Better to be Brokenhearted than Wicked"

Today's Mass Readings

Today's is the Friday of the fourth week of Lent, and the first reading today from the Wisdom of Solomon is appropriate for it looks forward to Good Friday, only two weeks away. This reading from the Book of Wisdom, is not found in most Protestant Old Testaments, but it is the only Old Testament passage that mentions the precise phrase "son of God," which the New Testament will use so often to describe Jesus. It is also one of the clearest Old Testament passages that relate to Jesus. If you read the passion narratives of the four Gospels, and then re-read this reading from Wisdom, you will notice clear parallels, particularly in Matthew's Gospel. For example, in Matthew's Gospel, when Jesus is being crucified, we read: "Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying, '...save yourself, if you are the Son of God...'" (27:40). And also, "'He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if he wants him. For he said, "I am the Son of God."' The revolutionaries who were crucified with him also kept abusing him in the same way" (27:43-44).

But the message this passage has for us is to not behave like these wicked individuals. The reading for today explains the reason for their behavior. They were frustrated by the "just one," who as Christians we interpret to be Jesus. The "just one" is "obnoxious" to them, and he "reproaches" them "for transgressions of the law" (Wisdom 2:12). He is a "censure" of their thoughts, and therefore even seeing him is difficult for them (2:14). "His life is not like that of others, and different are his ways" (2:15). Furthermore, he "judges" them "debased," and stays away from their paths "as from things impure" (2:16).

If the season of Lent is intended to do anything, it is intended to help us become more aware of how we deserve reproachment for our own transgressions. Our very thoughts are censured by God, or at least known to God. Our actions are debased. The Catholic writer Fr. Robert Barron, points out that saints are not people who do not sin, rather the saints are the ones who are most aware of their sins. In Fr. Barron's book, The Strangest Way, he emphasizes that the saints are those who know they are sinners. That's what Lent is about. The Easter Joy of the Resurrection is such a powerful joy because it screams out the wonderful forgiveness of God. We need to keep God's forgiveness in mind throughout Lent too, but what good is forgiveness to those who don't need to be forgiven anything?

All of us are in need of forgiveness. Let's take today to really meditate upon the areas of our life, our actions and inactions, for which we need to ask God forgiveness, and then let's approach God to experience His love and mercy. Let us approach God right now, on our own, and ask for forgiveness, the mercy He so desperately wants to share with us. And let us resolve to likewise take these sins to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, where we may experience God's forgiveness in a personal and powerful way.

But let us not act as the wicked in today's first reading. When we recognize our own sins, let us not take them out on God, on Jesus. Let us not give up following God, Whose ways are not our ways, rather, let us experience how brokenhearted we are. When we sin, we do not make God angry so much as we break His heart. Let our recognition of our sins allow us to be brokenhearted. Let us prepare ourselves for the coming of Good Friday, the ultimate time of brokenheartedness. For only by passing through death are we able to experience the wonderful transformative joy of resurrection.

And always remember, as today's responsorial psalm reminds us, "The Lord is close to the brokenhearted" (Psalm 34:19).

- Jeff Morrow