Toward Easter - Daily Readings & Meditations for Lent 2025 - Day 36

"I and the Father are one." With these words from today's Gospel reading, Jesus makes one of His most direct claims to divinity—a claim so shocking that the Pharisees immediately reach for stones to execute Him for blasphemy.

This powerful Wednesday in Passion Week meditation explores how this ancient confrontation reveals a fundamental truth: our world is permanently divided into two camps—those who follow Christ and those who oppose Him. There is no comfortable middle ground. As French Catholic writer Ernest Hello powerfully states, "Placed between the fire of those who love and the fire of those who hate, you will have to throw yourself into the battle, on one side or the other." This challenges our modern tendency toward moral relativism and cultural indifference.

We wrestle with the uncomfortable reality that what many consider neutrality actually serves the enemy's purposes. The large mass of people who remain indifferent to matters of faith—the cultural Catholics, the religiously unaffiliated—aren't truly neutral but unwittingly align themselves against God. This strikes at the heart of American Catholicism, which has historically tried to compartmentalize faith, keeping it private while conforming to secular standards publicly.

The meditation offers three practical resolutions: following Jesus whatever the cost in our personal, family, and social lives; witnessing boldly for Christ while patiently enduring contradiction; and praying for missionaries working in difficult conditions. These acknowledge that authentic discipleship demands "enormous efforts and enormous sacrifices," including potential loss of relationships with those who reject the faith.

Where do you stand in this unavoidable spiritual battle? As we approach Easter, consider whether you're fully committed to Christ and His Church or settled for a comfortable compromise that ultimately places you in opposition to God's purposes. The choice of camp is yours, but neutrality is an illusion.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Wednesday in Passion Week
• 2:44 Gospel Reading and Meditation
• 6:00 Two Camps: Friends or Enemies
• 7:40 Prayer and Thoughts for Today
• 10:07 Three Resolutions for Passion Week
• 13:42 Catholic Action in America Today

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:50

Sancte.

Speaker 1: 0:50

Sancte, amare morti decadas nos In teispera verum. Good morning everyone. Welcome to Wednesday in Passion Week. We are on day 36 of Lent here. That means we have 10 days left, 10 days left of Lent, and today we will be talking about contradictions and oppositions, and these are, of course, these readings and meditations are from Toward Easter by Father Patrick Trodeck, and the link is in the description below if you'd like to purchase the book. The description below if you'd like to purchase the book. Um, so in this book, so in the past I've, you know, I do the meditations for lent and then for advent. This book does have meditations that continue through, um, let's see here that continued throughout the octave of Easter, so they go up until Easter Saturday, so right before, you know, the day before Low Sunday. I haven't done it in the past but if you'd like, if you think it would be fruitful, I could do all the meditations in the book. I could go through Easter Sunday, saturday. So leave a comment below if you would listen to them, if you would like meditations through the Octave of Easter, and I'll do that. I mean, they're in the book already, so it would be very easy for me just to continue. So let me know. But we will get into today's meditation here. Just a second here. I'll put up our image on the screen and we will get going Wednesday in Passion Week.

Speaker 1: 3:34

Contradictions and Oppositions From the Gospel of St John, chapter 10, verses 30-31. Jesus said to the Jews I and the Father are one. The Jews then took up stones to stone him. The Jews then took up stones to stone him. Here, more than anywhere else in the Gospels, jesus forcefully affirms his divinity. The Jews ask him directly If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. And Jesus answers I speak to you and you do not believe. Then he adds I and the Father are one. Why do you say that I blaspheme in affirming that I am the Son of God, for my Father is in me and I am in my Father.

Speaker 1: 4:30

This witness aggravates his enemies, so much so that they take up stones to lapidate him as a usurper of the divine nature. Thus, as the passion draws near, it appears more and more clearly that there are only two camps that of the friends of Jesus and that of his enemies. That of the friends of Jesus and that of his enemies. By this we can see the radical incompatibility between light and darkness, between good and evil, between truth and error. Still today, the world remains divided into two camps the ones who adore Jesus and the others who reject him. There is doubtless a huge mass of people who remain indifferent, but those play the game of the enemy, whether they like it or not. As for those ignorant of the conflict, they show us what we might have been without the grace of God.

Speaker 1: 5:33

Lord Jesus, in this combat which is now taking place between thee and Satan, do not permit me to be simply a spectator, but take me from myself and give me to thee so that I might commit myself, body and soul to thy service. Help me to opt once and for all for fidelity without reserve to all of the demands of the faith and to acquire an apostolic spirit by taking calmly and firmly your defense when thine honor is at stake. And now a prayer from Father Gabriel of St mary magdalene from divine intimacy, volume 1, page 159, in the name of the father and of the son and the holy ghost amen, oh jesus, pardon for all of the times during my life when I myself, by my words, by my acts or by my guilty silence, contributed to putting thee to death. I thank thee for having brought me back to life by the merits of thy holy passion. Amen, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, amen.

Speaker 1: 6:52

Okay, our two thoughts today are actually from two people I've never heard of, but the first thought is from an Ernest Hello, who apparently was, from what I could find, a French author, a French Catholic writer, philosopher and literary critic known for his works on theology, philosophy and literature in the mid-1800s. So our thought from him placed between the fire of those who love and the fire of those who hate, you will have to throw yourself into the battle, on one side or the other. You had better realize it. On one side or the other, you had better realize it. The call is made not to man in general, but to you in particular, for all of the moral, intellectual, material forces at your disposal are so many weapons that God has placed in your hands, with the freedom to use them for him or against him. You will have to fight. You fight necessarily. He has only left you the choice of the camp. And then the second quote.

Speaker 1: 8:11

The second thought of the day is from a Father Augustine Shomerton, and I could not find anything about him, but he says we want to be approved. Scarcely do we suffer even our most obvious errors to be ever so modestly brought to light, and a blunt, unkind correction simply infuriates us. Yet by his grace and his example, jesus teaches us to endure everything. And now we have three resolutions for today. Resolution number one To follow Jesus Whatever the cost, in respecting integrally the law of God, the doctrine of the church and our personal, family and social life, even at the cost of enormous efforts and enormous sacrifices. Number two, and enormous sacrifices. Number two to witness in favor of our Lord when the occasion presents itself, patiently enduring. Contradiction. Number three to pray for missionaries who exercise their apostolate in conditions that are sometimes very difficult.

Speaker 1: 9:46

And that is it for the reading from the book today, and this is a very good one, both the meditation here from Father Trodec as well as the quote here from Ernest Tello, I mean it makes it very clear that there are, you know, there are two sides, that life is black and white, um, whereas everything else in our society, in our world, tells you that everything's a shade of gray. You know, uh, that there is no moral right and wrong. It's, it's all relative to who you are, what you know when you, when you are where you are. Everything's relative, but clearly there are two sides. You're either with God and for Christ, or you're with Satan and against Christ.

Speaker 1: 10:53

In the meditation here it says that there's a huge mass of people who are indifferent. You know who are the culturally catholic, who are the? You know so-called nuns, um, nuns as in, like no religious affiliation, not as in, religious sisters, um, but yeah, that's like the huge, that's, that's the large mass of people in the world, right, those who are just indifferent. But father says here that they play the game of the enemy, whether they like it or not. Yeah, then there are some who are entirely ignorant to the conflict, but, but all they do is show us what we might have been without the grace of God. As Ernest, hello, you know, I'm going to repeat his quote here because it is very good Place.

Speaker 1: 11:51

Between the fire of those who love and the fire of those who hate, you have to throw yourself into the fire on one side or the other. And he said you would better realize it. And it's not something as he says here, it's not something that you can't think of, it as well. Everyone's just called to do that. That's just for everyone, and it is.

Speaker 1: 12:19

But you have to realize that it's also for you in particular that God gave you so many resources, whether they're your intellectual faculties, whatever skills you have. All the resources at your disposal, he says, for all the moral, intellectual and material forces at your disposal are so many weapons that God has placed in your hands. And God has given you the freedom to use them for God or against God. And he says here you will have to fight. You will necessarily have to fight throughout your life. The question is, what side do you choose? No matter what, you're fighting, so will you fight for God. So will you fight for God or will you fight against God and to ignore it? To ignore it is to fight against God. There are only two sides.

Speaker 1: 13:22

The middle ground is a lie and you know, we just talked about it yesterday and we've talked about it probably at least half a dozen times throughout this Lent here. But our church in America has always wanted to, to be indifferent, to be in that middle ground, to be in the gray Right. Let us be Catholic, but just leave us alone. You know, let us be Catholic in private and in public. We'll be good little Americans marching along to whatever the secular drum is doing. Well, that means that for most of our history, then, american Catholicism has been on the side of the enemy, because that's the side you're on when you're indifferent, and that needs to stop.

Speaker 1: 14:27

If our country is ever going to survive the issues it has, it will only do so if it is Catholic. And our country will only be Catholic if Catholics actually do something about it, if Catholics actually start to live their faith publicly. And you know what young people see, that young people know that better than than than probably any generation of catholics in our country. And I really think that that the zoomers and in, and then the generation after that, are going to be the generations that probably turn the tide, because the, the, those people of those generations who are Catholic, they, they see that, they, they know instinctually that that now is the time. It, it didn't act Well, the time was probably a long time ago, but now's our last chance. You know we're, we're at the end, the end of the world, but the end of end of something here in this country. Whatever's going to come after, if we want it to, if we want it to be a place we can continue to live in.

Speaker 1: 15:48

We have to make it Catholic, whatever it ends up being. And that means we have to stop ignoring the fight. We have to, we have to actively engage and make sure we do know. Or the first resolution is to follow jesus, whatever the cost, in respecting the law of god and doctrine of the church, and to do so in our personal, our family, family and our social lives, even at the cost of enormous efforts and enormous sacrifices. And if you try to live the law of God and doctrine of the church in your social life, in your family life, you will have to make enormous sacrifices. You will lose friends, you will lose family members, will lose family members, and that is why, for most of our history here in this country, we haven't done so, because we haven't been willing to make those sacrifices.

Speaker 1: 17:09

Well, that needs to change. It has to change, it has to change. That is all I have for you today. Tomorrow, thursday, here in Passion Week, we will talk about the folly of love. So thank you all for joining me today, on this Wednesday of Passion Week. I hope you all have a great day today and I will see you all tomorrow morning. Thank you.