THE LORD'S TIME

The theme of our meditation today is: The Lord's Time. Soon we will celebrate the holy week. It's about one week from now. The passion and death of Jesus Christ is the ultimate experience of His suffering. In anticipating this great celebration, we encounter the days that precede, including today, filled with various difficulties befalling on Jesus. The threats were truly real, direct, and certain for Him. He was on the verge of persecution.

Long before the real experience of Jesus Christ, the book of Wisdom already decescribed such persecution which was eventually realized in Jesus Christ. He said: Come, we try him with persecution and torture, so that we know the gentleness and patience of his heart. Let us condemn him to death, because according to him he must have received help (Wis 2, 19-20). The Gospel of John that we have just heard reaffirms the described persecution by saying: The Pharisees tried to arrest Jesus but no one touched Him, because His time had not yet come (Jn 7.30).

His time had not yet come because it should had depended entirely on the Father's Will. Holy Thursday night and Good Friday had not yet arrived. All of us and everyone are subject to this particular time limit. All of us must respect the important aspects to be happened in this time of the Lord Jesus Christ. Although the waves of anger, jealousy, hatred, and violence from His opponents seemed unchallenged, they were obliged to restrain. Even though man's will is very strong, God has the power to determine the time for His Will to happen.

What does it mean the imminent persecution of Jesus Christ? First we interpret it with our response "Amen". We accept this reality and believe it as a way of fulfilling the Father's will on the part of Jesus, and as the content of our faith. In the prayer of "I Believe" we express our faith by saying: He who suffered under the Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. We agree and accept this evil treatment towards Jesus which means we also accept the Lord's teaching and invitation to follow Him in every moment of suffering that we face in our lives.

We also interpret it as our act of faith, which means without fear and doubt we continue to maintain the truth and wisdom in our faith responsibility to take part in God's work. Usually the temptation for those who are in a situation of suffering and persecution is fear and eventually surrender to the influence of the tempter. This is what an authentic follower of Christ should not do. In an imminent trial or persecution we do have courage to cry out: our courage and willingness to face is only for the sake of our participation in the way of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Let's pray. In the name of the Father ... O merciful Father in heaven, strengthen us always especially when we are in the midst of suffering and persecution, so that we remain always in Your way. Our Father who art in heaven... In the name of the Father ...