The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus. Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?” ( Jn 10:31-32).
God is good all the time.
Today's readings make me realize how lonely it can feel to be a good Christian in our world. When we decide to remain faithful to the Lord and be obedient to him, persecution and rejection await us; often, friends and people we know are those who make us feel lonely because we choose not to side with them or abide where they abide.
As the Jews in the gospel wanted to stone Jesus, he asked them: I
have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me? True, it was not only because they found it hard to see Jesus as son of God that they attacked him, but also because their hearts were full of stones.
Several times do we hear from the bible how God promised to remove their hearts of stones( Cf. Ezekiel 36:26) and give them the heart of fresh, but they refused. The result is that they could no longer distinguish between what was holy from unholy.
Their failure to recognize Jesus as the son of God made them want to stone him.
If we have stony hearts, it is easy for us to stone Jesus often in his brothers and sisters who are faithful and obedient or weak.
Choosing to obey the Lord without compromising with the world may seem awkward to the world. Jeremiah felt uncomfortably rejected even by his own friends, who scorned him because he spoke truth to power. But his victory and vindication came from the Lord.
Being faithful to our faith can make us feel awkward, but we should remember that it is never embarrassing to abide with the Lord instead of the world. It is never uncomfortable to be faithful and proud of your faith and defend it, and you are never lonely, for the Holy Spirit is with you.
Prayer blessings: May the heavenly father give us the grace and courage to be steadfast in our faith and defend what we have received as uncompromising truth. Amen.