The Elusion of Evil - Friday, April 15th

Readings of the Day

Gospel: John 10: 31-42
The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.  Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father.  For which of these are you trying to stone me?”  The Jews answered him, “We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.  You, a man, are making yourself God.”  Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”‘? If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and Scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.” Then they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power.
He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained. Many came to him and said, “John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true.” And many there began to believe in him.

• stone: to hurl stones at; to kill by pelting with stone.
• What good works do I see being stoned around me?  Why are they attacked?  Is it not usually because they call out to the natural conscience, when something "of this world" tries to be a god and is challenged by the "out of this world"?
• blasphemy: the act of insulting of showing contempt or lack of reverence for God; the crime of assuming to oneself the rights or qualities of God; irreverent behavior toward anything held sacred, priceless.
• Where can I see blasphemy around me?  Who and what in the culture tries to assume the rights of God - deciding who and what is valuable, true and good?  Do I ever fail to reverence appropriately the sacred and priceless?
• escape (escaped): to get away; to avoid a threatening evil; avoid; break away from; elude pursuers, captors.
• Do I have firm hope in truth and good?  Do I see Christ's example here that ultimately, even though there will be suffering, truth and good always, always prevail?  How can I bolster up someone else today who is feeling threatened by an evil, pursued by some form of captor?

Definitions from http://www.merriman-webster.com/ and http://www.dictionary.com/.