What God asks is a will which will no longer be divided between Him
and any creature, a will pliant in His hands, which neither desires anything nor refuses anything, which wants without reservation everything which He wants, and which never, under any pretext, wants anything which He does not want.
- Francois Fenelon
("Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.") |
JER
20:10-13; PS 18:2-3A, 3BC-4, 5-6, 7
JN 10:31-42
The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.
Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from my Father.
For which of these are you trying to stone
me?"
The Jews answered him,
"We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.
You, a man, are making yourself God."
Jesus answered them,
"Is it not written in your law, 'I said, 'You are gods"'?
If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came,
and Scripture cannot be set aside,
can you say that the one
whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world
blasphemes because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?
If I do not perform my Father's
works, do not believe me;
but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works, so that you may realize and understand
that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."
Then they tried again to arrest him;
but he escaped from their power.
He went back across the Jordan
to the place
where John first baptized, and there he remained.
Many came to him and said,
"John performed no sign,
but everything John said about this man was true."
And many there began to believe in him.
Reflection on the
Scriptures |
Today’s psalm response reminds me to enter into that prayer: In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice. We each share a fundamental desire to be heard. That is why we interrupt, repeat ourselves, say sharp comments, beg for attention. How lovely to know that we simply need to call up on the Lord who is always there to hear us.
In the gospel from John, the Jews are about to stone Jesus not for his actions but for his words. Jesus bravely speaks with his attackers to try understand their fear and anger. Fear drives so much conflict as we can see across our country and across the globe. Jesus provides an inspiring example to try to understand the other’s perspective and
to speak your own truth.
In my Lenten journey I pray for the grace to use gossip as a holy way to lift people up, to give voice to those who need that support and to define how we can work together to build the kingdom of God.
- by Mary Lee Brock Revelations of Divine
Love - by Julian of Norwich
Thirteenth Revelation, Chapter 36 “My sin shall
not hinder His Goodness working. . . . A deed shall be done—as we come to Heaven—and it may be known here in part;—though it be truly taken for the general Man, yet it excludeth not the special. For what our good Lord will do by His poor creatures, it is now unknown to me”
And as long as we are in this life, what time that we by our folly turn us to the beholding of the
reproved, tenderly our Lord God toucheth us and blissfully calleth us, saying in our soul: Let be all thy love, my dearworthy child: turn thee to me—I am enough to thee—and enjoy in thy Saviour and in thy salvation. And that this is our Lord’s working in us, I am sure the soul that hath understanding therein by grace shall see it and feel it.
And though it be so that this deed be truly taken for the general Man, yet it excludeth not the special. For what our good Lord will do by His poor creatures, it is now unknown to me. |
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