WIS 2:1, 12-22;    PS 34:17-21, 23;    JN 7:1-2, 10, 25-30

R. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.

The LORD confronts the evildoers,
to destroy remembrance of them from the earth.
When the just cry out, the LORD hears them,
and from all their distress he rescues them.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted;
and those who are crushed in spirit he saves.
Many are the troubles of the just man,
but out of them all the LORD delivers him.

He watches over all his bones;
not one of them shall be broken.
The LORD redeems the lives of his servants;
no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him.





St. John begins by telling us that Jesus had been spending his time in Galilee and avoiding Judea.  He knew from his previous visits there that the Pharisees and some of the leaders of the people were trying to kill him.  But now the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was approaching.  The feast of Tabernacles was one of the three major feasts of the Jews.  Many Jews came from all over the land of Israel and from other countries on pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast.  So it presented a great opportunity for Jesus to preach to Jews who had not yet heard his message.  But there was the difficulty of going to Jerusalem because of the threats against Jesus.  Apparently some relatives of Jesus had formed a pilgrimage and asked him to accompany them.  Jesus declined, but after they had left, he changed his mind.

He, probably accompanied by the apostles, went up to the feast secretly.  The secrecy is easy to understand in light of the threats against Jesus.  But what happens next is not so easy to understand.  When they arrive in Judea Jesus goes right to the great temple in Jerusalem and begins to teach the large crowd that had gathered there.  He does away with secrecy and seems to throw caution to the winds. 

How do we explain first the secrecy and then the lack of it?  I think that the explanation lies in the fact that our ways are not God's ways.  God wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to preach to and teach the large crowd gathered in Jerusalem for the feast.  But as we hear at the end of this reading: "no one laid a hand upon him because his hour had not yet come."  

Jesus was right to be cautious and avoid going to Jerusalem, but when a great opportunity arose to spread his message to the crowd at the feast, Jesus took it.  He avoided harm because according to God's plan he still had more work to do here on earth before his passion and death.

- by Tom Bannantine, S.J.

Selected Quotes from St. John of the Cross on the Journey of the Soul to God by Contemplation

- from Ascent of Mt. Carmel

Bk. 1. Ch. 10. #3. The unmortified appetites result in killing a man in his relationship with God.

Bk. 1. Ch. 11. #5. An attachment (i.e. to converstaion and friendship) can empty you of both holy solitude and the spirit and joy of God.

Bk. 1. Ch. 13. #3. Desire to imitate Christ and study His life.
#6. Do the most difficult, the harshest, the less pleasant, the unconsoling, the lowest and most despised, want nothing, look for the worst.

Bk. 2. Ch. 1. #2. All that is required for a complete pacification of the spiritual house is the negation through pure faith of all the spiritual faculties and gratifications and appetites. This achieved, the soul will be joined with the Beloved in a union of simplicity and purity and love and likeness. 

#3. In the night of sense there is yet some light, because the intellect and reason remain and suffer no blindness. But his spiritual night of faith removes everything, both in the intellect and in the senses. The less a soul works with its own abilities, the more securely it proceeds, because its progress in faith is greater.

- compiled by James and Tyra Arraj