Homily: March 21, 2026, Saturday of the Fourth Week in Lent (Power of Truth and Love)

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 “Never before has anyone spoken like this man.”

The guards were sent to arrest Jesus. They went with a clear mission. But when they heard Him speak, something changed. They stood there, listening… and instead of bringing Him back in chains, they returned in amazement.

They could not arrest Him—because they had encountered something greater: truth spoken with authority, and love lived authentically.

This reminds me of Cardinal Francis Văn Thuận, whose cause for canonization is now underway. In the year 2000, he preached a retreat to Pope St. John Paul II and the Roman Curia, and his reflections later became the well-known book Testimony of Hope.

But his authority did not come from books or speeches. It came from his life.

He spent fifteen years in prison under the communist regime in Vietnam—thirteen of those years in solitary confinement. The guards who watched him were often harsh and cruel. Yet he responded with patience, kindness, and love.

And slowly, something extraordinary happened.

One by one, the guards began to change. They were touched by his peace, his joy, and his love. Some of them even converted to Christianity. The authorities became so concerned that they had to keep changing the guards frequently—because they too were being transformed.

This is the power of truth and love lived together.

The guards in today’s Gospel were also transformed—not by force, but by encountering Jesus.

And this is what always happens when someone truly lives for Christ.

People who speak the truth—without compromise—and who live with genuine love may be opposed, misunderstood, even rejected. But they carry within them a strength that does not come from the world.

Because Christ, who is the Truth, stands with them.

Today we are invited to ask ourselves:

Do others encounter Christ through my words?

Do they see His love in my actions?

Because it is not only what we say—but how we live—that has the power to touch hearts.

May we learn to speak the truth with love, and to live in such a way that others, like those guards, may say:

“Never before have we seen or heard someone like this.” Amen.


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