Today is Saturday of the Seventh Week of Easter. The readings place us at two critical moments of confrontation: Jude writing to believers under pressure, and Jesus facing hostile questions in the Temple courts. The theme that runs through both is this: real faith requires honesty about what you’re willing to examine.
What today’s readings give us
The First Reading from Jude 17-25 is a brief letter written to early Christians surrounded by false teachers. Jude tells them to “build yourselves up in your most holy faith” and to remember what the apostles warned would come. The Responsorial Psalm is Psalm 63, the song of a soul that thirsts for God in a dry and weary land. The Gospel from Mark 11:27-33 takes us to Jerusalem during Holy Week, where the chief priests and scribes confront Jesus: “By what authority are you doing these things?”
The line worth carrying with you
Jesus does not refuse to answer because the question is unfair. He refuses because his questioners have already decided not to believe. He asks them about John the Baptist: was his baptism from heaven or from men? They calculate the political cost of each answer and refuse to commit. Jesus then says, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
This is not evasion. It is diagnosis. A question asked in bad faith gets no answer, not because the truth is unavailable, but because the questioner has locked the door from the inside. Jude’s letter says the same thing from the other side: build yourselves up in faith, pray in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God. The believer’s task is not to win arguments but to remain honest and open before God.
For today
Before bed tonight, ask yourself one question you’ve been avoiding. Not about someone else’s faith or motives, but about your own. What are you afraid to examine? Where have you calculated the cost of honesty and chosen silence? Let the question sit. Don’t force an answer. Just let it be a real question.
Today’s full readings are at USCCB.
