|
|
Anyone can sing in the sunshine. You and I should sing on when the sun has gone down, or when clouds pour out their rain, for Christ is with us.
- Anonymous
(Such a simple, basic affirmation - the "pearl of great price.")
|
|
|
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.
USCCB lectionary
|
Reflection on the Scripture
|
"They picked up rocks to throw at Jesus, but He hid Himself and slipped out of the temple precincts." —John 8:59
Human beings have no power over Jesus, unless it is given them from above (Jn 19:11). On several occasions, people tried to kill Jesus, but He avoided death (see Lk 4:29-30; Jn 10:31; Jn 8:59, et. al). Next week, the Church observes the Passion and death of Our Lord Jesus Christ at the hands of men. Jesus could have called down twelve legions of angels to swiftly rescue Him from this gruesome death (see Mt 26:53),
but He had freely chosen to lay down His life to save us (Jn 10:17-18).
When the time came for Him to be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus had the time and opportunity to slip away. A crowd with torches came to arrest him in the darkness of night. Jesus would have been able to see the flickering torches advance up the hill from the Kidron Valley (Jn 18:1-3). He had time to slip away once again over the top of the Mount of Olives and into the desert country. As the
soldiers hiked up the hill to the garden, I picture Jesus thinking of me in danger of dying in my sins, and deciding to remain in that garden so that I could be saved instead of fleeing to save Himself. Can you picture Jesus thinking of you as the soldiers march up the hill to arrest Him? He loves each of us that much.
Prayer: Father, this Lent give me an ever deeper appreciation of how deeply Jesus loves me.
Promise: "I solemnly assure you, if a man is true to My word he shall never see death." —Jn 8:51
Presentation Ministries
|
|
|
Abandonment to Divine Providence
- by Jean-Pierre de Caussade
BOOK II,
CHAPTER II. THE DUTIES OF THOSE SOULS CALLED BY GOD TO THE STATE OF ABANDONMENT
SECTION V. The Common Way of All Souls
The soul that aims at union with God should value all the operations of His grace, but should only attach itself to that of the present moment.
Thus all ordinary souls have but one common way in which each is distinct and different in order to form the variety of the mystical robe of the Church. All these souls mutually approve of, and esteem each other, and all say "We are going to the same goal by different paths, and are all united in the same way, and by the same means in the ordinance of God, which is so different in each.‚" It is in this sense that we
must read the lives of the saints, and other spiritual books, without ever making a change, and forsaking our own path. For this reason it is necessary that we should neither read spiritual books, nor hold spiritual conversation unless God so will; for, if He makes it the duty of the present moment, the soul, far from making any change will be strengthened in its way, either by what it finds in conformity with its own method, or even by that in which it differs. But if the will of God does not
make this reading, or spiritual intercourse a present duty it will cause nothing but trouble, and a confusion of ideas; and a succession of changes will ensue; because without the concurrence of God's will there cannot be order in anything.
Since when, therefore, have we busied ourselves with the pains and anxieties of our souls which have nothing to do with our present duty? When will God be all in all to us? Let creatures act according to their nature, but let nothing hinder us, let us go beyond all created things and live entirely for God.
|
|
Paperback, Hardback, Kindle
|
|
Please support this outreach with a tax-deductible donation.
|
|
|
