Star Witness - Words or Deeds?

Gospel: John 5: 31-47

We human beings love to hear ourselves talk.  Most of the time it is for our own benefit and not for anyone else's.  This is often true in the realm of religion where reams of paper are spent on works of theology and apologetics that are - more often than not - designed to convince ourselves and our own insecurities rather than anyone else.  

Jesus engages in verbal disputes with his opponents, but time and again he returns to a theme in today's Gospel: the works Jesus performs speak for themselves - works of mercy, love, healing, and compassion.  These are what attract people to the mission of Jesus, a mission into which he invites us all to full participation - to perform the works of mercy to all people everywhere.  Let the works speak for themselves.

Lent is our time to recommit to the works of mercy and to silence - to let the works speak and not ourselves, to do the works in humility and quiet.  This is a great act of faith.  We will be tempted to engage in useless polemic and apologetic that only serve our own egos and demonstrate our insecurities and lack of faith.  But if we engage in silent practice of the works of mercy in humility, we trust that those alone are our only reliable witness before God and the world.