SATURDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Blessed are those who,
with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves
and yield a harvest through their perseverance. LK 8:15

JEREMIAH 11:18-20 ©

My Soul's Beloved, 

The world has always hated those who are beloved by God. They are a thorn in the side of the wicked and the wicked will find no rest unless they wipe them off the face of the earth.

So it was with the prophet Jeremiah - he was hated by those in authority and by the false prophets who told the king and the people what they desired to hear. He called them out boldly, repudiated them, and warned them of the coming wrath of God if they did not repent and for his pains, he was hounded, persecuted imprisoned, tortured, and vilified, but nothing not even the threat of death would stop him.

Jeremiah was an archetype of You as were all the prophets who were rejected, persecuted, and destroyed. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so all who believed in You would not perish but receive eternal life. Even though He knew You would be given up into the hands of evil men who would condemn You to the most horrific death imaginable - crucifixion. 

But God turned evil to triumph, death to victory, sorrow to eternal joy. All sorrow is permitted by our heavenly Father only because He has the power to draw from it infinite good.

The greatest vengeance of all that the Lord of Hosts has pronounced on His enemies is the triumph of the Cross and the triumph of divine love.

PSALM 7:2-3,9-12 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

We have a God who is constantly inviting us to make our home in Him through Your Sacred Heart. Safe in this refuge our enemies cease to pursue us. The enemy constantly inveigles us to sin and too often, in a moment of weakness, we find ourselves rushing headlong into the depths of the filthy mire of iniquity. Only You can save us and this is why we must make our home in You.

Anyone who tangles with temptations will find themselves caught in its murky web - this is why we must flee the seduction of sin from the first moment. Give us wisdom and fill us with Your Holy Spirit and with grace so we can withstand the allure of the snares that the Enemy lays out to traps us. 

You are our strength and our shield. Yours is the Name that puts the Enemy to flight. You cover us with Your precious Blood and all who cling to You, You will protect and keep safe but the wicked, even though they may seem to flourish, will eventually be destroyed. 

JOHN 7:40-52 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Truth is incandescent, it is visible, it cannot be hidden and if one seeks the Truth with a sincere heart, an open mind, and a genuine desire one will find it.

The people who were listening to You and wondering whether or not You were the prophet, or the Christ, needed not only to be familiar with the prophecies concerning the Messiah in Scripture but to be familiar with who You were, where You came from, Your birth. It would not have been hard. You were just thirty years of age, Your Mother was alive, they knew You were from Nazareth. A sincere search would have led them to the truth. 

More than that was the evidence of the signs and wonders, the miracles, the power over nature, over evil spirits, the physical healings - all these pointed to divinity. 

They knew that the Christ would be descended from David, they knew that He would come from Bethlehem and all this was true concerning You, but because You were living in Nazareth, and had lived a perfectly ordinary life for thirty years they judged You superficially and rejected You. Instead, they bickered about You and had divided opinions of You.

The chief priest and the Pharisees plotted feverishly to arrest You. They so You as a threat to their authority and their influence with the people. They operated on the principle of fear and You were fearless. You mocked them, You exposed their duplicity, You showed them up as morally bankrupt, their spirituality was a pose, and You revealed how they used and abused the Law for personal gain. When they sent soldiers to arrest You they were so wonderstruck by Your teaching they returned without You. 

Nicodemus, a Pharisee, who came to talk to You at night and who believed in You, spoke up and said, But surely the Law does not allow us to pass judgement on a man without giving him a hearing and discovering what he is about?’ To this, they answered, ‘Are you a Galilean too? Go into the matter, and see for yourself: prophets do not come out of Galilee.’ Nicodemus was too timid to go any further than this in Your defence.

They belittled You because You came from Galilee. Too often we are guilty of the same sin. We despise people because they look different, have a different skin tone, speak a different language, come from a different cultural background and more often than not, do not accord them the dignity they deserve as our equals and as children of God.