THE WORD IN LENT - Saturday, 4th week in Lent
March 20, 2021: Jeremiah 11: 18-20; John 7: 40-53
Forming opinions about persons or events without actually knowing the whole truth is a judgement, and of course would be a wrong one at that. Incomplete knowledge is dangerous, and not being aware of its incompleteness is doubly dangerous. Half truths are treacherous pits of ruin, for persons, relationships, communities, societies and humanity at large. But the whole world seems to be operating on bits and pieces of manipulated truths today.
We see this phenomenon at work everywhere: the clashes between religious
fanatics, the terrifying threats of some fundamentalists, inter-denominational
hatred and divisions, interpersonal issues in the families... everywhere this
phenomenon is at work. Half-baked opinions and fully blocked minds, do not
allow genuine dialogue but lead only to the slaughter of the minority by the
senseless majority, or stifling of the weak by the ruthless strong!
The Word presents to us the same picture today, with Jesus
taking the place of the minority, the weak, the vulnerable, the affected, the
sacrificed lamb. It can be that every day we could be sacrificing someone at
the altars of our ego and those of our judgments...and in their persons we
could be slaughtering the sacrificial Lamb over and over again.
It takes courage to realise and accept the harm my half-baked
opinions and fully blocked mind can do, to me and to others! It takes sincerity
to work out of such a treacherous style of life and thought. It takes humility
to say, I am ready for dialogue, genuine and sincere dialogue! It takes respect
for the other to allow the other to be other, to listen to the other and not
what I want to hear, to understand the other as the other is and not as I want
the other to be. That is genuine dialogue.
Let us check our readiness to genuine dialogue.