{"id":17844,"date":"2023-12-29T16:10:32","date_gmt":"2023-12-29T21:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/?p=17844"},"modified":"2024-05-04T17:32:13","modified_gmt":"2024-05-04T21:32:13","slug":"a-sign-of-contradition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/2023\/12\/a-sign-of-contradition\/","title":{"rendered":"A Sign of Contradiction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><sup>34<\/sup> &nbsp;And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, \u201cBehold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed <sup>35<\/sup> &nbsp;(and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p><cite>Luke 2:34-35<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I was reflecting on this passage from today\u2019s Gospel at Mass. While also thinking about her reaction when finding Jesus in the Temple when he was 12, \u201cAnd his mother treasured up all these things in her heart.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This aspect made me think of how aware Mary was of her son\u2019s future. Simeon didn\u2019t proclaim that this was a \u201cspoiler alert\u201d first. People would oppose and contradict her son, and this was a future that would \u201cpierce her heart.\u201d Mary knew her son was more than another prophet, along with the fate of prophets in sacred texts. These are not comforting thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Specifically, this brought in mind to me the wedding feast at Cana when Mary tells Jesus, \u201cThey have no wine.\u201d (John 2:3) I think she was well aware of the stakes when she requested this of him. Aware that this might be the \u201chour\u201d that sets Jesus on the road that would physically pierce him and subsequently piercing her own heart. What she reflected on in her heart had come to fruition. The decisive point where his public mission would begin. Her son\u2019s seeming rebuke of her request is a tacit acceptance that his hour had come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She tells the servants, \u201cDo whatever he tells you.\u201d Her years of contemplation results in the perfect encapsulation for the role of the disciple. She did not understand the saying Jesus gave her and Joseph at the Jerusalem Temple on the Feast of the Passover, but her life shows us that asking questions about God\u2019s plans and not fully understanding them is also part of being a disciple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>34 &nbsp;And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, \u201cBehold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17845,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scripture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17844"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17895,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17844\/revisions\/17895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}