Introduction

It is hard for a person who "has been seduced by God," as Jeremiah says, to be rejected by the very community to which one has dedicated one's life and before which one bears witness to the spiritual. He is a source of division. So was Jesus. Are we willing to take the risks of being Christian, of being signs of contradiction with Christ? If we can, it will surely hurt. We will be contradicted and ridiculed. Can we accept this with equanimity? It has become our responsibility when we were baptized.

Opening Prayer

Almighty God,
when people encountered your Son,
he became a source of division:
he affected their lives
one way or another.
May we accept him fully
and empty ourselves to make room for him
in our everyday life, even when it hurts.
Help us, that with him
we may always seek and do your will.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord.

Liturgy of the Word

First Reading: Jer 11:18-20

Yahweh made it known to me and so I know! And you let me see their scheming: (12 6) "Take care, even your kinsfolk and your own family are false with you and behind your back they freely criticize you. Do not trust them when they approach you in a friendly way."

But I was like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter. I did not know it was against me that they were plotting, "Let us feed him with trials and remove him from the land of the living and let his name never be mentioned again."

Yahweh, God of hosts, you who judge with justice and know everyone's heart and intentions, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause.

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 7:2-3, 9bc-10, 11-12

R (2a) O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.

O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and rescue me,
Lest I become like the lion's prey,
to be torn to pieces, with no one to rescue me.
R O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.

Do me justice, O Lord, because I am just,
and because of the innocence that is mine.
Let the malice of the wicked come to an end,
but sustain the just,
O searcher of heart and soul, O just God.
R O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.

A shield before me is God,
who saves the upright of heart;
A just judge is God,
a God who punishes day by day.
R O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.

Gospel Reading: Jn 7:40-52

Many who had been listening to these words began to say, "This is the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But some wondered, "Would the Christ come from Galilee? Doesn't Scripture say that the Christ is a descendant of David and from Bethlehem, the city of David?" The crowd was divided over him. Some wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.

The officers of the Temple went back to the chief priests who asked them, "Why didn't you bring him?" The officers answered, "No one ever spoke like this man." The Pharisees then said, "So you, too, have been led astray! Have any of the rulers or any of the Pharisees believed in him? Only these cursed people, who have no knowledge of the Law!"

Yet one of them, Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier, spoke out, "Does our law condemn people without first hearing them and knowing the facts?" They replied, "Do you, too, come from Galilee? Look it up and see for yourself that no prophet is to come from Galilee."
And they all went home.