On those days when you feel that your strength is sapped and life seems a bit overwhelming, where do you go or what do you do to find your source of strength renewed?  Think for a minute how you manage to find that Source!  Most likely within your inner self there bubbles up a verse from Scripture, or perhaps a memory of your favorite image of Jesus.  It may occur to you to reflect on someone in your life who has been a model, a hero/heroine who impressed you with that inner strength that you are looking for.

Today’s Gospel passage from John 10:31-42 gives us an image of Jesus as he experienced serious opposition from the Temple authorities who demanded that he tell them plainly if he is the Christ.  In his response, Jesus tried to open their hearts, their eyes and ears to see and hear how the Father was working through him.  Again, they want to kill him for blasphemy.  And again, they remain closed-hearted, sternly attached to their own understanding of Torah. 

But for Jesus, I wonder if he felt a bit down for their stubbornness.  Verses 40-42 tell us that he withdrew to the area where John the Baptist first pointed him out as the Lamb of God, the One who comes after John and who ranks higher than John.  Was this the place where Jesus went to get back in touch with the visible revelation of his mission?  Where, as he had waded up from his baptismal experience, he was filled with the Holy Spirit?  Was it in that place where his inner strength was renewed so that he was able to continue on his journey which eventually led to his death?   Perhaps. 

And where do we find that inner strength we need to continue on our life’s journey?  How do we stay connected to it?  As we prepare to enter into Holy Week in this year of 2024 with all its civic chaos, its disturbing world and local news, its looming clouds of darkness all around us, how do we maintain that presence of peace we pray for daily?  It’s our faith; our faith in our Beloved Jesus, who fills our hearts with the grace of his Presence.  This is where we find our inner strength to endure whatever may come our way.  As he said in the Gospel passage prior to the one for today: “My sheep hear my voice.  I know them and they follow me; and I give them eternal life.”  When we listen for that voice within, we hear him.  He guides us with that Divine Love flowing out from his heart.  Let us then, with the courage we gain from him, enter into this Passiontide along with him as we commemorate what Love has done for us.