Today, in the midst of our Lenten journey, we commemorate the feast day of St John of Egypt. In the latter part of 4th century, John was a young carpenter when he withdrew to the desert, serving as an apprentice to an elderly hermit. After that elderly hermit died, John walled himself into a cave in the desert, leaving only a small window where people would bring him food and drink several times a week. He would preach to the people and instruct them from his cell. John is part of the movement called the Desert Fathers and Mothers. They can be seen as the early example of the monastic movement of nuns and monks that we have in our Church today. John predicted two military victories for Emperor Theodosius I, which came to fruition in 388 and 392. The cell in which John spent his life was discovered in 1925.
When I think of John of Egypt and the Desert Fathers and Mothers, I think of their great wisdom and strength. Today’s reading from the book of Wisdom explains to us how the wicked often lie in wait for the righteous one, wanting to destroy him because he is inconvenient and opposes their actions, how the righteous recognize the sins of the wicked, how this threatens them. These are the forces of darkness that were at work in the world described by the book of Wisdom, the forces of darkness that tried to destroy Jesus in our Gospel reading, the forces that tried to entrap him wherever he traveled in his ministry in ancient Israel.
But our psalmist assures us today: The Lord is close to the brokenhearted – he confronts the evildoers – he hears the just cry out to him. The Lord is with us in our reality, in our difficulty, our sufferings, and our challenges.
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