Daily Catholic Lectio
Fri, 20 March 2026
Fourth Week of Lent, Friday
Wisdom 2:1, 12–22. John 7:1–2, 10, 25–30
“To Kill Him”
“To kill him”—this is the disturbing thread that runs through today’s readings. It confronts us with a hard question: why does goodness provoke hostility? Why does the presence of a righteous person lead others not to admiration, but to rejection?
The Book of Wisdom (first reading) gives us a profound insight. The righteous person becomes a disturbance simply by existing. Not because he attacks others, but because his life awakens conscience. Those who have chosen a different path—away from God, shaped by other values—feel challenged by the quiet integrity of the one who remains faithful. It is not merely a moral tension; it is a tension of choice, of direction, of identity. And so discomfort slowly turns into opposition, and opposition into a deliberate plan to silence the one who reminds them of truth.
This same dynamic unfolds in the Gospel. Jesus moves among the people, teaching openly, yet confusion surrounds him. Some are drawn to him and begin to wonder if he could be the Messiah. Others hesitate, convinced that they already know who he is and where he comes from. Their familiarity becomes a barrier. What they think they know prevents them from discovering who he truly is.
Even those close to him misunderstand him. They urge him to reveal himself more clearly, to make his identity obvious, to prove himself publicly. But this too becomes a subtle temptation. Faith does not grow through display or self-promotion. Truth is not imposed; it is encountered. What is deepest in life cannot be forced into visibility—it must be discovered through relationship, through openness, through a willingness to go beyond surface knowledge.
The deeper issue, then, is not only about those who opposed Jesus long ago. It is about us. There can be something within us that resists him. Sometimes it is pride, the feeling that we already understand. Sometimes it is fear, the reluctance to change. Sometimes it is the discomfort of allowing his light to enter the hidden areas of our life. His presence unsettles us not to condemn us, but to invite us into something greater.
The Gospel also suggests that confusion about Jesus is not a failure; it can be a beginning. But confusion must lead to seeking. Questions must lead to encounter. If our understanding of Christ remains only at the level of ideas or inherited beliefs, it will always remain fragile. It is only through personal experience—through prayer, through listening to his Word, through meeting him in the sacraments and in daily life—that clarity emerges.
“To kill him” is therefore not only an external act. It can become an inner attitude whenever we silence the voice of truth, whenever we avoid conversion, whenever we push away what challenges us. Yet there is another possibility. We can allow his presence, even when it disturbs us, to transform us.
The one whom people sought to eliminate is the one who brings life. The one who unsettles our certainties is the one who leads us into truth. If we do not resist him, but remain with him, our confusion can become faith, and our resistance can become discipleship.
Fr. Yesu Karunanidhi
Archdiocese of Madurai
Missionary of Mercy
Yesu Karunanidhi 
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