The first reading was taken from the Book of Wisdom. The longer title of the book is the Book of
the Wisdom of Solomon. Scripture
Scholars tell us that it was written in Alexandria Egypt, making it different
from the other books of the old testament, not only for where it was written,
but because of the fact it was written in Greek, rather than in Hebrew. And it
was the very last book of the Old Testament to be written, composed just about
50 years before the birth of Jesus. The theme of the book of wisdom is that
wisdom leads to life, and wickedness lead to death.
The passage this morning is taken from a section of the book
of Wisdom called “the speech of the wicked”.
This wicked person is lamenting that the wise ones, the righteous ones,
are obnoxious to their wicked way of life.
There were a number of apostate Jews in Alexandria, those
who had given up their Jewish faith in favor of the pagan practices of the
Greeks. So this passage from Wisdom presents these apostate Jews plotting
against those who had kept the faith: “Let us beset the just one, because he is
obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for
transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training.” So
here we have this wicked apostate complaining, because the just ones, remind
them of what they left when they abandoned their faith. The just ones were
making the bad guys nervous because by their good deeds they exposed the
wickedness of the apostates to be foolish. The apostates Jews in Alexandria had
probably adopted the Greek philosophy of Hedonism. The hedonist claims that
comfort and pleasure are the most important things in life: anything that
brings you pleasure is good, anything that takes away your pleasure, is
evil.
We live in a very Hedonistic culture don’t we? Instant
gratification, instant pleasure. And the
Church is often attacked because she reminds our hedonistic culture that there
is more to life than just seeking pleasure all the time. Christians are seen as
obnoxious to the wicked, for we engage in many practices that Hedonists consider
foolish: prayer, fasting, almsgiving, chastity, poverty, obedience, self-sacrifice,
study, going out into the streets and serving the poor, patiently enduring
suffering for the good of souls.
In a way, I think, the Word of God is giving us our marching
orders this morning. Be obnoxious, be
obnoxious to the wicked. Be so holy,
take your faith so seriously, engage to the works of mercy so devoutly, that
you make the wicked man a little nervous.
It might just cause him to rethink his life.
That’ll be my dismissal from Mass today (not really): “Go
forth, and be obnoxious to the wicked…Thanks be to God”. Become so holy that you are noticed. If the
wicked are ignoring us, because they don’t us as a threat to their hedonistic
ways, are we really living the faith? I we are blending in with the wicked,
valuing the same things they do, they are we really on the path of life?
So, the wicked find the just ones obnoxious in the first
reading, and what do they do? They begin to plot: “With revilement and torture
let us put the just one to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness
and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to
his own words, God will take care of him.”
The parallels here to the life of the Just One, the Lord
Jesus, are obvious. Why did the Jewish
leaders of Jesus’ day plot against him to torture and kill him? He had become
obnoxious to them. He told them that to
inherit the kingdom of God, you had to repent, you had to not only be
externally observant of God’s laws, you had need to transform your heart. And
Jesus asked, you want heaven, you want a Messiah? You have to extend mercy even
to those who persecute you, you have to treat as family even those who are of
different ethnicities, you have to go and touch the leper and wash him clean.
Obnoxious behavior for the pious Jewish Pharisee of the 1st century.
It became clear, pretty early on, that his ministry would
end in his suffering and dead. In the
Gospel today we heard how Jesus had been walking with his disciples, and just
like last week he speaks of his coming Passion: “The Son of Man is to be handed
over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of
Man will rise.” However, Jesus’ disciples do not understand what he is talking
about…again. Remember last week, Peter
took Jesus aside after he explained that he would have to die, and rebuked
Jesus for speaking of having to be killed.
Jesus then rebuke Peter saying: “Get behind me Satan, you are thinking
not as God thinks, but as human beings speak.”
Clearly, his disciples didn’t understand that the Messiah would have to
die. Yet Jesus makes it very clear that
there will be no glory without the cross.
The Christian disciple, like the Master, embraces the cross
out of love of God; this is as obnoxious as it gets. So many of us want to be called Christian, but
are we willing to suffer for it. We stop praying, we stop going to church, we
stop giving, when it gets hard. And the
rest of the world says to us, “what took you so long?”
But the Lord is very clear, If we want to be Jesus’
disciples, if we want to be a part of the community of Saints in heaven, then
we too must take up our cross and follow after Him: “Whoever wishes to come
after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me”.
Over the centuries the martyrs have taken the word of Christ
seriously. I think of Saint Paul Miki
and his 25 companions who suffered martyrdom on February 5, 1597 on a hill
overlooking Nagasaki, Japan. The group
was comprised of 6 Franciscans from Spain, Mexico, and India and 3 native
Japanese Jesuits. Among the 17 lay
Catholics martyred there were catechists, doctors, simple artisans and
servants, old men and innocent children.
They were forced to march 600 miles from Kyoto to Nagasaki, all the
while mocked and spit upon by the soldiers for their Christian faith. They, like the Lord, were all hung wooden
crosses, and lances thrust into their sides.
The Japanese government had been forcing the Japanese
Catholics to renounce their faith, and Paul Miki and his companions refused to
apostatize.
While hanging upon a cross, Paul Miki preached to the people
gathered for the execution: “The only reason for my being killed”, he said, “is
that I have taught the doctrine of Christ… I thank God it is for this reason I
die… After Christ’s example I forgive my persecutors. I do not hate them. I ask
God to have pity on all, and I hope my blood will fall on my fellow men as a
fruitful rain.”
He was obnoxious to his captors and torturers, and he was
persecuted for it. But because he
believed in Jesus’ promise, he passed the test, he won the race.
Be obnoxious to the wicked, embrace the cross; in a world
grown dim, let your good deeds and love of Christ shine for all to see, for the
glory of God and salvation of souls.
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