Explication
Every day
Biblical commentaries
While, recently, I was discussing artificial intelligence with some sisters in my community, I was very pessimistic about the human capacity to make ethical use of it. One of them asked me if my words did not reflect some lack of hope in man.
Hope in man! Is this not exactly what Jesus expects of his Apostles, when he sends them, as vulnerable as possible, without staff or provisions, “like sheep in the midst of wolves”? Is this not above all what led him to come and live with us, he whom Saint John likes to present as the Lamb? Did he not foresee that he, the pure one, would be crushed by sinners? Was it madness on his part, or was it hope stronger than death?
No one is more lucid than Christ regarding the power of destruction in which sin imprisons humanity. The vocabulary used in today’s Gospel reveals this to us. It is a question of prudence, distrust, courts, killing, persecution. But when a wolf stands in front of him, the Savior already sees, in him, the sheep that he is capable of becoming. To bring this hope to fruition, he will shed his blood and ask his Apostles to be ready to give theirs. Will we have the audacity to follow him?
Other readings: Hos 14, 2-10; Ps 50
