WEDNESDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK OF EASTER - 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

ACTS 12:24-13:5 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

Most of us who are called by Your Name live our faith superficially unlike the Apostles, Paul, Barnabas, John Mark, and the others mentioned in today's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles. A holy fire burned in their souls. They prayed and fasted. They were truly members of Your Body who were completely attuned to the Holy Spirit and listened to His promptings and submitted totally to Him. This is why they gained a large number of followers for You wherever they went, preached, and taught accompanied by numerous signs and wonders which made their teaching powerful and compelling.

Most Christians today know little or nothing about the faith they profess to believe and more often than not what they do believe is faulty. Poorly catechized for generations their knowledge of the beauty, truth, and goodness of the faith handed to us by the Apostles is pitiful and woefully inadequate to change hearts and minds to the power of the Gospel.

Today I thank You, Lord, in a very special way for all the lay faithful who have dedicated their entire lives to studying the Word of God, reading the history of the Church, becoming fully conversant and steeped in salvation history, and sharing all they have learned and making themselves totally available to the Church to spread the Good News with clarity, authentically, and powerfully just as the Apostles and early Church Fathers did. 

Bless their efforts a hundredfold so many may come to believe in You and in the Good News that saves.

JOHN 12:44-50 ©

My Soul's Beloved,

From the very beginning, You made it abundantly clear that You did not come on Your own but were sent by Your Father in heaven. In fact, the Old Testament is filled with God's promises ever since the fall of creation, that He would make a way to redeem fallen man. The whole of salvation history is replete with prophecies foretelling clearly how God would save His people.

All the larger than life people beginning with all the patriarchs, and prophets, king David and Solomon and those that followed foretold the coming of the Messiah, the Virgin Birth, the Priest, and the Sacrifice, the redemption from sin, the Suffering Servant, and His triumph over the world, the flesh, and the devil. 

Over and over again You make it known that not only were You sent, but every single word You spoke, all You taught, preached, every single miracle You performed, and every event in Your earthly life from the moment of Your conception until You gave up Your Spirit to Your Father was in perfect accord with His plan. It was always the Father's plan to save His sinful, wayward creatures and You carried out that plan to perfection because You love the Father and to do Your Father's will was Your delight. It was everything to You.

Now, Lord, You say to each one of us who is privileged to know You, love You, and belong to You as a member of Your Body, the Church, that when we believe in You we believe not in You but in the one who sent You. Our intimacy with You through the Sacraments and especially in the Holy Eucharist is an intimacy with the Father through You. One with You, Beloved, we are one with the Father.

Thank You, Lord, for fulfilling the Father's plan to perfection and for being the one and only Gate through which we can enter the Kingdom of God to receive eternal life. There is no other.