The first Reading is almost like an anticipated news report about what happened to Jesus. (…) It is truly a prophecy of what happened. And the Jews sought to kill Him, the Gospel says. They even go to arrest Him, the Gospel tells us, “but because His time had not yet come no one laid a hand on Him” (Jn 7:30). This is called hounding (…). And what should one do in the moment of being hounded? There are two things to be done: to dialogue with these people is not possible because they have their own ideas, fixed ideas, which the devil has sown in their hearts. We have heard what their plan of action is. What can one do? What Jesus did: remain silent. (…) It is the silence of the just one in the face of dogged fury. This is valid even for – we can say – the little, everyday types of hounding … stay silent. Silence. Endure and tolerate the hounding of gossip. (Francis, Santa Marta, 27 March 2020)