For 24 March 2026, Tuesday of the 5th week of Lent, based on John 8:21-30
https://word.op.org/2026/03/24/34146/
Jesus said to the Pharisees, “I am going away, and you will search for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” Then the Jews said, “Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.” They said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Why do I speak to you at all? I have much to say about you and much to condemn; but the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.” As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
—-
When Jesus says, “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sins,” the Pharisees seem to ignore this message. Possibly it just makes them angry and they simply want to change the subject. Jesus repeats the reference to dying in their sins twice more and links these statements to who he is ( “I AM”) and to where he belongs: “I belong to what is above”; “You belong to what is below.”
They really don’t want to talk about their sins, do they? Have we run into this evasion in our own time? In political statements, for example. I remember when one of our leaders was asked if he believes in forgiveness. His answer was to deny that he has such a need, the reason apparently being that he is not a sinner. An accusation as sinner is probably to be avoided by people who see themselves as “king” material. But has he never read Jesus’ frequent affirmation of his love for sinners? That he came to save sinners? That all of us are sinners? Kings evidently are made of perfection, with little need for reality and certainly none for humility.
When the Pharisees finally ask “Who are you?” Jesus moves the conversation to his connection to his Father, because it is this relationship, this Trinitarian relationship of love that identifies him, that encompasses him. He does not credit his ability or any personal talent for who he is, although we understand what I AM means. He says: “When you lift up the son of Man, then you will realize that I AM and that I do nothing on my own but I say only what the Father taught me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” Not exactly a statement that we might hear from a political leader who is not known for his holy dependence on God.
In his book The Tears of Things, sub-titled “Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage,” Richard Rohr’s focus is the prophets but what he says has strong resonance for all of us. He writes:
“The Jewish prophets are merciless about truth and revealing the disguises that individuals and groups adopt to protect their egos. . . . We have spent the centuries and millennia since constructing the same kinds of self-serving power centers that Jesus and the prophets denounced, and most of us are resigned to the status quo. . . . We are accustomed to blaming individual bad people—and telling them to go to confession to deal with their personal sins. But what the prophets do is call out the collective, not just the individual, as a way of seeking the common good. . . . It is a way we, in our 21st century, still find hard to learn.”
“To call out the collective, not just the individual, as a way of seeking and serving the common good.”
How long must I meditate on this statement before I grasp that it is not only my self but all of us together who, in constituting the common good, grow to please the Father? How else to tame our own Age of Outrage?
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
About Marianne Watts OP
From Oswego, NY. Educated at College of New Rochelle, Catholic Univ., and BreadLoaf School of English (Middlebury College). Member of Dominican Sisters of Hope. Teacher of English in four states, primarily on high school level. Writer and blogger.
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24 Mar 2026
0 CommentsThe Age of Outrage
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https://word.op.org/2026/03/24/34146/
Jesus said to the Pharisees, “I am going away, and you will search for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.” Then the Jews said, “Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.” They said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “Why do I speak to you at all? I have much to say about you and much to condemn; but the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.” They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.” As he was saying these things, many believed in him.
—-
When Jesus says, “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sins,” the Pharisees seem to ignore this message. Possibly it just makes them angry and they simply want to change the subject. Jesus repeats the reference to dying in their sins twice more and links these statements to who he is ( “I AM”) and to where he belongs: “I belong to what is above”; “You belong to what is below.”
They really don’t want to talk about their sins, do they? Have we run into this evasion in our own time? In political statements, for example. I remember when one of our leaders was asked if he believes in forgiveness. His answer was to deny that he has such a need, the reason apparently being that he is not a sinner. An accusation as sinner is probably to be avoided by people who see themselves as “king” material. But has he never read Jesus’ frequent affirmation of his love for sinners? That he came to save sinners? That all of us are sinners? Kings evidently are made of perfection, with little need for reality and certainly none for humility.
When the Pharisees finally ask “Who are you?” Jesus moves the conversation to his connection to his Father, because it is this relationship, this Trinitarian relationship of love that identifies him, that encompasses him. He does not credit his ability or any personal talent for who he is, although we understand what I AM means. He says: “When you lift up the son of Man, then you will realize that I AM and that I do nothing on my own but I say only what the Father taught me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” Not exactly a statement that we might hear from a political leader who is not known for his holy dependence on God.
In his book The Tears of Things, sub-titled “Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage,” Richard Rohr’s focus is the prophets but what he says has strong resonance for all of us. He writes:
“The Jewish prophets are merciless about truth and revealing the disguises that individuals and groups adopt to protect their egos. . . . We have spent the centuries and millennia since constructing the same kinds of self-serving power centers that Jesus and the prophets denounced, and most of us are resigned to the status quo. . . . We are accustomed to blaming individual bad people—and telling them to go to confession to deal with their personal sins. But what the prophets do is call out the collective, not just the individual, as a way of seeking the common good. . . . It is a way we, in our 21st century, still find hard to learn.”
“To call out the collective, not just the individual, as a way of seeking and serving the common good.”
How long must I meditate on this statement before I grasp that it is not only my self but all of us together who, in constituting the common good, grow to please the Father? How else to tame our own Age of Outrage?
Scripture passage from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright 1989, 1993, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
About Marianne Watts OP
From Oswego, NY. Educated at College of New Rochelle, Catholic Univ., and BreadLoaf School of English (Middlebury College). Member of Dominican Sisters of Hope. Teacher of English in four states, primarily on high school level. Writer and blogger.