40 Shades of Lent by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II
Friday, Fourth Week in Lent, 04 April 2025
Wisdom 2:1, 12-22 + + + + + John 7:2, 10, 25-30

Life indeed is a daily Lent,
Lord Jesus: as we come to close
this fourth week in Lent while entering
its penultimate week, our readings
today show us the reality of life
that can be confusing sometimes.
Jesus moved about within Galilee; but he did not wish to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him. But when his brothers had gone up to the feast (of the Tabernacle), he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret. Some of the inhabitants of Jerusalem said, “Is he not the one they are trying to kill? And look, he is speaking openly and they say nothing to him” (John 7:1, 10, 25, 26).
Of course,
you were never confused
Lord Jesus
but we your disciples
and almost everyone
including bystanders
are the ones confused:
you moved in secret but
everybody recognized you;
most of all,
threats never deterred you
from speaking what is true,
that the one who sent you
whom many do not know
is true (John 7:28).
The first reading
also gives us an impression
of confusion among peoples,
but never from God;
like what the author of the
Book of Wisdom had written,
the wicked are most confused
though pretending to know all,
plotting against the just
and the believers.
Confusions happen
in Lent
in life
when we refuse to
believe and trust in you,
Jesus;
confusions happen
in Lent
in life
when we disregard
you who is truth himself,
when we choose
not to love.
Teach us Jesus
that truth is not just
an object
an objective reality
of concurrence what is in our
mind and what is outside but
most of all
truth is a person,
when we accept you
wholly among those around
us especially the needy
and disadvantaged.
Amen.
