THURSDAY OF THE FIFTH WEEK OF LENT - 2022

LENT 2022

DAILY HOLY MASS READINGS

Harden not your hearts today,
but listen to the voice of the Lord. PS 94:8

GENESIS 17:3-9 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

The most wondrous assurance that God gives Abraham is not just the glorious Covenant He makes with him which is awesome but it is God saying to him, 'I will be your God.' 

Every other promise is fulfilled because God has not only chosen Abraham but assures him that He will be not only his God forever but He will be the God of all the generations that will follow until time shall cease.

To be chosen by You, to be called by Your Name, to be baptized into Your Body, to be fed on the Holy Eucharist, to abide in You as You abide in us - and to have this hope that when this life has ended all who have walked in the Way that You have directed will be united with You in glory forever. 

Who could ask for more? There isn't any more, having You Lord, we possess everything in this life and we will possess life in superabundance when we share the glory of Your resurrection in the life to come.

JOHN 8:51-59 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Nothing is more repugnant to the wicked than the Truth. It haunts them awake or asleep and they find no rest because they ceaselessly and feverishly look for ways to destroy Truth. 

In the last days before You handed Yourself over to those who were baying for Your Blood, You spoke the Truth unwaveringly, uncompromisingly, and constantly even though You knew that the more clearly You spoke revealing who You truly were and are the greater would be the desire to destroy You and not only destroy You but actually kill You. In doing so they believed they would be rid of You and their precarious but tenacious hold on power and their insular way of life could be prolonged. 

There is a palpable sense of urgency as You speak to the crowds:

‘I tell you most solemnly,
whoever keeps my word
will never see death.’

For those with no faith or those with hardened hearts, everything You say is a direct threat to them. It makes them uncomfortable because they enjoy the status quo. They enjoy their place of privilege, pomp, and circumstance among the people. But You continue, unaffected by the growing wrath of the crowd, they must know the Truth even though it will take You to Your passion and death for only dying our death can we be raised to new life through Your resurrection. And so You reveal the Truth to them once again using words that cannot be misconstrued by Your hearers. 

‘I tell you most solemnly,
before Abraham ever was,
I Am.’

It is no wonder that they wished to rip You apart with their bare hands because they understood clearly what You had just said - I AM. But Your hour had not yet arrived and they had no power over You until it did. So You hid and left the Temple unharmed.