Daily Retreat 04/01/06

2006 Apr 1 Sat: Lenten Weekday

Jer 11: 18-20/ Ps 7: 2-3. 9bc-10. 11-12/ Jn 7: 40-53

From today’s readings: "I knew their plot because the LORD informed me; at that time you, O LORD, showed me their doings.... O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.... Never before has anyone spoken like this Man."

Innocence instead of gullibility

The innocence of Christ shrines particularly brightly throughout His passion. Remember, Jesus was not blinded in the least by ignorance or naivete - His own detailed predictions of His passion (cf. Mk 8:31, 9:31, 10:33, etc.) and His penetrating insights into human hearts (cf. John 2:25) rule out those possibilities.

Yet He was like the "trusting lamb led to slaughter," but not because He trusted vainly in man, rather, because He trusted valiantly in His Father’s plan. In living out our own Christian faith, we are to imitate Christ in that element of innocence, but that’s not at all to say that we should deliberately be dull-witted, gullible or obtuse - quite the contrary, for none of those traits are seen in Christ, so being such couldn’t possibly be Christ-like!