Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia
Our Lord saw the bad faith of the Pharisees and scribes
and he called them on it.
He wasn't about to let it slide.
They wanted him to either conform to their own distorted ways of thinking
or suffer the consequences.
And, of course, he stood up in front of them and spoke the truth
and did the truth.
And, ultimately, it cost him, of course, his life.
They had bad faith.
They were...
just waiting to jump all over him
as soon as he made a mistake,
what they thought was a mistake.
They weren't open to the truth.
They were sitting there in front of the truth
and they were trying to figure out in their own minds
how they could trip him up,
how they could raise a charge against him to silence him,
to send him away.
Our Lord knew their thoughts
and so he gave...
He gave them what they were looking for.
Yet it wasn't what they were looking for
because while he cured on the Sabbath,
which is what they were hoping to do,
they realized that he manifested the power of God.
Even so, they still wouldn't believe.
He called up the man with the withered hand.
He said,
Stand up.
Stand up here right in front of everybody.
Put out your hand.
I ask you, he said to the Pharisees and scribes,
is it lawful to do good?
To do good on the Sabbath or evil?
And then he cured the man.
He healed the withered hand of the man.
And what did they do?
They became frenzied and began to ask one another
what could be done to Jesus.
You know, everything was laid out in front of them.
They were given so many graces
and yet they turned their back.
They decided to remain in the darkness.
Nothing's changed.
Really, the church is still the instrument of Christ's truth
in spite of the fact that those who are members of the church
are very often weak and sometimes cause scandal.
Yet the church remains faithful and unswerving
in her fidelity to the truth.
But people are ready to jump all over her.
It's a patriarchal church, just a bunch of old celibates,
just a bunch of old celibates, just a bunch of old celibates,
just a bunch of old celibates, just a bunch of old celibates, just a bunch of old celibates,
just a bunch of old celibates, just a bunch of old celibates,
men who are trying to run everybody's lives.
A conspiracy.
You know, it's not just Dan Brown and the likes.
There's many people who believe that the church is involved
in some kind of conspiracy to suppress the truth.
Mother Teresa, the woman before all others
that we can remember in our own lifetimes
who practiced charity.
beyond what we can even imagine somehow she had no faith and really was just
shamming everybody all along people are ready to jump all over you if you
follow Christ and if you believe in what the church teaches so that's our our lot
it's also our dignity because it is our following of Christ we're called to
follow Christ Jesus along the way of his suffering yesterday we heard his words
in the gospel unless you are willing up to pick up your cross and carry it you
cannot be my disciple today in the reading from the letter of st. Paul to
the Colossians we hear st. Paul say at the very beginning of this particular
reading even now I find my joy in the suffering I endure for you in my own
flesh I fill up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for the sake of his
body the church ultimately
what happened to Jesus is that they did find a way to bring a charge against him
and they did ultimately put him to death but our Lord died for them and he died
to set them free he would they would listen to him perhaps they would respond
to his grace that he won on the cross and it's the same for us we don't do the
work of Christ in that primary sense that he alone
does but we all share in his suffering we can unite our sufferings especially the sufferings
that come our way because we are sometimes misunderstood for what we believe sometimes
reviled for what we believe we can offer those sufferings to the Lord for the conversion
sanctification of souls and of course in penance for our own sins so in the end
we always win in the end all things work to the good of those who love God in the end we can
practice charity towards those who who hate us or misunderstand us and thereby be imitating Christ
and do good for others especially those who persecute us who revile us for the name of
Christ and do good for others especially those who persecute us who revile us for the name of
Christ this is what our Lord did it is our opportunity as well and in the end we know
that good will come from it that souls will be saved our Lord in his infinite
wisdom knew exactly what each and every soul needed and he was willing to suffer
for each and every one may we accept the grace of our vocation as followers
of Christ and do the same and have confidence that everything that happens
to us as part of his Providence and every grace that we receive is something
that we can offer for the good of those who love us and those who hate us those
who do us good and those who do us evil and one day perhaps we will all rejoice
together in heaven for the good things that the Lord has done for us
you