SPEAKER_00: There's a line from today's first reading that should unsettle us all if we're paying attention.
SPEAKER_00: The wicked said among themselves, Let us beset the just one, merely to see him as a hardship for us.
SPEAKER_00: It's a brutal line, not because it's ancient, but because it's current.
SPEAKER_00: The just man is not attacked because he is loud.
SPEAKER_00: He's not attacked because he's violent.
SPEAKER_00: He's not attacked because he is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: He's attacked because his life exposes others.
SPEAKER_00: Merely to see him is a hardship, the reading tells us.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, your life bothers me because it reveals mine.
SPEAKER_00: This is so deep.
SPEAKER_00: This is a powerful teaching that we have today.
SPEAKER_00: Holiness does not just inspire, it provokes.
SPEAKER_00: If you're living a holy life and you're trying to be right with God, it's going to provoke.
SPEAKER_00: Truth does not just attract, it confronts.
SPEAKER_00: That's why the just man in the reading is rejected.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't fit, he doesn't compromise, he doesn't go along to get along.
SPEAKER_00: And so the response is predictable.
SPEAKER_00: Let us test him, let us condemn him, let us see if God will defend him.
SPEAKER_00: That sounds familiar, it should, because that is the logic of the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Long before Jesus is crucified, his story is already written here.
SPEAKER_00: And in the gospel, we see it unfolding.
SPEAKER_00: They're confused by him, they question him, and ultimately they want to silence him.
SPEAKER_00: But then there's this quiet, powerful line.
SPEAKER_00: No one laid a hand upon him because his hour had not yet come.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see what that means?
SPEAKER_00: They think that they are the ones in control.
SPEAKER_00: They're not.
SPEAKER_00: God is always in control.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's where this gets uncomfortable because it's easy to keep this at the level of them, the wicked, the crowd, the enemies of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But the real question is, where am I in this story?
SPEAKER_00: Where do I see myself?
SPEAKER_00: Because there are moments when we admire the just, and there are moments when we resist them.
SPEAKER_00: Let me break this down.
SPEAKER_00: I want to make this more concrete.
SPEAKER_00: When someone in your life is truly living the gospel, serious about prayer, serious about integrity, serious about sacrifice, what is your reaction?
SPEAKER_00: Do you let it challenge you?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you quietly dismiss it?
SPEAKER_00: Ah, they're too intense or too rigid, too holy roly, or that's not realistic.
SPEAKER_00: I can't live like that.
SPEAKER_00: Well, be careful.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's exactly how the wicked speak in the first reading.
SPEAKER_00: Not with horns and pitchforks, but with just enough justification to avoid conversion.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the teaching.
SPEAKER_00: Sin blinds us.
SPEAKER_00: The reading says it plainly.
SPEAKER_00: Their wickedness blinded them.
SPEAKER_00: Not that they lacked intelligence, not that they lacked religion, they lacked clarity.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because sin distorts vision.
SPEAKER_00: And once you're blinded, you don't just reject evil, you start rejecting good.
SPEAKER_00: You begin to see holiness as a threat.
SPEAKER_00: A threat to your comfort, a threat to everything that you've built around you.
SPEAKER_00: You like your nice, comfortable life.
SPEAKER_00: That's why Jesus has something very striking in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I did not come on my own.
SPEAKER_00: The one who sent me, you do not know.
SPEAKER_00: They know the scripture, they know the law, but they do not recognize God standing right there in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because their hearts are not aligned.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the challenge for this Friday.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ask, do I believe in God?
SPEAKER_00: Ask, am I living in such a way that I can recognize Him when He stands before me?
SPEAKER_00: Because you can be all religious, go to Mass every day, and still miss Him.
SPEAKER_00: You can know all your prayers and still resist His voice.
SPEAKER_00: Here's one more thing.
SPEAKER_00: You decide to take faith seriously, really seriously, you need to be ready for this.
SPEAKER_00: Not everyone's gonna applaud you.
SPEAKER_00: Some will misunderstand you, some will distance themselves from you, some will quietly resent you, because light does that.
SPEAKER_00: It exposes.
SPEAKER_00: But do not be afraid, because the gospel gives you the final word.
SPEAKER_00: His hour has not yet come.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning nothing happens outside of God's providence, not rejection, not misunderstanding, not even suffering.
SPEAKER_00: So today, choose your path in the story.
SPEAKER_00: Don't be among those who resist the just because it's uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: Be among those who are willing to be changed.
SPEAKER_00: And even more, become the kind of person whose life speaks so clearly that it points to God, even if it costs you.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the end, the just one they tried to destroy is the one who saves.
SPEAKER_00: And if you stay with him, you will not be blinded.
SPEAKER_00: You will see.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.