Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Intention: For all who are standing up for justice, especially those who are persecuted for their courage, that God will continue to strengthen them and that their sacrifices may bear redeeming fruit.
Today’s Gospel | John 5:17-30
Jesus answered the Jews: “My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God. Jesus answered and said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing; for what he does, the Son will do also. For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything that he himself does, and he will show him greater works than these, so that you may be amazed. For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life, so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes. Nor does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life and will not come to condemnation, but has passed from death to life. Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself. And he gave him power to exercise judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation. I cannot do anything on my own; I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just, because I do not seek my own will but the will of the one who sent me.”
A Lenten Reflection
“Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”
This excerpt from Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem, Aurora Leigh, captures the irony of how people can spend their lives oblivious to a reality that completely surrounds them. In this case, they somehow manage to take no notice of a God who is everywhere, preoccupied instead with minutiae and with themselves. It provides an poignant picture of the disconnect that can occur between our senses and our souls.
In John’s Gospel, Jesus comments on the fact that so many persons are not able to recognize who he is. Even as he reveals to them the power of the Kingdom, they choose to dismiss him as they obsess over their small and petty worlds. In the midst of epiphany, they stumble away unaware. And so, as both the Gospel and the poem allude, having eyes is no guarantee of being able to see. Our sight may be functioning perfectly and yet what we see fails to touch either our minds or our hearts. God surrounds us and we do not notice, sings to us and we do not hear, touches us and we do not feel.
During Lent, we are asked to slow down, to be present to every moment in order to experience what each of them reveals. We must determine to be awake and to be open, living each day with great faith and great wonder, walking through life with reverence for it as our teacher. Today is a chance for us to find again our eyes of faith, to see the fire of God’s presence as it fills the world, and know that wherever we stand and live is, in fact, holy ground.
Prayer
Eternal Father, your Son gave his life on the cross so that we might be awakened to your voice both within and around us. In this time of Lent, we thank you for the grace to be able to follow the sound of your call out of the darkness of our sins and into the light of your grace. Help us to live with a great zeal for loving and serving others and for being signs of your love. We ask this of you who lives and reigns with your Son and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.