A reading from the holy gospel according to Saint John. Now in the last few days, we've been reading from Saint John, and the theme is the same. It's to confirm our faith in the messiahship of Jesus Christ. So some in the crowd, this is in Jerusalem, who heard the words of Jesus began to say, this must be a prophet. Others, on the other hand, were claiming he is the Messiah, But an objection was raised.
Surely, the Messiah is not to come from Galilee. That's up in the lake country. Of course, Jesus was born in Bethlehem down in Judea or up in Judea, but they didn't know that. So they say, surely, the Messiah is not to come from Galilee. Does not scripture say that the Messiah, being of David's family, is to come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?
In this fashion, the crowd was sharply divided over Jesus. Some of them even wanted to arrest him. However, no one dared to lay hands upon him. When the temple guards came, the chief priest and the Pharisees asked them, why didn't you bring him in? And they replied, no man ever spoke like that before.
Do not tell us that you too have been taken in, the pharisees retorted. You don't see any of the Sanadrin believing in him, do you, or the pharisees? Only this lock, the rabble that knows nothing about the law, and they are lost anyway. They're no good. Now one of their number notice they weren't all like that.
One of their number by name Nicodemus, the man who had come to Jesus in secret, spoke up and said to the sanator, since when does our law condemn any man without first hearing him and knowing the facts? Don't tell us that you are a Galileeing also, they taunt it. Look it up. You will not find the prophet coming from Galilee. Then each went off to his own house, and this is the good news of the lord.
In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. I've often been accused and rightly so, and I glory in the accusation of being called an Aristotelian because I have a leaning towards facts to begin with what is, the existential approach. Now if these good gentlemen who composed the Sanhedrin had followed the advice of Nicodemus, they wouldn't have made fools out of themselves. Because here they knew the law. They knew the prophets that the messiah was to come from Bethlehem.
Now that is a little town, as you know, near Jerusalem, in Judea. And our blessed lord was known as a man of Galilee, a man from the lake country way up in the up there. That's what he was known as, but he was not born there. As you all know, it is Bethlehem of Judea where Christ was born on what we call Christmas day, not up in the lake country, not in Judea, not in the North, but in the Bethlehem, just as the prophets foretold. But the good gentlemen of the senate didn't take time to get a hold of the facts.
FACT. I am a great champion of them. Great champion. Now I know you you begin with facts. I know that.
But the point is it's a good place to begin and not to begin with with what is not fact. We are today facing another Easter, another resurrection of our lord. What do you think about Jesus Christ? I mean, in in your most profound convictions. And the way to answer that question is to ask yourself very factually, how does Jesus Christ enter into your daily lives with your daily decisions?
And I insist upon daily. Not answering the question of how you love the Eskimo or what is your attitude towards the unknown in the aggregate. The question is, in actual daily living, to what extent, before you make a final judgment about anything, do you ever give any thought to what Jesus would have you do? What Jesus would have you do. Thy will be done.
Because if you if we call ourselves Christians, we should be trying to do from minute to minute of the twenty four hours of the day the will of god. We may not take vows of obedience. I don't know what they mean anymore anyway. But the thing is, it is true that we haven't taken vows of obedience. Well, somebody vowed obedience for us at baptism when they said, take this light and carry this light.
Be a Lucifer. When they put the white little white garment on you and said, carry this with its immaculate whiteness and purity through your life. We were committed then. We are committed to being followers of Jesus Christ. And that doesn't mean we're following with a book in our hand called the bible.
It means we're following a living shepherd with a voice that we can hear with this ear or that ear or both ears. That's that that's what it comes down to. All this talk about love and peace, what does it amount to in fact, in actual daily living? Mother Teresa, for example, of Calcutta, who has picked up over 42,000 people dying in the streets of Calcutta. Now this is a very sensible objection, very sensible objection.
Supposing she has picked up 42,000 people who have died in the streets of Calcutta, so what? Supposing she has, as she has, corralled a number of dying or starving or deprived children and provided homes for them. And that's more than in India. She has houses all over the world now, practically, over 200. But if you put them all together and double the figure, what does it amount to in the whole world's atmosphere degradation of poverty?
Nothing. So some of her cosisters in holy religion have severely criticized her. Commonweal had the article, so I'm I'm not making it up. I'm a believer in facts. That after all, she should be much more interested in removing the causes of poverty, move removing the causes of deprivation.
That's a very sensible objection, very sensible. From the world's point of view. From the world's point of view. Because our blessed lord never talked in those terms. Never.
Never. He talked in terms of the woman who came and said, Lord, I'm a sinner. He talks in terms of a Peter. He talks in terms of the of the son who came back to his father. He talks about the good shepherd who knows his sheep by name, by name, not humanity, not mankind, not the poor, not the deprived.
He talks in terms of the individual human being because Christ too, if he'll pardon the expression, was an Aristotelian. He was a man of fact. He was a man of concrete thinking. He was the son of god who came individuals to save us individually, not collectively. There is no such thing as humanity.
There are only individual human beings, and that put Christ on the cross. Humanity never committed a sin. And so when we ask ourselves, who is Jesus Christ? Please answer it. But don't answer it in saying, oh, he's the son of god.
If he is the son of god, what in the world does that mean in your life? And let me take it just a step further. If that son of God is contained in that tabernacle and transubstantiated bread, what does that mean in your life when you come into this church? In actual fact, what does it mean that you have a messiah who came as the son of a virgin Jewish girl born in Bethlehem? The Sanadrin who were priding themselves on their knowledge of the law, who were spurning the common people.
They don't amount to anything anyway. Remember, when after Christ, there's no such thing as a common man. And that's been our holy father's theme time and again, the absolutely irretrievable, immutable worth and value of the individual person Not individual, but person. And so as we edge, tomorrow will be passion Sunday as we used to call it, think about your life. You're Christians, and you're trying to be Christians.
Don't think that you're not trying, but the thing is to keep that light of endeavor, to keep that light of perseverance ahead of you, that you're always seeing Jesus Christ, your savior, and you're asking him, Lord, what will you have me to do? Not my will, but thine be done. In the name of the father, of the son, and holy spirit. Amen.