WEDNESDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK OF LENT - 2022

LENT 2022

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me will have the light of life. JN 8:12

JEREMIAH 18:18-20 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Once again we see a passage from the Old Testament which foreshadows what You Yourself will experience at the hands of hard-hearted, stubborn, evil people who refuse to recognize the presence of God in their midst.

The prophet Jeremiah preached the truth and pointed out the sins of the king, the priests, false prophets, and the people and they would have none of it. We prefer to live cozily with half-truths comfortable, self-indulgent lives rather than be challenged by the Gospel to be holy and perfect as You O Lord, and our heavenly Father are holy and perfect.

Evildoers have always feverishly plotted against the innocent. They are restless until they have shut them in prisons or murdered them. They mistakenly believe that they have silenced them but it has been proved time and time again that the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christians.

This is why when we suffer persecution, are reviled, plotted against, tortured, imprisoned, and even put to death for Your sake and the sake of the Gospel they cannot silence Truth. If the Master suffered so too will His servants for they are not greater than their Master. 

From the time of Your crucifixion and until the ages run their course the prophecy of Jeremiah is our hope, for You now stand in the presence of God pleading with the Father to turn away His wrath from us for the Blood of the Lamb delivers and saves us. 

MATTHEW 20:17-28 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The whole of the Gospel and Your brief life on earth is summarized by these verses and for anyone who wants to be Your disciple and to serve You in any way must always bear these words in mind:  ‘You know that among the pagans the rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’

We are always jostling and elbowing each other so we can be in the front row and occupy the best seats in the house. We want to be recognized, treated with respect, greeted, we want people to make way for us and lead us to seats reserved for us. You remind us that this is the way of the world and we are not to emulate the world for the world is not our home.  

You do not sugarcoat the cost of discipleship. In plain terms, You explain what You will soon undergo in Jerusalem. This is why You were born, why You came into the earth.

‘Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the pagans to be mocked and scourged and crucified; and on the third day he will rise again.’ 

This is terrifying to the disciples who expected places of honor and respect once You established Your Kingdom. Once the others knew that the two were jockeying for places of honor they were indignant and once again, You had to remind them what discipleship was all about.

‘You know that among the pagans the rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt. This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant, and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’

As Your disciples were are invited to imitate You. We are called to serve to be counted as the last and the least, to be humble.  Everything that the world glorifies and embraces to reach the top is contradictory to those who wish to enter the Kingdom of God.