14 Mar 13, 4th Week of Lent - Thursday; St. Matilda

14 March, 2013

4th Week of Lent - Thursday; St. Matilda

FIRST READING
Exodus 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.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM
Psalm 106:19-20, 21-22, 23

R. (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.

VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL
John 3:16

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.

GOSPEL
John 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?”

REFLECTIONS:

"It was about Me that [Moses] wrote." John 5:46

Moses wrote about Jesus (Jn 5:46). Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John wrote about Jesus in their Gospels. St. Paul wrote about Jesus in all of his New Testament letters. At Corinth, Paul spoke "of nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor 2:2). The Blessed Virgin Mary spent her life treasuring Jesus and everything that concerned Him (Lk 2:19). The angels center their existence around Jesus (Jn 1:51).

In Lent, we prepare ourselves to enter into the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is "the Resurrection and the Life" (Jn 11:25). He is the meaning of Lent, the reason for the season.

Jesus "is before all else that is. In Him everything continues in being. It is He Who is Head of the body, the Church; He Who is the Beginning, the First-Born of the dead, so that primacy may be His in everything" (Col 1:17-18). It's all about Jesus.

Are your thoughts, words, desires, sufferings, works, and leisure all about Jesus? Have you been crucified with Christ, so that the life you live now is not your own, but is the life of Jesus living in you? (Gal 2:19-20) Are you immersed in the life of Jesus? This is what it means to be baptized into Jesus.

In two weeks, Lent ends and the Triduum begins. Then on Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday, we will renew our baptismal promises to be immersed in Jesus. At that moment, we will six times tell Jesus, "I do." Speak each "I do" to Jesus with even more love than a bride and groom say "I do" on their wedding day. Make your life all about Jesus.

Prayer: Jesus, I come to You to possess life (Jn 5:40). I will fix my eyes upon You moment by moment (Heb 12:2). Promise: "These very works which I perform testify on My behalf that the Father has sent Me." Jn 5:36 Praise: Michelle often repeats God's promise that mercy triumphs over judgment (Jas 2:13) to remind herself that to be merciful is to receive mercy.