabury
Press, 1979; italics are mine
© 2021
Fr. Arthur Joseph
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