Attempting to Cast Stones April 7

Prayer

Jesus, you are the rock of ages. Despite your eternal strength, you faced persecution from the people for what you said. They ignored the signs and wonders and works of God that you performed while in their midst.

Jesus, what logos are the rocks we erect to worship instead of the Church that Peter built at your command? Izod? J Crew? Abercrombie and Fitch? ESPN? NASCAR? NFL? NCAA? Toyota? Nikon? Dell? Microsoft? Vanguard? Fidelity? Old Navy? Vanity Fair?

Jesus, help us to remove the rocks and stones of material goods and the flesh that block our path to you. Move these away so that your eternal logos can become the stepping stone in our path to share in your glory.

Help us to learn that as we walk down this path with you, you have a cross for each of us to bear. Stones for us to withstand and endure. Be to us as Simon was to you, the aid along the way, helping us to bear the burdens and punishment that we face with steadfast, rock solid faith thanks to your reconciling love.

Jesus, be our cornerstone. Be the rock from which flows forth the living waters we need in our life. Roll away the stones that we erect to obstruct your love from reaching us. Help us to seek you where we can find you – not in the tomb but in our hearts and in the hearts of people everywhere. Amen.

Study

God offers to us sacred scriptures for today to read, to study and to hear.
You are invited to study and reflect on today’s readings:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/040706.shtml

“We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.
You, a man, are making yourself God.”

Jesus faces persecution by stoning in today’s reading not for what he DID (Christian action) but for what he said (his words -- LOGOS). Not by the powers but by the people.

The image of a ROCK and a STONE are present throughout the Bible just as they are present in the land and the desert. They can either be symbols of hindrance or symbols of permanence. They can be weapons of punishment or the pathway to eternal reward. They are either rejection or the way of rejection.

However, when we remove the stone, this helps us clear a path to encounter Jesus. When we drop those stones in our hands, we let pass our active resistance to the LOGOS…to the word of God.

If our hearts are made of stone, they can not be open to receive the love of God or the friendship of Jesus.

The attacks that Jesus slips away from today are not the trials and punishment that the state and the church will inflict next week. Instead, today he faces the attacks from the individual hearts and minds of people who refused to believe the signs that they saw or the words that they heard.

Jesus today is in the midst of a crowd of “doubting Thomas” disciples. However, because this is before the resurrection, Jesus doesn’t have the ultimate exhibit of his wounds to show to get them to believe.

Instead of the image of strength, today, Jesus is the stone that was rejected. What the Jews in John 10 don’t realize, is that Jesus is the cornerstone.

Often God is seen as the rock, the steady, unwavering fortress of strength and justice, and the rock from which flows the living water.

Sometimes the rock is not the source of everlasting life and is instead contrasted with fertile soil. In the parable, seeds that fall on the rock in Luke 8 grow but wither away because they grow no root system to sustain life. Only the seeds that fall on fertile soil survive. Jesus, and his living Word, on the other hand is the spiritual stone of salvation, the cornerstone.

However, Jesus also is seen in Luke’s Gospel and Paul’s letter to the Roman’s as the steady foundation or as the stone that will make men stumble if they approach without faith.

Inside the rock -- the earthly image of fortress and shelter -- is where Jesus’ body is laid upon death. And a stone is rolled in front to prevent any encounters for three days.

The ultimate question is the one posed on Easter Sunday in Mark 16 -- Who will roll away the stone? If the stones are not removed, we can never have a close moment with God? Will it be you?

Action

The Easter Question – “Who will roll away the stone?” – represents our earthly concerns which can be overcome with faith. We ultimately learn that it really is Jesus who will do so if we just have faith.

The stones of the immigration debate are starting to melt into compromise. But other developments and events in the news are making my head spin, especially this book of Judas story which will undoubtedly command the headlines for a few days now as we enter Holy Week. Undoubtedly the media will earn a few extra pieces of silver with some sensational stories on this curiosity.

However, today’s Gospel showed people with hard hearts and harder stones. Let’s open our hearts and turn our attention to something to make someone’s day just a little brighter.
There is a special birthday coming up on April 16 -- Pope Benedict XVI. Why not send Pope Benedict a Birthday eCard? You can wish Pope Benedict XVI a happy birthday by sending him an eCard courtesy of William H. Sadlier, Inc., and the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership.