John 7.1-2.10.25-30 – Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Reading today’s Gospel of John one immediately has the feeling that we are approaching the decisive moment in the life of Jesus. He knows that he must stay away from Jerusalem because the decision to kill him has now spread. However, he cannot remain hidden for long, because his mission is to announce the Gospel, even at the cost of his own life. Jesus, however, will die at the right time, neither before nor after.
In the Gospel of John this expression often recurs: “his hour had not yet come”. This does not indicate a blind destiny already written, but the awareness that his life moves within a greater plan, that of the Father. And here is an important lesson for us too. The Gospel suggests to us that history is not dominated by chance, but crossed by a logic of fulfillment. We are not helpless pawns within an already established script, but our life takes place within a relationship with God who knows how to guide events towards the good. God doesn’t decide everything in advance as if our freedom didn’t matter. But when a person trusts Him, something mysterious and real happens: even what appears difficult or incomprehensible can contribute to good.
As Saint Paul writes: “All things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom 8:28). The secret, then, is not to control everything that happens, but to remain united to God, to cultivate a living relationship with Him. From this relationship a profound peace is born: the certainty that nothing in our life is useless or lost. For this reason the believer can learn to welcome even what he does not fully understand. Not because everything is easy or immediately explainable, but because he knows he is in the hands of a Father. And a Father does not allow anything to happen, whether beautiful or painful, that cannot, in some way, be oriented towards our true good.
This trust does not eliminate the evidence, but gives a new peace: the peace of those who know that it is not events that are established, but it is our relationship with God that fills events with a good meaning for each of us.
Friday 20 March 2026 – (Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent)
