“Jesus moved about within Galilee; he did not wish to travel in Judea, because the Jews were trying to kill him. But the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near. But when his brothers had gone up to the feast, he himself also went up, not openly but as it were in secret.)

(From John7:1-2; 10; 25-30)  

As Jesus walked about in Galilee, many knew who he was.  The fact that he was out in the open was confusing to them, as they also knew there were those who intended to kill him.  He was in Galilee and not Jerusalem, because, as scripture says, “his time had not yet come,” and they could not understand why he was taking such a risk.  Given the context of today’s passage, we could perhaps consider this: Jesus would not be Jesus if he were to keep his message to himself.

While his time had not yet come, it was indeed close. We too are nearing the end, of our Lenten time, that is.  In just a couple of weeks, as we will enter what the church calls “the holiest week of the year,” the tone will change dramatically, and we will enter, with Jesus, into his passion and death.  We will also hear about those who did not stand with him but, instead, ran and hid.  

In this regard, how are we when it comes to living our faith openly?  Some of us are comfortable doing so, while many others are not. Some of us make it a priority. Some do not. Whenever I meet a high school student, for example, who seems to be comfortable being open about his or her faith, that really inspires me.  Here in our community, last weekend was an incredibly busy one for a lot of our high school seniors.  Our city had its annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, and at least one school had its senior prom.  After the prom itself, a group of parents held an event at one of our local church parishes, where the students could for good, safe fun. That event lasted into the early morning hours.  I was speaking with a young man who had attended all of these and had a great time. I asked him, “It was a pretty busy weekend, right?”  He told me, “Yeah, it was awesome. I went to the parade, then we had prom, then went to the event after. I got home at 5:00am, went to sleep at 5:30, and then got up at 9:00am to go to Mass.”  I walked away thinking, “You don’t hear that every day.” 

Jesus walked about openly, despite the risks.  While our risks are not the same as his, there are risks, to be sure.  Still, how open are we willing to be?