Good News or Bad News?

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“Let is beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us"

Wisdom 2, 1


“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” This famous quote by the British historian, Lord Acton, is relevant for today’s scripture readings. 

The people described as “wicked” in the first reading from Wisdom wanted to get rid of a “just one, because he is obnoxious to us.” They felt threatened by this person’s goodness. Strange. What had happened to them that they thought that it was a bad thing that someone was good?

Unhealthy desires (often connected to a form of power) make us unhealthy. In The Lord of the Rings, the Hobbit Sméagol became obsessed with the One Ring. He killed his friend in order to possess it. The Ring’s malignant influence twisted his Hobbit body and mind. He developed a kind of multiple personality disorder: Sméagol was his “good” personality, while Gollum, his “bad” personality, was a slave to the Ring and would kill anyone who tried to take it. 

In the gospel stories, the Jews who wanted to kill Jesus were those who had power - their religious and so-called moral authority acted like the One Ring upon them. They wanted to hold onto their power and so hated Jesus for jeopardising it; it so blinded them that they couldn’t even recognise God in their midst. Like Sméagol, they had become Gollum-like in their enslavement to power. Part of the horror of the killing of Jesus was the twisted irony of how absolute good - God Himself - was seen so badly by his killers. 

This can happen to all of us. Have you ever been annoyed by someone doing good? Have you ever rejected good advice because you’re not ready for it? In Lent, we have the opportunity to cleanse and realign our desires, with the help of our good God. 


A reflection written by Gianni Notarianni O.S.A., Parish Priest of St Augustine's Hammersmith, London and Director of Austin Forum 


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