Rejected by This Generation

Thursday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time

In Wisdom is a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, Manifold, subtle, agile, clear, unstained, certain, Not baneful, loving the good, keen, unhampered, beneficent, kindly, Firm, secure, tranquil, all-powerful, all-seeing, And pervading all spirits, though they be intelligent, pure and very subtle.  Wisdom 7:22-23

Asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come, Jesus said in reply, “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.”  Luke 17:20-21

Piety

Father, revel your truth to our eyes and ears.  Jesus, open our eyes and ears so that we may know what is shared with us.  Holy Spirit, help us to comprehend and act upon what we learn. Amen.

Study

The first reading today present 21 attributes of wisdom.  Through these attributes, Wisdom brings truth and light into the world.  Jesus is that Truth and Light. 

The Pharisees recognize that they can pursue Truth and Light through this itinerant preacher from Nazareth.  However, as they pursue wisdom, they want it handed to them in a nice pithy, easy-to-understand bundle.  They want Jesus to give them an Outlook appointment to visit the Kingdom of God.  ACCEPT?  DECLINE?  TENTATIVE?

These inquisitors do not get the answer they demand.  Jesus, once again speaking truth to power, tell them that the Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of the Present Moment. 

If Luke was a screenwriter in Hollywood, perhaps he would dramatize this scene this way:

Jesus: You want answers?

Pharisee:  I am the learned leader of the Temple.  I am entitled to the truth.

Jesus: You really want answers?

Pharisees:  I want the truth!*

Jesus: You can't handle the truth!

Jesus goes on to tell them that the Kingdom is right there in the Present Moment under their proverbial noses.  They just can’t see it.  However, as Jesus tells them that Kingdom is Here and Now, Jesus also tells them that the Kingdom is to come after the kind of suffering that the Pharisees and the people like us cannot imagine.  Another truth we can’t handle. 

My apologies to Aaron Sorkin the writer of “A Few Good Men.”  Can we handle the Truth Revealed any better than the Pharisees?

“Do not go off, do not run in pursuit.  For just as lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day.  But first he must suffer greatly and be rejected by this generation.”  Luke 17:23b-25

Action

We are all truth-seekers like the Pharisees.  We are so preoccupied with living our lives and paying the mortgage and fighting the daily commute that we, too, might not recognize Wisdom if she knocked on our door. 

“The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away. Puzzling.”   Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Where will the Truth find you today?  Where will you find the Kingdom of God today?  Or maybe the better question is how will you reject the Truth today?