Homily: Friday of the 5th Week of Lent - "You can't handle the truth!"

Why did Jesus' own people oppose him so strongly? They had stones in their hands, in the Gospel today, ready to stone him to death! These were not an irreligious people. They weren't like so many of the secular atheists of our own day. Yet, we do well to remember that opposition and rejection of Jesus resides within every human heart, including our own.

Jesus tried to reason with them. He pointed to his works that attest to who he is. “I raised people from the dead, I walked on water, I fed thousands of people with five loaves and two fish, I made paralyzed people walk, blind people see, deaf people hear, people with leprosy clean”.

Yes, God loves the suffering, and wants to heal them. But Jesus' miracles weren't done for their own sake; they served a deeper purpose: they revealed Jesus identity. His miraculous deeds verify his message and attest to his identity. He is truly God incarnate. And therefore when he speaks, he speaks with authority—the authority of the author of creation.

St. John tells us that Jesus “did so many things that if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written.” Yet, after all of these countless deeds, he was still not believed. Why? Why was Jesus rejected? Why is he rejected still?

What threatens us about Jesus the most? He looks us square in the eye, and tells us the truth. His message, his Gospel is threatening, for it demands change. It demands we relinquish our sins; it demands that we admit that we are not God.

I'm reminded of one of my favorite lines in American cinema, from the courtroom scene in the movie “A few Good Men”. Tom Cruise is a lawyer, cross-examining Jack Nicholson, a high ranking Official in the United States Marines Corp, in the cover-up of a terrible crime. After a long line of increasingly intense questioning, Tom Cruise exclaims, “I want the truth!” To which Jack Nicholson exclaims even more forcefully, “You can't handle the truth!”

Sometimes his truth is hard because it demands change. When confronted with the truth of our sinfulness and our need for repentance, when confronted with the real identity of Jesus and the fullness of his message, at times, every single one of us turns away. This is why on Good Friday, it is not simply the Jewish people of early first century Jerusalem who call for Jesus persecution, it is each one of us, who cries out “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!”

We don't simply blame his crucifixion on the Jewish people, or the Jewish leaders who incited the crowd. At times, each one of us, has found his truth too hard, and looked for excuses to ignore him. Each one of us has sought to silence the Gospel. Maybe it manifested as anger or bitterness or envy or a critical tongue or a lustful eye. Any sin constitutes the same reality: opposition to Jesus and his Gospel.

Hence, the penitential season of Lent! Prayer, fasting, almsgiving are the least we can do, for our hard-heartedness and thick-headedness.

“Holy Spirit, probe our hearts today. Show us the ways that we seek to justify ourselves and fail to acknowledge our sins. Help us to confess that we are sinners and to accept Jesus Christ as our only salvation. Through our Lenten penances help us to experience his freeing love, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.”