12 March 2027 · Latin Rite
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“The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18
As Lent moves toward the Passion, the readings begin to sound like the plotting of Holy Week. The Book of Wisdom, written in Greek by a Jewish teacher in Alexandria not long before Christ, lets us overhear the thoughts of the ungodly. They have decided that life is short and ends in nothing, so they will enjoy it and crush anyone who gets in the way. And the one who gets in the way is the righteous man: “Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions.” His very life is a rebuke to them: “the very sight of him is a burden to us, because his manner of life is unlike that of others.” He calls God his Father. So they decide to test him: “if the righteous man is God's child, he will help him.” “Let us test him with insult and torture… Let us condemn him to a shameful death.” Christians have always heard in these words the voices at the foot of the cross: “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now” (Matthew 27:43). But the Wisdom writer adds the decisive line: “they did not know the secret purposes of God.” The Psalm gives the answer of faith: “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit… He keeps all their bones; not one of them will be broken”, words that John will see fulfilled on Calvary (John 19:36).
In the Gospel the danger is real. Jesus stays in Galilee because in Judea some were looking for a chance to kill him; when he goes up for the feast of Booths, he goes “not publicly but as it were in secret.” In John's Gospel “the Jews” here means the Jerusalem authorities who opposed Jesus; Jesus, his mother, his disciples and the crowds who welcomed him were themselves Jews, and the Church firmly rejects any blame of the Jewish people for his death (Nostra Aetate 4; Catechism 597). In the Temple, people argue: is this the Messiah? “Yet we know where this man is from.” Jesus cries out: “You know me, and you know where I am from. I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true… I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.” They know his village; they do not know his Father. “Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.” Jesus is not a victim of chance. His hour is in the Father's hands, and when it comes he will give himself freely. On this Friday of abstinence, as we walk the Way of the Cross, we learn from him to trust our own hours to the Father: “My times are in your hand.”
Theme: “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted.”
The inconvenient righteous one, the hour in the Father's hands, and God's closeness in suffering.
“Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions; he reproaches us for sins against the law, and accuses us of sins against our training.” Wisdom 2:12
““If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.” John 15:18
Apply: Do one right thing this week that you have been avoiding because it is unpopular.
“My times are in your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies and persecutors.” Psalm 31:15
“Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.” John 7:30
Apply: Each night this week, place tomorrow in the Father's hands with Psalm 31:15.
“The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.” Psalm 34:18
“But rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, so that you may also be glad and shout for joy when his glory is revealed.” 1 Peter 4:13
Apply: Pray the Way of the Cross this Friday and offer it for someone who is brokenhearted.
The righteous one is hated for his goodness, but the plot of the wicked does not know God's purpose.
Jesus goes to his hour freely, and God is near to all who suffer with him.
Take-home resolution: Pray the Way of the Cross every Friday until Good Friday.
Dear friends, the Book of Wisdom lets us hear the thoughts of people who have decided that life ends in nothing. Their plan is simple: enjoy everything and crush anyone who gets in the way. And who gets in the way? The righteous man. Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us (Wisdom 2:12).
His goodness is a silent rebuke. So they say: let us test him with insult and torture; let us condemn him to a shameful death. When we hear these words, we see the cross. But Wisdom adds: they did not know the secret purposes of God.
In the Gospel Jesus teaches openly in the Temple. They want to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come (John 7:30). Jesus is not trapped by events. When his hour comes, he will give his life freely, out of love for us.
Today is a Friday of Lent. We keep abstinence and many of us will walk the Way of the Cross. Let us walk with him, and let us not be afraid to be inconvenient for the sake of goodness. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18). Amen.
Children, some people did not like Jesus because he was so good. But God was always close to him. When you are sad, remember: God is close to you too. Today, Friday, let us say thank you to Jesus for loving us all the way to the cross.
Lord God, the righteous one was mocked and condemned, yet you were near to him and raised him up. Make us faithful when goodness is inconvenient, and teach us to place our times in your hands. Be near to all who are brokenhearted today. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
From today the Passion comes clearly into view. The Book of Wisdom gives the reasoning of people who cannot bear a just man and decide to test his claim that God is his Father. John shows Jesus going up to Jerusalem quietly, teaching in the Temple while people argue about where he comes from, and no one able to touch him because “his hour had not yet come”. Psalm 34 answers both: “The Lord is near to the brokenhearted.” The plot is real, but the hour belongs to God.
Setting.
The Book of Wisdom was written in Greek by a Jewish author, very probably at Alexandria in Egypt, in the first century BC or close to it. It speaks in the name of Solomon as a literary device. Its readers were Jews living among Greek thought and pagan religion, under pressure to give up their way of life. The Catholic Church counts it among the inspired books of the Old Testament (CCC 120), as the Council of Trent reaffirmed (1546). It came down in the Greek Old Testament used by the early Church; Protestant Bibles, following the shorter Hebrew canon, leave it out or print it apart. The difference can be stated without hostility.
The speakers are “the ungodly” (1:16). In vv. 1b–11, which the reading leaves out, they set out their creed: life is short, death is the end, so let us enjoy ourselves and let might be our right. Many scholars think that some of them are Jews who have abandoned the Law, since the just man accuses them of “sins against the law” (v. 12). This is a writer warning his own community, not a judgment on any people.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions;” (2:12)
It is an honest confession. They do not say he is wrong, but that he is in the way. A good life can feel like an accusation to those around it.
“the very sight of him is a burden to us,” (2:15)
He does not need to preach. His way of living is enough. The verse describes a hatred that many just people have met, in every age.
“Let us see if his words are true, and let us test what will happen at the end of his life; for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him,” (2:17–18)
These words come strikingly close to the mockery at the Cross: “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now” (Matthew 27:43). Matthew's words also recall Psalm 22:8, and the Church hears both as a preparation for the Passion.
“Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them,” (2:21)
The author does not say that God failed to help. He says that their calculation was wrong, because they could see only as far as death.
How the Church reads it.
St Augustine reads this passage as a prophecy of the Passion of Christ (City of God 17,20, in substance). Heard two weeks before Good Friday, it invites us to listen to the voice of those who plotted and to ask whether it is ever our own. The Church has always taught that all sinners were the authors of Christ's Passion (CCC 598), so the people of Wisdom 2 cannot be identified with any nation. And she has never drawn from this page the idea that God does not help the just: the answer to “he will help him” is Easter.
Setting.
The festival of Booths (Sukkot) is the great autumn pilgrim feast, when people lived in shelters of branches to remember the desert years (Leviticus 23:42–43). In Jesus' time it included rites of water and light in the Temple, and John will use these (7:37–39; 8:12). Since the sabbath healing in Jerusalem (chapter 5) Jesus has stayed in Galilee, because the authorities in Judea are seeking his death. In v. 1 the Greek Ioudaioi stands in contrast to Galilee: it refers to those in Judea who oppose him.
The reading passes over the conversation with his brothers (vv. 3–9) and his early teaching in the Temple (vv. 11–24), and picks up the dispute among the people of Jerusalem.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“But after his brothers had gone to the festival, then he also went, not publicly but as it were in secret.” (7:10)
He goes up on his own terms and at the Father's timing. On “his brothers”, see the question below.
“Yet we know where this man is from; but when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.” (7:27)
Some Jewish writings of the time speak of the Messiah as hidden until he appears; others expected him from Bethlehem, as tomorrow's Gospel shows (7:42). John's irony is gentle: they know that he comes from Nazareth, and they do not know that he comes from the Father.
“I know him, because I am from him, and he sent me.” (7:29)
The whole of Jesus' identity is in this short verse: he knows the Father, he comes from the Father, he is sent. He answers the question of where he is from at a level his hearers had not considered.
“Then they tried to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him, because his hour had not yet come.” (7:30)
Danger surrounds him, yet he is not a victim of chance. When the hour comes he will give himself: “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (10:18).
How the Church reads it.
The Church teaches that Jesus' death did not happen by chance, but belongs to the mystery of God's plan (CCC 599), and that he accepted it willingly (CCC 609). The Catechism also notes that the religious authorities in Jerusalem were not unanimous about him (CCC 596), and today's Gospel shows the same mixed picture among the people: wondering, objecting, some drawn to him. The first reading gives us the plot, and the Gospel shows who is really in charge.
Did Jesus have brothers?
The Church has always understood Jesus' “brothers” as close relations, not as other children of Mary (CCC 499–501). In Hebrew and Aramaic usage “brother” could cover close kinsmen: Abram says it of his nephew Lot (Genesis 13:8, where the NRSV says “kindred”). The Gospels themselves show that James and Joseph, named among the “brothers” (Matthew 13:55), are the sons of another Mary (Matthew 27:56; CCC 500). Other Christians read these verses differently, and the Catholic understanding can be explained with respect.