No answer is also an answer

It is within my power either to serve God or not to serve Him. Serving Him, I add to my own good and the good of the whole world. Not serving Him, I forfeit my own good and deprive the world of that good, which was in my power to create.- Leo Tolstoy

Gospel text (Jn 10,31-42):
The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.
Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from my Father.
For which of these are you trying to stone me?"
The Jews answered him,
"We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.
You, a man, are making yourself God."
Jesus answered them,
"Is it not written in your law, 'I said, 'You are gods?'"
If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came,
and Scripture cannot be set aside,
can you say that the one
whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world
blasphemes because I said, 'I am the Son of God?'
If I do not perform my Father's works, do not believe me;
but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works, so that you may realize and understand
that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."
Then they tried again to arrest him;
but he escaped from their power.

He went back across the Jordan
to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained.
Many came to him and said,
"John performed no sign,
but everything John said about this man was true."
And many there began to believe in him.

On one side of the Jordan, the people accused Jesus of blaspheming and "reached for rocks to stone Him" (Jn 10:31). Later, they "tried to arrest Him" (Jn 10:39). On the other side of the Jordan, "many people came to" Jesus and believed in Him (Jn 10:41-42).

Why was Jesus not accepted in the holy place, the temple, but believed in "down by the riverside"? It was because John had been administering his baptism of repentance "down by the riverside." Wherever there is repentance, there is faith. Where there is no repentance, Jesus is rejected and His Church persecuted.

What side are you on? Before you answer with your mouth, look at what your life is saying about your love for Jesus. If someone saw a videotape of your everyday life without the sound, would it be abundantly clear that you have decided to be crucified with Jesus (Gal 2:19) instead of crucifying Him? If you're on Jesus side, you're on the cross. If you're on the other side, you are the cross.

We will eventually love or hate Him, be attentive to Him or despise Him (Mt 6:24). Our ambivalence will end. We will kiss the wounds or drive the nails. We will choose life or death, heaven or hell.

Settle it now before the end of Lent. Settle it now while you can.