Friday in Fifth Week of Lent

April 7, 2017

John 10:31-42

The confession of Jesus that He is the great “I AM” was wholly an unacceptable. The Jews were angry and ready to stone Him. Yet, Jesus made another attempt to convince them of the truth. He showed them that the Law of Moses was actually speaking of Him. To verify His claim, He pointed them the great and miraculous works that He had done. The changing water to wine, the multiplication of the bread, the healing of the blind and the paralytic, the raising of Lazarus, and many more were the signs of His divine power. Unfortunately, the minds of these people were already closed and they refused neither argument nor evidence. For them, their interpretation was the right one and the rest was as good as blasphemy. Jesus knew that His hour has not come, so He slipped away and went out of Jerusalem. Jesus was indeed a victim of religious fundamentalism.

  Fundamentalism is man’s decision to hold a particular view as the only one that is right and consequently, the others are considered as dissenting views and even dead wrong. Though we easily associate fundamentalism with religions, fundamentalism can take place also in other realms of our human society. There are religious, politic, scientific and even economic fundamentalism. Science doubtless is good and beneficial for humankind, but when some people make science, especially certain theories, as the only way to know the truth, then we have fundamentalism. Economics is necessary for human society to function, but when people consider profit as the only thing that matters and even sacrifice other human lives and environment for this, then we have fundamentalism.

Now, we may be aware that we don’t subscribe to any religious absolutism and extreme views, but fundamentalism still can creep in our daily lives. When we become stubborn husbands who think that we are always right, when we become domineering parents who refuse to listen to our children, those are fundamentalism. When a priest acts like a king and all his parishioners have to obey, when a sister superior behaves like an empress and treats other like her servants, these are fundamentalism. We must remember that we are Catholic and being a fundamentalist Catholic is actually contradiction in term. Catholic means universal, man and woman for all, and we must not be limited by any form of fundamentalism. If we continue living in fundamentalism, we might join the Jewish authorities in condemning and stoning Jesus.

Br. Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP