+(Intro) In our first reading this morning from Jeremiah, we will hear him say: O Lord of hosts, O just Judge, searcher of mind and heart.” Let us reflect a moment on our own sins and ask for the merciful love of our Lord.
(After the gospel) Our gospel presents us with the complexity of the human situation. Among Christians and even among Catholics there is a lot of diverse thinking, a lot of different views about what is essential in our Christian faith.
Some of the crowd think Jesus is from Galilee, not at all aware that Jesus was born in Bethlehem where the Messiah, the Christ was to come from. Guards were sent by the Pharisees to arrest him but found that they were unwilling to do so for “never before has anyone spoken like this man.”
Even one of the Pharisees, Nicodemus, tells his fellow Pharisees that justice is not done unless one first hears a person and finds out what he is doing. All this in fact, is not far from what is happening in our society and Church today so that we all do well to pray that truth may prevail rather than human blindness and injustice.
Jer 11:18-20; John 7:40-53