Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent
April 9, 2011
To see the readings, click here:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/040911.shtml
We are drawing closer to the end of Lent, and the gospel readings begin to take a darker turn. The meat of today's lessson is that those who had listened to Jesus speak believed that he was the Christ, but that the learned men, who had not heard him speak, scoffed because he did not meet their expectation of what the Messiah would be like.
If there is one thing that seems consistent in the Hebrew scriptures and then even more so in the New Testament, it is that God works in unexpected ways. Our God chooses an old man and his old, barren wife to be the progenitors of a great nation. In last Sunday's reading, he says he is going to anoint one of Jesse's sons and then rejects all that are brought before him, waiting for the one too young to be considered. In his parables, a priest walks by one in need without helping but a Samaritan turns out to do good.
Raised as Christians, hearing these lessons year after year, I think we tend to settle into a position of contempt for the Pharisees for their pig-headedness. After all, we know how the story ends. But when I set that aside, I find I can rather relate to them. Personally, I'm prone to one-track thinking. I like things neat and orderly, I like to know what's coming next, and I find things that upset the applecart very disturbing.
People who know me know that my son is nearing the end of his junior year of high school, and we've been college shopping. They also know that my son doesn't fit the mold of a perfect little college prep kid. As my husband puts it, "he not only marches to a different drummer, he sambas." So as we visit colleges and talk about the future, I am trying to get my head around the idea that he probably will not just go off to school for four years, bring home good grades and pretty co-eds, and proceed in an orderly manner into a career. I have to anticipate that his road will be more circuitous, and I'm trying to prepare myself for that eventuality. But at some primal level, I really get that feeling the Pharisees have in this story of, "That's not how it's
supposed to work, not what I've prepared for, and it scares me!"
Of course, we all know that from here, the Pharisees and scribes turn even darker, and eventually bring about Jesus' death. We are getting into the part of Lent that can't be avoided, but is tough to live through every time.
Father, thank you for sending your son and shaking up the established ways so that we might be saved. Help us to strive every day to be more open to your will no matter what form it takes and to go where you would send us. Strengthen us for this final leg of the Lenten journey and help us to walk even closer with you. Amen
