March 15, 2013. Homily, Saturday, March 16, 2013

John 7: 40-53

Some in the crowd who heard these words of Jesus said, "This is truly the Prophet." Others said, "This is the Christ." But others said, "The Christ will not come from Galilee, will he? Does not Scripture say the the Christ will be of David's family and come from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?" So a division occurred in the crowd because of him. Some of them even wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him.
So the guards went to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them. "Why did you not bring him?' The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man. " So the Pharisees answered them, "Have you also been deceived? Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees believed in him? But this crowd which does not know the law is accursed." Nicodemus, one of their members who had come to him earlier, said to them, "Does our law condemn a man before it first hears him and finds out what he is doing?" They answered and said to him. "You are not from Galilee also, are you? Look and see that no prophet arises from Galilee."
Then each went to his own house.
The Gospel of the Lord.

Pope Francis was elected Wednesday, three days ago. His election broke precedent, in that he was the first Jesuit elected Pope, the first Pope from the Americas, the first Pope to take the name "Francis".  When he appeared on the balcony for his first appearance as Pope, he said that his brothers had searched to the ends of the earth to find and elect him, across the seas to South America and down South America to Buenas Aries. He first asked the people for their blessing, bent down to receive it, and then gave all present and all who listening a plenary indulgence with his blessing. He did not wear his ermine cap or his ermine stole.  he was giving all a new start. The press said that his name "Francis" was from Francis of Assisi but the given name of one of the founders of the Society of Jesus, Francis Xavier is also "Francis".
Francis of Assisi is known for his humility as well as his holiness, while Francis Xavier is known for his missionary zeal together with his holiness.
John's Gospel is in two major parts: The Book of Signs and the Book of Glory.

The gospel of John read earlier this week has Jesus curing the man at Sheep's Gate lying by the pool of Bethesda who had been sick 38 years with the words, "Rise up, take up your mat and go home." And Jesus being asked by the court official to come and cure the official's son, Jesus saying the words , "Your son will live.", and the official believing and returning home with the son cured at the very hour Jesus had spoken. And John 7:37-38, has "On the last and greatest day of the feast [Feast of Tabernacles], Jesus stood up and exclaimed, 

       'Let any one who thirsts come to me and drink. 
      Whoever believes in me, as Scripture says 
               "Rivers of living water will flow from him."'" 

So we have, "Never before has anyone spoken like this man."

The Pharisees relied on their knowledge of the Book without doing their own research, whether learning where Jesus had been born or themselves observing his Signs in the form of his miracles, but instead passing over Jesus in that they thought he had come from Galilee. Galilee was the Brooklyn of Palestine with the Aramaic equivalent of Brooklyn's dese, dem and dose. Instead, they dismissed the thought of Jesus and each went to his own home.

The simple trappings of deliberation make academics think they have reached an opinion through reasoned debate, instead, in part, through am irrational social dynamic. A group-think environment produces a one-sided academy. Bauerlain's law of group polarization: when like-minded people deliberate, their general opinion shifts toward extreme versions of their common beliefs.

If today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts.