Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

(Numbers 21:4-9; John 8:21-30)

The Gospel of John is full of double meanings.  Life and death have both physical and spiritual significances.  In today’s passage, Jesus speaks of “’going away,’” and the Pharisees mistake him to mean that he is going to kill himself.  Actually he is saying that he will return to his Father in heaven.  When Jesus tells the same Pharisees that they will “’lift up the Son of Man,’” he has another double meaning in mind.

Jesus is lifted up twice in the gospel.  The first lifting takes place with his crucifixion.  The scene is reminiscent of the reading from Numbers when Moses lifts up an artificial serpent on a poll to heal all onlookers who were bitten by snakes after complaining, like college students, about the quality of their food.  Although many think of the crucifixion as at least a setback for Jesus, in the context of John’s gospel it is victorious.  Jesus is crucified following his Father’s plan and in control of all that happens.  The second lifting up occurs when Jesus is raised from the dead in absolute glory. 

Looking at a crucifix, we do not shudder but find hope.  One reason for confidence is that most crucifixes do not reveal the gore of an actual execution.  But it is also true that the cross gives hope because we link it with the resurrection.  We know that if we suffer life’s setbacks with the same fortitude as Jesus, we will, like the Israelites in the first reading, triumph over our woes.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Monday of the Fifth Week of Lent

(Daniel 13:1-9.15-17.19-30.33-62; John 8:1-11)

Last week the State of Texas executed another criminal.  The man was a serial killer who victimized young girls.  Who but a Jesus could have taken mercy on him?

But isn’t this the point of the gospel?  Does it not urge Jesus’ followers to become like him?  In today’s reading Jesus pardons the woman caught in adultery.  It should not be thought that Jesus is just another liberal ready to excuse sexual misconduct as inconsequential.  He makes no attempt to invalidate the law (Leviticus 20:10) which demands that adulterers be put to death.  Rather he looks at the woman as a child of God who, like everyone else, stands in need of mercy.

This does not mean that we are to excuse serious offenses and least of all murder.  In justice criminal activity must be corrected and criminals must compensate for their crimes.  Jesus’ example, however, does oblige us to treat offenders with love by seeking amiable ways to reconcile them with society.

Friday, April 4, 2014

Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent

(Wisdom 2:1a.12-22; John 7:1-2.10.25-30)

Even today in a few Catholic churches statues and images are covered during Lent.  The practice is connected with today’s gospel which used to be read every year on the Sunday before Palm Sunday.  Because the passage says that the Jerusalemites could not arrest Jesus, it is assumed that he is nowhere to be seen.  Thus, he and the saints who reflect his glory are covered as to be likewise not seen.

The gospel passage, perhaps more importantly, relates the ignorance of the people of whom Jesus is.  They see him as a false prophet, one who claims to speak on God’s behalf but does not.  He is, of course, a true prophet and more – God’s own Son.  At the crucifixion in Luke’s gospel Jesus pleads to his Father on behalf of his executioners that they do not know what they are doing.  The Gospel of John conveys the same realization here albeit without the prayer for forgiveness.

However much the people’s ignorance of Jesus is in the gospel, we should not be found guilty of the same fault.  Excellent understandings like Pope Benedict’s three-volume study Jesus of Nazareth are available.  The more we know of him, the closer we will want to follow him.  And the more we do that, the happier will be our reception into eternal life.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

(Exodus 32:7-14; John 5:31-47)

It's takes no great insight to see that in planning soccer games on Sunday mornings society is replacing religion with physical fitness.  Sure, some families faithfully hustle to church at another hour during the day, but most are content to substitute competition for worship on the Lord's Day.  Today’s first reading recalls the Israelites in the desert also forsaking God.

Tired of waiting on the Lord, the people take religion into their own hands and create objects of worship for themselves.  It is a familiar story.  Rebellious hearts refuse to accept the legacy that has been handed down to them and search for something different to treasure and worship.  In the gospel Jesus pleads with the Jews to accept him as the faithful interpreter of the Mosaic covenant who has come to reestablish the closeness of the people to God. They, however, content with their structures of privilege would prefer that he just leave the premises.

We must take care to live our faith as it has been handed on to us.  This entails not only attending mass on Sundays but also not hankering after fulfillment from pleasure, power, or athletic prowess.  Stated simply, it means to follow Jesus in his love for his Father and all our brothers and sisters.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

(Isaiah 49:8-15; John 5:17-30)

Lent is commonly associated with the Hebrews’ exodus from Egypt.  The forty days of sacrifice to overcome selfishness rhyme with the forty years of purification that the Hebrews spent in the desert.  But other Scriptures from both the Old and the New Testaments give meaning to the Lenten experience.  The reading from the prophet Isaiah today gives one example.

In the sixth century before Christ the Babylonians conquered the Kingdom of Judah and carried many of its people into exile.  It was a terrible experience of subjugation and humiliation.  The prophets write of it as a punishment for the excesses of the people during the almost 500-year period of Israel’s kings.  In that long period many Israelis took up the idolatrous practices of their neighbors.  Often the rich spent their fortunes on sumptuous living and ignored the poor in their midst.  But after decades of mortification in Babylon, Isaiah now declares the people have suffered enough.  They have learned their lesson.  God is ready to take them home.

We should hear the voice of Isaiah as an indicator that Lent is now nearly over.  God has noticed our sacrifices and is coming to redeem us of our sins.  We have to hold the line for two and a half more weeks.  But just as sure as daylight is now overtaking the night (in the northern hemisphere, anyway) so can we count on God liberating us through Christ’s Easter victory.  He shall crown our efforts of charity, prayer, and fasting to make us God-like in mercy, holiness, and generosity.