5th Week of Lent 2023 - Tuesday - The Way of eternal life

 Yesterday, we heard the Gospel of the woman caught in adultery from the 8th Chapter of John’s Gospel. Jesus had come to Jerusalem for the third time in John’s Gospel, on the feast of tabernacles. While he was in the temple area teaching, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Priests who were trying to trap Jesus somehow seized this woman and made her stand in the midst of everyone, who are ready to stone her for her sins.

But the Lord reveals his mercy. “Has no one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you” Go and sin no more.”

Today’s Gospel continues the scene. In fact, the Gospel passages for the rest of the week continue from John chapter 8. So following the incident with the adulterous woman, the Lord continues to teach about who he is, what he has come to do, the mission given to him by his heavenly Father, and the consequences for not believing him.

He’s come from the Father. He’s come to do the Father’s work. And he will return to the Father. 

The Lord’s teaching here reminds me of those beautiful verses from Isaiah 55: “Yet just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down And do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, Giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats, So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; It shall not return to me empty, but shall do what pleases me, achieving the end for which I sent it.”

The Son of God is the Word that has come forth from the mouth of God. He has come from heaven to earth in the incarnation. He has given seed to the one who sows through his preaching and forming disciples, bread to the one who eats in the Eucharist. He fulfills the end for which he has been sent watering the earth with his blood in his passion and death, the sacrifice pleasing and acceptable to the Father. And he returns to his heavenly Father after his resurrection by his glorious ascension. 

In today’s gospel, the Lord says he will return to the one who sent him, but then utters a rather chilling judgment to those who lake faith. He says, “where I am going you cannot come.” There are consequences, eternal consequences for unbelief. Jesus opens the path to eternal life, he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Him. 

But for those who believe, the Lord makes the most beautiful of promises: But for those who believe, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from within him.’

Likely, this Lent, there have been times when we refused to believe as deeply as we could, where we refused to follow the Lord as we should, and our lives are sadder for it, dryer, more empty. And there have likely been times when we have believed, we have allowed the river of living water to flow in our lives. Thanks be to God.

The Gospel certainly elicits a response. Belief. Belief in who the Lord says he is. Belief that what he teaches is true. Belief that how he teaches us to act is holy. Belief that what we see him doing and suffering in the scriptures these next two weeks, he does out of love for us, he bears out of love for us, that we may join the company of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in eternity, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That God may be pleased to increase faith and understanding in the catechumens and candidates who approach the sacraments of initiation in the coming Paschal Solemnity. 

For those without faith, those with hearts hardened toward God, and for those searching for Him.

For strength to resist temptation, and the humility to sincerely repent of sin.

That through fasting and self-denial, we may be ever more conformed to Christ.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Mercifully hear, O Lord, the prayers of your Church and turn with compassion to the hearts that bow before you, that those you make sharers in your divine mystery may always benefit from your assistance.

1st Week of Lent 2020 - Tuesday - Words, words, words

In Scene II, Act II of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the Prince of Denmark sits in a library, reading a book, when Polonius, the King’s chief counselor asks the melancholy prince, “What do you read, my lord?” And Hamlet replies, “words, words, words.” Of course, Polonius wants to know what Hamlet is reading about, the meaning of the words in the book. Hamlet’s deliberate misinterpretation of Polonius question suggests that the words he is reading are meaningless to him. The words of the page could not penetrate the mind and heart of the melancholy prince.

In our first reading, Isaiah the prophet speaks of how the word of God waters the human soul and does not return to heaven void as did the words of Hamlet’s page.

So, too, the words of prayer the Lord teaches in the Gospel today, are not empty, like the words of the pagans, whose prayers amount to a bunch babbling.

The Word of God brings transformation. It is meant to bear fruit. We are always to approach the scriptures with a hearts and minds ready to be changed by them. We are to be constantly ready to learn from them and be directed by them, to put them into action.

Hamlet could not be moved by words because they were the words of man and symbolic of his own inabilities, his frustrations at accomplishing his plans. But the Word of God brings life to souls and impels us into cooperating with God’s plans.

The Lord called the words of the pagans a bunch of babbling, because they did not wish to be changed by their prayers, they didn’t wish to engage in the work of God, they just wanted to be seen, through their empty words they wished to gain attention for themselves. Rather, the first petition of the prayer Jesus teaches is “Father, Thy Will be Done”.

Hamlet’s melancholy is shared by all who, seeking only after their own wills, their own false gods, end up exhausted and unfilled.

During Lent, we do well to spend much time reflecting upon the word of God, especially our Lenten Mass Readings and the passion narratives, and allow them to till the soil of our hearts and to help us surrender, like Christ, the Father’s will in all things, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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That the season of Lent may bring the most hardened hearts to repentance and bring to all people purification of sin and selfishness.

For those preparing for baptism and the Easter sacraments, that they may continue to conform themselves to Christ through fervent prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

That we may generously respond to all those in need: the sick, the suffering, the homeless, the imprisoned, and victims of violence. And for all victims of the coronavirus and their families.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Grant, we pray, O Lord, that your people may turn to you with all their heart, so that whatever they dare to ask in fitting prayer they may receive by your mercy. Through Christ our Lord.