The Road Not Taken

Gospel: John 8: 21-30

In today's Gospel portion, Jesus says to his adversaries that there is much that he could say in condemnation of the world, but instead Jesus chooses a different path.  The way of condemnation in the past has led to untold bloodshed and loss of life.  It is the way of the warrior deity who rules by fear and intimidation, not by love and freedom.  In Jesus that way is a path that is forever rejected and removed from consideration.

Instead, Jesus chooses the way of nonviolence, the way where he becomes the one condemned, the one who undergoes unjust violence and derision.  But this path is the way of ultimate healing for the world, just as the seraph was the way to healing for Israel in the desert.  The ministry of Jesus involved. healing, liberation, and nourishing of others at table, all of which finds expression in his death on the cross that heals and liberates us from sin and becomes our Eucharistic Passover feast.

But the way of our healing is not just to look upon the crucified One but to imitate him in this very act.  It is for us now to set aside the way of condemnation and to embrace the path of mercy and love.  It is for us to suffer the injustice, to renounce the violent path, to become what we eat in the Eucharist by the actions we perform and the lives we live.