07 April 2011

07 April 2011, Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Reading 1
Ex 32:7-14


The LORD said to Moses,
“Go down at once to your people
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt,
for they have become depraved.
They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them,
making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it,
sacrificing to it and crying out,
‘This is your God, O Israel,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’
The LORD said to Moses,
“I see how stiff-necked this people is.
Let me alone, then,
that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them.
Then I will make of you a great nation.”

But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying,
“Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people,
whom you brought out of the land of Egypt
with such great power and with so strong a hand?
Why should the Egyptians say,
‘With evil intent he brought them out,
that he might kill them in the mountains
and exterminate them from the face of the earth’?
Let your blazing wrath die down;
relent in punishing your people.
Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel,
and how you swore to them by your own self, saying,
‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky;
and all this land that I promised,
I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.’“
So the LORD relented in the punishment
he had threatened to inflict on his people.

Ps 106:19-20, 21-22, 23
Responsorial PsalmR. (4a)


Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
Our fathers made a calf in Horeb
and adored a molten image;
They exchanged their glory
for the image of a grass-eating bullock.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
They forgot the God who had saved them,
who had done great deeds in Egypt,
Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham,
terrible things at the Red Sea.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
Then he spoke of exterminating them,
but Moses, his chosen one,
Withstood him in the breach
to turn back his destructive wrath.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.

Gospel
Jn 5:31-47


Jesus said to the Jews:
“If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true.
But there is another who testifies on my behalf,
and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true.
You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth.
I do not accept human testimony,
but I say this so that you may be saved.
He was a burning and shining lamp,
and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light.
But I have testimony greater than John’s.
The works that the Father gave me to accomplish,
these works that I perform testify on my behalf
that the Father has sent me.
Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf.
But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form,
and you do not have his word remaining in you,
because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent.
You search the Scriptures,
because you think you have eternal life through them;
even they testify on my behalf.
But you do not want to come to me to have life.

“I do not accept human praise;
moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you.
I came in the name of my Father,
but you do not accept me;
yet if another comes in his own name,
you will accept him.
How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another
and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God?
Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father:
the one who will accuse you is Moses,
in whom you have placed your hope.
For if you had believed Moses,
you would have believed me,
because he wrote about me.
But if you do not believe his writings,
how will you believe my words?”

Meditation: John 5:31-47

“There is another who testifies on my behalf.” (John 5:32)


One thing you can’t escape noticing when you read this passage is the words “testify” and “testimony.” It almost sounds as if Jesus is talking about a courtroom trial. Only he’s not judging the world. No, he is actually taking the part of the defendant!

After breaking Jewish tradition by healing someone on the Sabbath, Jesus is surrounded by hostile skeptics. And who does he name as the primary witness in his defense? None other than God the Father!

Jesus mentions three ways that God testifies on his behalf. The first are the signs and wonders he works. Then there is the “direct testimony” of the Father, which John the Baptist received when the Spirit descended on Jesus: “Now I have seen and testified that he is the Son of God” (John 1:34). And of course there are the Hebrew Scriptures themselves. As Jesus says, Moses was writing of him when he talked of a coming prophet (Deuteronomy 18:15). But it wasn’t just Moses who wrote about Jesus: There are many prophecies referring to the Messiah in the Old Testament.

God’s testimony didn’t end at the cross. It continued even more strongly after Jesus rose again. Before he ascended to heaven, Jesus told his disciples to go to the ends of the earth with the news of his love and redemption (Acts 1:8). And they went. And the ones they preached to went even farther, down through the generations even to today. And here we are, disciples in our own right, called to act as witnesses to our generation.

As frail and sinful as we are, it’s rather amazing to consider the job that Jesus has entrusted to us. But it doesn’t have to be intimidating. Like Jesus, each of us has God’s word as a powerful witness. We also have the Holy Spirit, who breathes divine life into our own words and example. As long as he is with us, we don’t have to be afraid. We can learn how to sense the Spirit’s leading as we testify to the Lord. We can be his witnesses, bringing his gospel to a new generation of disciples!

“Lord, teach me how to testify in the power and anointing of your Holy Spirit. Give me your words and your heart as I share your gospel.”

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