Tag: resurrection

Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and am here; I did not come on my own, but he sent me.”

In today’s Gospel, some of the Jews who believe in Jesus struggle to recognize the truth of his divinity. Jesus, truth incarnate in the person of Christ, says to them: “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” But they believe that as descendants of Abraham, they have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it, then, that Jesus tells them that the truth will set them free? As the Son of God, Jesus freely chooses to do the will of the Father through his passion, death, and resurrection, and in that he invites us into the freedom of discipleship. Jesus tells them: “A slave does not remain in a household forever, but a son always remains. So if the Son frees you, then you will truly be free.” Like the people Jesus addresses in today’s Gospel, are there precedents or biases I accept that are obstacles to the truth of Jesus Christ?

God, give me the grace to recognize that I often accept partial truths as if they were incontrovertible realities. Help me take care today of the agendas I set for myself this morning that I check against tonight. Do I measure my worth by the things I plan to do and then carry out? Have I accomplished my will? There is something disappointing and bitter in living that way—checking off accomplishments. What can I hope to accomplish in a day unless I first seek to know your will? God, I want to live today knowing that your Son frees me to hear your voice and do your will.

Lord, thank you for the peace in knowing you are near. You loved me first. Keep me in your truth today and always so that I am free to receive your love!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

https://youtu.be/2W-KSOPWWBY

Readings

Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

So Jesus said to the Pharisees, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.”

In today’s Gospel, Jesus reveals to the Pharisees what is about to take place in his crucifixion. Jesus, the Son of Man, will be lifted up on the cross to die for the sins of all. By telling the Pharisees that unless they believe that Jesus is I AM—that is, Yahweh, God the Father—he invites them into his redemption through faith and repentance: “For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” In God’s love for his people, in that lifting up of Jesus on the cross, a paradox unfolds before all of humanity. The cross becomes an instrument of the resurrection. By dying, Christ destroyed death; by rising, he restored life. As Saint Paul says in his letter to the Corinthians: “For since death came through man, the resurrection of the dead came also through man.” The Pharisees question Jesus: “Who are you?” Far from being a remnant from the historical life of Jesus, this question is one that I can ask myself daily. But unlike the Pharisees, I have the benefit of knowing the answer through his resurrection. He is I AM.

God, I want to come to a greater understanding of what Jesus meant when he said to the Pharisees: “I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.” Your son sits at your right hand and belongs with you above. The Pharisees who belonged to the world did not recognize the blindness of sin and so would die with their sins in this world. Help me understand that you belong to what is above and that you also want me to die to this world through repentance so that I can rise to new life through your son. Help me realize that Jesus is I AM.

Lord, as you always do what is pleasing to your Father, help me do what is pleasing to you. Be with me today and increase my awareness that with you I am never left alone.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

https://youtu.be/2W-KSOPWWBY

Readings

Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

A reading from the holy Gospel according to John

Jesus said, “I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”

Today’s Gospel takes place immediately after yesterday’s, where Jesus cures the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years. The Jews persecuted Jesus because he cured the man on the sabbath. As the Gospel passage continues, Jesus gives witness to them that he is doing the work of his Father, making himself equal to God, which gives the Jews all the more reason to kill him. Jesus reveals himself to them as the giver of life and the just judge who holds life and death in his hands. “Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” As the one whom the Father has given all judgment, Jesus tells them that those who have done good deeds will go to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation. In his own words, Jesus makes clear his divinity and the hope of eternal life to all who would hear him.

God, you have given all judgment to your Son. During the remaining days of Lent, help me identify and root out any wrong I have done that keeps me from hearing your voice and doing your will. Often I move throughout the day unaware of your presence, and I try but sometimes fail to make the best use of your gift of time. “My Father is at work until now,” Jesus says, “so I am at work.” Father, help me join in your work by seeking your will.

Lord, let me take consolation today in knowing you are with me even when I forget you. From the first reading from Isaiah, let me remember your tenderness: “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.”

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Readings

Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

“The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age and to the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.”

The words of Jesus from this Sunday’s Gospel reading are difficult to hear for couples who have been blessed throughout life with a sacramental marriage. Jesus himself says there will be no marriage or marrying in heaven. He also says we will be like angels, the children of God, and the ones who will rise. He says this in response to a challenging question from the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection. For the sake of disproving the resurrection of the dead, they tried to trap Jesus with a question about which of the seven husbands a woman will be married to in heaven.

God, help me understand that the Sadducees were playing a game with Jesus that drew attention away from the truth: namely, the ones who are deemed worthy through the way they live their life will attain everlasting life in heaven as your children. Jesus speaks of the coming age and the resurrection of the dead. I am not certain, but I take that to mean the coming age as life after death and the resurrection as fulfillment of the Second Coming of Christ. In the second reading, Saint Paul says that the Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father encourage our hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word. “That the dead will rise,” says Jesus, “even Moses made known . . . and [God] is not God of the dead, but of the living, for to him all are alive.”

God our Father and Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for the ultimate gift of hope, the hope of the resurrection. God of all that is seen and unseen, you sent your Son to live among a people shrouded in death to be the first to rise to new life. Let that hope and realization sink deep into my soul so that in the coming age and in the resurrection, I may see your face, the living God.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen

Readings