CHRIST DIES IN EVERY JUST MAN

SATURDAY, FOURTH WEEK OF LENT

Jer 11:18-20; Ps 7:2-3,9-12; Jn 7:40-52

Christ in Us, the Hope of Glory

The paschal mysteries, which we have explained as the mystery of Jesus Christ, are indeed profound. They draw from the very depth of God’s will, which is an unfathomable abyss of goodness for us. Because God is our creator, his intention for making us sits deep within each person he created as the source of our being. Because he made us for himself, there is a deep yearning for God within us, which no creature can ever satisfy. On the other hand, erected within the consciousness of sinful man, is a tendency to self. The tendency is a negative or corrupted desire for God that turns to seek self in place of God. It is a device of the evil one, who erected this false god in the consciousness of man by casting doubt on the word of God, thereby closing the entrance of the word of God into the human soul. The conflict between these two centres of desire in us characterises the paschal mysteries. Jesus Christ, the Eternal Word, illuminates these mysteries by his life, for they attain their end in him. Since the negative desire and its working is constituted by the absence of the word of God, it is clarified and terminated by pure and complete illumination of divine Light.

Proceeding from this understanding, we see that every man shares in the paschal mysteries because he shares in the Son of Man by his nature as man. Thus, sin and evil imprison Jesus Christ in every man overrun by evil desires and works of darkness. Through those they have overrun, the forces of darkness and evil carry out their work of destruction and propagate their seed of sin and death. The primary desire of the evil one and his cohort is to imprison the image of Christ in us, set up self to rule as his vassal, and coopt us into his workforce. When this fails, he carries out physical attacks and execution of the just man. So, forces of evil attack the Son of Man in every just man, through whom God brings about his reign. Hence, God guards his Son in guarding the path of the righteous man. Jeremiah witnesses this: “The Lord revealed it to me; I was warned. O Lord, that was when you opened my eyes to their scheming. I for my part was like a trustful lamb being led to the slaughter-house, not knowing the schemes they were plotting against me, ‘Let us destroy the tree in its strength, let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name may be quickly forgotten!’” It is ultimately the name of Jesus Christ that the evil one desires to eliminate from the land of the living. He achieves this in us when he removes the name of Jesus Christ from our mouths, minds, and hearts.

Answering our prayer for deliverance from evil and evil people, God does not treat the evil people as evil but as people in whom his Son is imprisoned. The desire and care of God is to liberate his Son imprisoned in the sinful souls, thereby achieving the salvation of these children of his. Our misunderstanding of the situation of Jesus Christ in sinners causes us to pray wrongly often. Jeremiah prayed like us: “But you, the Lord of Hosts, who pronounce a just sentence, who probe the loins and heart, let me see the vengeance you will take on them, for I have committed my cause to you.” The mission of the Eternal Word in his humanity is to clear the doubt which remains in every sinner and liberate the Son of Man in each. We see different levels of doubt in those who listened to him in the gospel, for some said: “‘Surely he must be the prophet’, and some said, ‘He is the Christ’, but others said, ‘Would the Christ be from Galilee? Does not scripture say that the Christ must be descended from David and come from the town of Bethlehem?’ So the people could not agree about him.” Our vocation, as Christians, is to know Jesus Christ without doubting his identity and origin. He is ‘Immanuel’, ‘God-with-us.’ We have the mission to speak about him convincingly through our lives and words. Let us offer our paschal mysteries in union with Jesus Christ to the Father for the salvation of souls.

Let us pray: May the working of your mercy, O Lord, we pray, direct our hearts aright, for without your grace we cannot find favour in your sight. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.