Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent - March 15, 2024

 Wisdom 2:1a,12-22     John 7:1-2,10,25-30

“But we know where he is from. When the Christ comes, no one will know where he is from.”

We are more than halfway through Lent, and probably not our first Lent. We know the story. We may find ourselves impatient with the critics in today’s Gospel. The ones who refuse to see Jesus’s holiness because he’s not what they expected. He’s from a known town. He’s too tall, too thin, too dark, too religious, not religious enough, not one of us; he’s just not right to be the Holy One.

“People, pay attention”: we want to say.  Listen up. The Holy One is in front of you! We are deeply convinced that in the same situation WE would have recognized His holiness. And yet, how often does goodness/holiness pass us by unrecognized? He/she is too tall, too dark, not like us, too religious, not religious enough, from another country, (and maybe not even Catholic) etc. 

In the Easter story, we know the ending. In our own lives, not so much. Do WE see the holiness of those around us? Do we listen to their words? Do we see holiness when it is before us, even when it's unexpected? In our neighbors, at the grocery store, next to us in the pew? Or do we see their otherness, focus on the ways that person is not like us; can’t possibly be holy.

This Lent (and beyond) let’s work to really see the people around us and their holiness. For by doing so, some have “entertained angels unaware” (Hebrews 13:1-3).

Q: Who have I misjudged lately? Whose holiness has surprised me? How will I reach out to them today? 

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