Verse 22 of the Gospel today reports: “All spoke highly of him and were amazed at his gracious words.”
And only six verses later (Verses 28 and 29): “They were all filled with fury, rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of a hill … to hurl him down [that is, to kill him].”
+ How is it that people can be so fickle? One minute amazed and loving what they hear, and the next, furious and ready to kill?
Are we “humans” really like that? Is that what “humans” actually do?
What would we call that kind of behavior from “humans”? Is it sinful? Is it living a lie? And would we dare say that we love God and then treat a neighbor like that?
Oh yes! Oh yes, indeed! We cannot. We dare not. We must not be the liars that John describes today. We must integrate, and eat, consume, be filled with, and take into us and be transformed by the word.
The word that was with and is God — the Christ.
Doesn’t he teach love? Has not our God been identified as love?
When we love, do we not have our God within us, and are we not dwelling with and in our God and our God within us?
The Epiphany — or manifestation of God dwelling within us — is that we, somehow, begin to look like or sound like or live like the God of love.
So, like John, we could ask our God: “What do you want us to do? How do you want us to live? What do you ‘command’ of us?”
And we would surely hear the same response that John heard: “This is the commandment we have from Him [God]. Whoever loves God must also love his brother [sister].”
Amen!
Did you hear that, Washington, D.C.?
Father Perry D. Leiker is the 14th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com. Follow Father Perry on Twitter: @MrDeano76.
