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From the first reading, there is Jeremiah, who was complaining to God that each time he talked, people would dig a pit so he could be buried alive. That is Jeremiah.
It is really a struggle to come across people who will make you feel small, who will belittle you, who will say you’re a failure, who will open up all the wounds of your past that have just started to heal.
There are two lessons we can learn from that experience. Number one, the Lord allowed Himself to undergo such defenseless accusations. You remember the scourging at the pillar. You remember the crowning with thorns. You remember even the crucifixion. In all these instances, the Lord refused to defend Himself and just accepted all the attacks raised against Him.
It is very human to go to court and sue each other for libel. It is very human to spread gossip in return for gossip spread about ourselves. It is very human to stab each other in the back. But these are certainly unchristlike acts. What would be more Christ-like is to take everything as our share in the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
And for ourselves, who have been belittled by people, maligned by people, the challenge is that God is our judge, not our fellow men. The challenge for us is to believe that it is God who will bring success to all our efforts, not our fellow men. The whole world can be against us, but if God is with us, who can go against Us
We will ask the Lord to give us this grace. There will always be people who will belittle us. There will always be people who will stab us in the back. But it is for us to take revenge. It is for us to be as Christ-like as possible, as faithfully as we can. It is very human to take revenge, it is Christ-like to forgive.
FATHER, FORGIVE THEM.
Jn. 7:40-53
Only Jesus, Always Jesus
