Fourth Week

4th Week of Lent, Monday

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The Gospel of John is a Gospel of signs. John recalls the signs that Our Lord performed in order to encourage people to believe in him. The first sign was the wedding feast at Cana where Jesus changed water to wine. This sign was already starting to bear fruit: as today’s Gospel recalls, when Our Lord passes through Cana again, a royal official already knows his reputation and seeks him out to heal his terminally ill child.

Today’s First Reading reminds us that one of the signs to which we can look forward is the end of sorrow and the blessing of longevity; it is a freedom from illness and the sorrow that ensues from it. The royal official today is seeking a healing, but still expects a process to be followed when he approaches Jesus. Perhaps he was rationalizing what Our Lord could do and how, which is why he asked him to come down to Capernaum and heal his son; he thought he was on a time table, based on his son’s worsening condition. So Our Lord, in a sense, asked him for a sign of faith and trust by chiding him and then telling him his son would live. The royal official knew that if it wasn’t true his boy could very well be dead by the time he returned home. So John recalls that the man believed and headed back home; he really had no sign to go on other than the first sign and Jesus’s word. It was a long journey (around 25 miles), and servants met him along the way to tell him his son had recovered. It was at the exact hour Jesus said his son would live. This was the second sign in John’s Gospel: with a few words Our Lord healed a dying boy who wasn’t even present.

We pray for miracles, and we should, but even in praying for them we have an opportunity to practice faith and trust by not insisting on the ways and means. Our Lord knows what we need before we ask, but we should ask. He may stretch our faith and trust a little, but if we trust in him, everything will work out. We also know miracles don’t always happen in this lifetime, but today’s First Reading reminds us that it is not a matter of “if,” but, rather of “when.” If the miracle doesn’t happen here, it will happen in eternity, thanks to Our Lord.

Readings: Isaiah 65:17–21; Psalm 30:2, 4–6, 11–12a, 13b; John 4:43–54.

4th Sunday of Lent, Cycle C

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We are just past the half-way point in Lent. Jesus is heading to Jerusalem for the last time, and Easter is a light on the horizon, because we live Lent with Easter in mind. The message for this Sunday is on the lips of St. Paul in today’s Second Reading: “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

In today’s First Reading God tells Joshua that the forty years that Israel spent in the desert, due to rebelling against God, are over. The Israelites have just entered the Promised Land, and for the first time in forty years they eat the Passover meal using the food of the Promised Land instead of manna, a fine powder God gave them each day in the desert to bake into bread: “a fine, flake-like thing, fine as hoarfrost on the ground” (Exodus 16:14). Today’s Responsorial Psalm summarizes well what they are feeling: taste and see the goodness of the Lord. It is like a cool drink after a long and hot day. The Israelites spent forty years in the desert, suffering and toiling, to reconcile with God after they mistrusted him and complained against him. They have finished their time of penance, which is why God tells them: “Today I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.” Every time they grumbled and complained, they resented leaving Egypt. Egypt symbolized strange gods, evil customs: in a word, sin. Through forty years of penance the Israelites reconciled themselves with God.

The sacrament of Confession, the Catechism tells us, “is called the sacrament of Reconciliation, because it imparts to the sinner the love of God who reconciles: ‘Be reconciled to God.’ He who lives by God’s merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord’s call: ‘Go; first be reconciled to your brother’” (CCC 1424). Reconciliation with God and reconciliation with each other go hand in hand. At the start of each celebration of the Eucharist, we pray in the Penitential Rite confessing our sins to God and our brothers and sisters, and asking each other to pray to God that we might be forgiven for our sins. We know that we have reconciled with God, and received his love again, when we are willing to reconcile with others. St. John in his first letter says anything else is a lie: “We love, because he first loved us. If any one says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:19-20).

That brings us to the Prodigal Son and his brother. A moment to be reconciled is at hand for the whole family. We don’t need to do much moral math to see that the Prodigal Son blew it and is sorry. At first it seems he is just sorry that he doesn’t have anything else to eat, due to using up all his father’s money and then being in a famine, but when he comes back home, he has his lines all rehearsed: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I no longer deserve to be called your son; treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’ He barely says the words before his father gives him a big hug and calls for him to be dressed again as his son should be, and to throw a big feast. In an instant he goes from starving pig herder to a re-birthday party.

The tougher case that sometimes we overlook is the older brother; he couldn’t believe what his little brother did, but he was even more confused over what his father did. In his words to his father we see there is some resentment, not only toward his younger brother, but toward his father. This bears the risk of leaving the older brother outside in the cold: he doesn’t want to reconcile with his father, nor with his brother.

The parable doesn’t say how the older brother reacted to his father’s words. If we feel like the older brother sometimes, this leaves the story open to a happy ending or sad one. Let’s spend the last few weeks of Lent reconciling with God and with others in order to have a truly happy ending to our story.

Readings: Joshua 5:9a, 10–12; Psalm 34:2–7; 2 Corinthians 5:17–21; Luke 15:1–3, 11–32. See also 31st Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday and 2nd Week of Lent, Saturday.

4th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday

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If you knew the Lord would grant you a wish, what would it be? Every time we pray, as today;s First Reading reminds, we are expressing a wish with the faith and hope that Our Lord will grant it. Our wishes say a lot about ourselves, what we think of others, and what we think of God. Solomon shows a great wisdom in wishing for more wisdom in order to be a good king. For him being a king was not about glory or personal accomplishment; it was about ruling well and ensuring the well being of his subjects. His wish showed selflessness and humility.

The Lord knows very well what kings usually ask for, and to reward Solomon he promises him not only wisdom, but also riches and glory. The kingdom later thrived under Solomon’s rule, and it was one of the most glorious times Israel ever experienced in its history. Solomon also became synonymous with wisdom, so much so that the books of the Old Testament categorized as Wisdom literature were believed at one point in history to have all been written by him personally.

Philosophy literally means a love for wisdom. Wisdom enables us to seek a higher vantage point in life in order to see the big picture and grow in understanding. When Our Lord shares his wisdom with us, as he does in today’s Gospel, he is sharing wisdom from the highest vantage point of all: God’s. Let’s follow Solomon’s sage advice and ask Our Lord for wisdom.

Readings: 1 Kings 3:4–13; Psalm 119:9–14; Mark 6:30–34.  See also 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B and 18th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday.

4th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday

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In today’s Gospel we’re reminded that it is pointless to kill the messenger once the message has already been delivered. As Herod starts to hear about Our Lord he sees the message he’d first heard on the lips of St. John the Baptist coming back to haunt him, so much so that he thinks Jesus is John himself returned from the dead. Mark felt obliged to explain why Herod was so interested in Jesus, probably because Herod usually didn’t show must interest in anyone.

Herod’s “wife” also thought that by killing the messenger she could erase the message. As Herod himself learned, once something is said, it’s hard to ignore or retract. He made a foolish promise in front of all the powerful people who mattered to him, and Herodias trapped him and got what she wanted. John didn’t return from the dead after his martyrdom, but his message never died. In fact, it lived on, because it was the truth and the truth can never be erased. People try to forget the truth at times, but it doesn’t take long for something to arise and remind them of it.

Let’s not be shy about communicating hard truths, because we know the truth not only sets us free, but can liberate others as well.

Readings: Sirach 47:2–11; Psalm 18:31, 47, 50–51; Mark 6:14–29. See also 17th Week in Ordinary Time, Saturday, Passion of St. John the Baptist, and 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday.

4th Week in Ordinary Time, Thursday

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In today’s readings we see two examples of successors receiving their marching orders: Solomon and the Twelve. In Solomon’s case it is parting advice from his dying father. In the Twelve’s case Our Lord is preparing them to be his successors when his work on earth is finished. David was returning to his fathers; Our Lord had to eventually return to his Father, since, as David described, he had to also go “the way of all flesh.” The important difference was that David’s reign ended but, as the Lord promised him, his descendant Jesus’ reign endures forever. Our Lord is forever King.

Solomon received all the power that was his father’s. The Twelve received power and authority from Our Lord, but as participants and custodians. Just as Solomon would succeed if he observed and watched over the Law, the Twelve would accomplish their mission if they observed the Gospel entrusted to them by Jesus and lived as he lived. In the end the Twelve had much better results than Solomon, who didn’t remain completely faithful to the Law until the end.

We too have inherited the Gospel. Let’s strive to be worthy bearers of it, under the guidance of our bishops and the Holy Father, and to exercise a spiritual leadership wherever our path of life leads us.

Readings: 1 Kings 2:1–4, 10–12; 1 Chronicles 29:10–11b, 11d–12d; Mark 6:7–13. See also 14th Week In Ordinary Time, Thursday, 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B, and 25th Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday.