Have your good works been misunderstood?

Good News Reflection
Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
March 26, 2010

Today's Readings:
Jeremiah 20:10-13
Ps 18:2-7
John 10:31-42
http://www.usccb.org/nab/032610.shtml
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/10_03_26.mp3

Have your good works been misunderstood?

Holy Week is the most awesome eight days of the liturgical year, beginning with Passion Sunday and ending with Easter Sunday. These Good News Reflections are now going to take us deeper into the experience of uniting ourselves with Jesus, connecting our sufferings to his sufferings, our passion to his passion, our need for the glory of resurrection to his glorious resurrection.

Using today's Gospel reading, we can unite ourselves to Jesus in the pain of rejection. Recall how you have done good works – the Lord's work – and you've been misunderstood or discredited.

Perhaps you have loved a troublesome relative or coworker or neighbor with the forgiving, unconditional love of Jesus, while others turned away in disgust. And because you did not join them in rejecting this person, they concluded that you have unhealthy or immoral feelings toward him/her.

Perhaps someone has tried to take advantage of you at work or in ministry or financially, and you obeyed Jesus' command to go the extra mile and to give away the extra shirt, and those who saw this told you to fight back and demand fair treatment. Then, because you didn't follow their advice, they condemned you as a fool.

Who is saying "let us denounce him!" about you, like we see in today's first reading? Who is watching for your misstep? Who is trying to trap you in order to prove that you are not the good Christian that you claim to be? Who is seeking vengeance against you because of the holy stand you're taking on some issue that makes them feel uncomfortable?

If you are truly serving the Lord, you have earned the disapproval of people who don't understand what you're doing and why. Gloriously, you now know how Jesus felt when it happened to him. And he knows how you feel. He's helping you endure your sufferings. He is giving you his strength and endurance and determination to do the Father's work.

When it wears you down – when the persecution and disapproval and condemnation seem like too much – remember to take time to mentally connect yourself to the Passion of Christ. Pray and ask the Father to tell you what he thinks of you. Meditate on his opinion of you – he approves of you! He appreciates what you're doing! He delights in you!

God is revealing his love to the world through you, and he thanks you. You are his beloved child and he is very pleased with you.

© 2010 by Terry A. Modica
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