THURSDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT - 2021

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son:
everyone who believes in him has eternal life. JN 3:16

EXODUS 32:7-14 © 

My Soul's Beloved, 

These are God's people, chosen from among all the nations of the world to be His inheritance, and yet now, when they have committed the most heinous sin of idol worship, now when they have forgotten how He took them by the hand and led them with the most awesome signs and wonders out of Egypt, they away from Him. He is wounded by their fickleness, their lack of love and trust and He now rejects them and refers to them no longer as His people but as the people of Moses. 

Beloved, everything that God accuses the people of Israel to be, we are. We are idolators, we apostatize, we make false gods of ourselves, of people, of possessions and we are absorbed in these gods of our making. We have forgotten that we are purchased and redeemed at a price we can never hope to repay. We have strayed far from the paths of wisdom and good sense. We follow the herd rather than being guided by a right conscience. No one could utter a word in our defence if You permitted Your wrath to blaze out against us, devour us, and wipe us off the face of the earth.

The people of Israel had Moses to plead on their behalf and we are more abundantly blessed than they for we have You, Beloved, to plead for us night and day before our heavenly Father. Your Cross and Your Passion are ever before Him making intercession on our behalf night and day. Too great a price was paid for our salvation. More precious than all the gold and the rubies was the Most Precious Blood that poured from Your sacred Body reconciling us to the Father.

Moses pleaded with God to remember the covenant He had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and to relent. You say nothing - You just reveal Your wounds to the Father reminding Him of the price paid to purchase us. True, we are unworthy, sinful, weak, and ungrateful more often than not, but You still claim us as Your Own, and for Your sake, the Father will relent. We are Your heritage. We are the flock of the Good Shepherd. We belong to the Lamb that was slain in our place, dying our death we now receive Your life. Emboldened by Your love we take refuge in You and are safe. 

PSALM 106:19-23 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The Crucifix is a constant reminder of the love that You have for us. Yes, we are sinners. Yes, we fall a hundred times a day. And yes we deserve punishment but You took upon Yourself a punishment that was ours. You stood condemned before Pilate in our stead. You received the judgment of death by crucifixion, a punishment reserved for the worst of hardened criminals, a death that was so horrific it was not imposed on Roman citizens.  

And yet, Beloved, our memory is shallow. We take the price paid for our salvation lightly. We do not contemplate Your Passion and hence we are indifferent to the true horror of Your sufferings. We are constantly exchanging the glory of God as His children by rooting with the swine and wallowing in the mire of sin. We are so covered in filth we no longer smell the stench of our iniquity. 

We have forgotten that God has given us a Savior. We are undeserving of so great a love and yet for Your sake, the Father forgives us over and over again. 

Thank You, Beloved, for standing in the breach and pleading with Him night and day to withhold the punishment we deserve. Have mercy, Lord, for the sake of Your sorrowful passion and for the sake of Your faithful remnant bring the world back from the brink of self-destruction to wisdom and new life in You once more. 

JOHN 5:31-47 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

What a heart-breaking discourse this is to the people whom God chose and formed to be His own. Fulfilling every one of His promises beginning with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and culminating in the final Covenant of Love, He sent You into the world in the flesh. His Son, His Incarnate Word, God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten not made, one with Father and they refused to know You. You came unto Your own and Your own refused You.

You plead with them to take the scales from their eyes so they can see the Truth in the Flesh standing before them. All the testimony they need is made known to them - the witness of the Father, Your miraculous works, and Sacred Scripture - all testify to who You are - the Son of the Living God. 

Until the very last You pleaded with them and urged them to believe and in believing they would be saved. But their hearts were too hard, too cold, too proud, too narrow. You did not fit their preconceived ideas of a Messiah and so they rejected You utterly. 

How many of us who are Catholics (the most privileged of all through no merit of our own but by the sheer grace and gift of God), Christians, and those who have in one way or other been exposed by the truths of Christianity, continue to be just as indifferent as the Jews of the time. 

We live in an age where no one can claim ignorance of You. One has to be living under a rock not to know of You. Every living soul is given an opportunity to make a choice for You or against You. Many choose against You for they believe the Way to Life is too hard and so they reject it without even trying. But as so many witnesses testify - once they make the decision for You they become a new creation in You.  

How can anyone stand before the Father after having rejected You? Give us eyes that we may see, ears that we may hear, and a heart that is open to receiving the Truth so the world may be renewed once again by the power of the Holy Spirit.