[00:00] Today's Gospel passage, we see something ironic, actually. The chief priests and the Pharisees have actually read the Scriptures correctly. In fact, it is Micah that tells us, and was the one quoted when the three kings

[00:30] arrived in Jerusalem, and they asked Herod, "Where is the one King of the Jews?" And they quote it from Micah, that He was to come from Bethlehem, which is in Judea, not Galilee. So in a certain sense they were right, but in a certain sense they misunderstood everything. Because in fact, where was our Lord born? Where did He actually come from? He was born in Bethlehem, in Judea, just as Micah

[01:03] prophesied it. He could not grow up in Bethlehem, because instead, Mary and Joseph returned to Nazareth. They went to Nazareth. So they spent time in Nazareth. They had been in Nazareth, but they were not from Nazareth. And that was what was misunderstood here. Because when, after our Lord grew up, well, He grew up in

[01:38] Nazareth, in Galilee. And that's what they all saw, that's what they all knew. And since Galilee was in the north of the area there, which was actually, well, next to Assyria, and they had become enemies of the Jews. The Jews would have nothing to do with them. But in fact, they were all of the same origins. Galilee,

[02:15] Assyria, all of that had been separated from Israel at the time of the exile, the northern part of Israel and Palestine, the northern part. Later on, the southern part would also be exiled. And so there was a net separation between the two. They wouldn't have anything to do with each other. So instead of unity, we had division there. But anyways, and so now that's why our Lord, they are

[02:49] looking at our Lord with disdain, at how many would hear Him and see what He was doing, and continue to follow Him. Well, at least until His passion. And so what we see here is our Lord, even if we really follow Him, and we must, because He is truth. He is telling the truth. That is what He is teaching us.

[03:26] Right? Precisely because not only is He, as He fulfilled all of the Scriptures, and by Scriptures here, we are referring to the Old Testament, not only has He fulfilled it, but we cannot forget He is also God. And therefore, as we say in

[03:57] the act of faith, "Cannot be deceived, cannot deceive, and cannot be deceived." He is God. He is truth. And He tells us the truth. So we have no reason not to follow. We must follow Him. We must go on loving Him as He so loves us. That is what we seek as we go through this period of Lent, what our mortifications are about. Literally, we call that dying to ourselves, giving ourselves back to Him.

[04:34] He so loves us. We must love Him in return. We must follow Him. And that means not just simply believing in Him, but really living what He lived in the Gospel. And if we will do this, this will assure us of our salvation. We cannot go wrong. Let us follow Him with our whole being, obedience of faith, as Vatican II

[05:04] calls it. Give everything to Him, and He will bring us to that everlasting union with Him in paradise. Praise be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.