Man does not live on bread alone,
but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. MT 4:4
WISDOM 2:1,12-22
My Soul's Beloved,
A truly good and holy person, gentle, kind, loving, God-fearing, is hated by the world. Why is this always so? Because they are a silent accusation to those who prefer to live godless lives according to the ways of the world and the flesh.
Holy men and women thought nothing about giving up their lives for You, Lord, and their steadfast, unshakeable, unbreakable faith despite the tortures they endured teaches us what is possible when we know who we are and what God has done to redeem us.
These verses of the Book of Wisdom speak about how the wicked and the godless react to those whose godly lives are a silent yet constant reproach to them, goading them to act against the righteous with demonic, savage hatred. In fact, this is exactly how Your enemies among the Pharisees, Scribes, Sadduccees, and many members of the Sanhedrin, beginning with Annas and Caiphas, reacted with You. Their murderous, visceral hatred of You became so obsessive that they plotted constantly against You. They were prepared to go to any lengths to put You to death, even to collusion with Rome, their real enemy.
Your death was inevitable from the moment of Your first sign at the Wedding at Cana and until the last and final sign, the raising of Your friend Lazarus four days after being dead and buried in a tomb. To this day, the children of darkness who are the enemies of Truth choose to rut with the swine and keep their places of prominence in the world rather than to believe in the one sent by God and become true sons and daughters of God.
The godless say to themselves, with their misguided reasoning:
‘Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man, since he annoys us
and opposes our way of life,
reproaches us for our breaches of the law
and accuses us of playing false to our upbringing.
He claims to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself a son of the Lord.
Before us he stands, a reproof to our way of thinking,
the very sight of him weighs our spirits down;
his way of life is not like other men’s,
the paths he treads are unfamiliar.
In his opinion we are counterfeit;
he holds aloof from our doings as though from filth;
he proclaims the final end of the virtuous as happy
and boasts of having God for his father.
Let us see if what he says is true,
let us observe what kind of end he himself will have.
If the virtuous man is God’s son, God will take his part
and rescue him from the clutches of his enemies.
Let us test him with cruelty and with torture,
and thus explore this gentleness of his
and put his endurance to the proof.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death
since he will be looked after – we have his word for it.’
and opposes our way of life,
reproaches us for our breaches of the law
and accuses us of playing false to our upbringing.
He claims to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself a son of the Lord.
Before us he stands, a reproof to our way of thinking,
the very sight of him weighs our spirits down;
his way of life is not like other men’s,
the paths he treads are unfamiliar.
In his opinion we are counterfeit;
he holds aloof from our doings as though from filth;
he proclaims the final end of the virtuous as happy
and boasts of having God for his father.
Let us see if what he says is true,
let us observe what kind of end he himself will have.
If the virtuous man is God’s son, God will take his part
and rescue him from the clutches of his enemies.
Let us test him with cruelty and with torture,
and thus explore this gentleness of his
and put his endurance to the proof.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death
since he will be looked after – we have his word for it.’
PSALM 33(34):16,18,19-21,23
The Lord is close to the broken-hearted.
The Lord is close to the broken-hearted.
The Lord turns his face against the wicked
to destroy their remembrance from the earth.
The just call and the Lord hears
and rescues them in all their distress.
to destroy their remembrance from the earth.
The just call and the Lord hears
and rescues them in all their distress.
The Lord is close to the broken-hearted;
those whose spirit is crushed he will save.
Many are the trials of the just man,
but from them all the Lord will rescue him.
Many are the trials of the just man,
but from them all the Lord will rescue him.
He will keep guard over all his bones,
not one of his bones shall be broken.
The Lord ransoms the souls of his servants.
Those who hide in him shall not be condemned.
The Lord ransoms the souls of his servants.
Those who hide in him shall not be condemned.
The Lord is close to the broken-hearted.
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