Thursday

2nd Week of Easter, Thursday (2)

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Today’s Gospel warns that, for whomever disobeys the Son, “the wrath of God remains upon him.” Peter in today’s First Reading explains to the Sanhedrin that he must obey God, not them. They never believed in Our Lord, so when reports start coming in of what Peter and the other apostles are preaching they filter it, out of a lack of faith, and see the apostles as simply seeking to incriminate them for the injustice they’d done. They don’t want his blood on their hands, but it is already there. If they have to face the wrath of God it will be for their lack of faith in the Son.

The Sanhedrin is doing a partial reading of the message. The Lord was crucified due to their machinations, but they didn’t succeed: God raised him up and placed him at his right hand for Israel’s salvation. Even the Sanhedrin can receive this salvation if they believe in the Son and strive to obey him. It’s lost in history, but someday we’ll know whether any of those men did abandon their tragic and evil pattern of killing the messenger whose message reflects badly on them and turned to the Son.

However, it’s not too late for us. If we believe in the Son and obey him we can enjoy the fruits of a new life right here, right now, whether we’ve been committed Christians or enemies of Our Lord. Let’s accept his message and his messengers for what they are: guides to a renewed and spiritual rich life.

Readings: Acts 5:27–33; Psalm 34:2, 9, 17–20; John 3:31–36. See also 2nd Week of Easter, Thursday.

Holy Week, Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper (2)

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This evening’s liturgy begins the Easter Triduum, and Our Lord begins by bestowing three gifts on us: the Eucharist, the ministerial priesthood, and the commandment to love one another. This evening’s Gospel recalls when Jesus began the Last Supper washing his disciples’ feet, a menial chore usually reserved for a servant. When Peter balks, Jesus warns him that if he doesn’t accept this humble service, he’d be disinherited; Our Lord would deny him something he wanted to give him. Jesus’ gesture is even more poignant considered that he washes Judas’s feet as well.

In the Last Supper Our Lord institutes the Eucharist, celebrating it for the first time, and commanding his Apostles to celebrate in memory of him. In this supper Our Lord makes the apostles able to consecrate the Eucharist and offer it in Christ’s name and person on behalf of the Church, and they would hand this down to their successors, the bishops, and priests who worked with them. If washing the disciples’ feet was a menial gesture, imagine Our Lord being food and drink for us, standing vigil, at times alone, in tabernacles throughout the world, eager to be with his faithful through Holy Communion. In his actions Our Lord invites not just the ministerial priests of his Church, but all believers, to love one another as he has loved them. For a priest that translates into service, whether serving saints or sinners. Part of Peter’s inheritance this night was to receive the teaching of humility and service: if the Master should do such a menial chore out of love, his disciples should not consider themselves exempt.

The faithful who have not received Holy Orders are not exempt either; loving one another often means swallowing your pride and not putting limits or conditions on your self-giving, just as Our Lord didn’t. Let’s begin this Easter Triduum in gratitude for our priests and bishops, for the Eucharist, and resolved to reap the fruits of the forty days of Lent that have concluded to truly grow in our love for one another.

Readings: Exodus 12:1–8, 11–14; Psalm 116:12–13, 15–16c, 17–18; 1 Corinthians 11:23–26; John 13:1–15. See also Holy Thursday, Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper.

5th Week of Lent, Thursday

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Today’s Gospel concludes the long discourse we’ve read in the liturgy over the last week regarding the arguments between Jesus and the Jews who didn’t believe in him (John 8). Yesterday he spoke with some who had believed in him, but, scratching beneath the surface, their faith was shaped more by his telling off the incredulous Jews than by deep convictions. Even yesterday Our Lord warned those in the crowd who believed in him that they were slaves to sin in need of liberation in order to really treat God as their Father again. The response was hostility.

Now Our Lord, having just received another barrage of name-calling due to his teachings (John 8:47–49), and after a long attempt to tell them the truth, a truth that could only be accepted in faith, he lays it on the line: he claims to have power over life and death, and to have seen Abraham and pleased him. The crowds respond that he is possessed (in other words, insane) to think that he is greater than Abraham and greater than the prophets, yet he is. It all comes down to the words for which they sought to stone him: “before Abraham came to be, I AM.” “I AM” was how the Lord told Moses to identify him when he went to free Abraham’s descendants in Egypt (Exodus 3:13–15), and now Jesus was identifying not only his Father as God, but himself. If he is God he’d have power over death, and be able to know Abraham personally. For his listeners that is the last straw.

A deeper relationship with Christ requires not only embracing his humanity, through which he makes himself accessible to us, but his divinity as well. Through faith in him we are led to a deeper trust in him and love for him, and God goes from being some all-powerful being overshadowing us, aloof and distant, to someone who loves us and is close to us. In a week and a day we’ll see the depths of his love on the Cross.

Readings: Genesis 17:3–9; Psalm 105:4–9; John 8:51–59.

4th Week of Lent, Thursday

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The scribes and Pharisees sat on the seat of Moses, inheritors of his authority over the People of God, but didn’t give the example that they should (cf. Matthew 23:1–3). What a great contrast between Moses and the Lord, in today’s First Reading, and Our Lord and those who succeeded Moses in authority in today’s Gospel. Moses interceded when the Lord wished to wipe out the People of God for their obstinacy. In today’s Gospel, Our Lord tries to show Moses’ successors their obstinacy, not to condemn them as they’re trying to condemn him, but, in his own words, “I say this so that you may be saved.”

What’s the diagnosis? That John the Baptist testified to Our Lord’s mission, but the scribes and Pharisees didn’t accept everything John preached and taught; they feared going against him due to public opinion, even though they admired it when he laid down the Law. They questioned John, but only accepted what suited them. Therefore it’s no surprise that when Our Lord gave greater testimony and backed it up with signs they wouldn’t believe either. Furthermore, the Father himself has given testimony to sending his Son; if they had had a loving relationship with the Father they would have recognized the Lord and believed in him, but they don’t, therefore not even searching Scripture do they manage to find testimony to Our Lord. Lastly, and worst of all, Moses himself, whom they revere as the keeper of the Law and consider as their guide and exemplar, will condemn them for not believing in Jesus, showing them how shaky their “legal” case is against him.

Our Lord may have been harsh with them, but he had their salvation in mind and knew, as the First Reading reminds us, how stubborn they could be. Maybe these words didn’t convert them en masse, but we can hope a few in the back of their crowd opened their hearts, just as Nicodemus did. Lent will be over soon. Let’s examine whether there’s any spiritual obstinacy in our hearts that blinds us and separates us from God. Have we made some legal case against him? Have we read Scripture with a myopia that blinds us to his love for us? It’s not too late for the Lord to give us a diagnosis too.

Readings: Exodus 32:7–14; Psalm 106:19–23; John 5:31–47. 

3rd Week of Lent, Thursday

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The Lord through Jeremiah in today’s First Reading describes what sin is like to him: turning your back on him. It’s a complete about face. In Biblical symbolism the face is a sign of presence, even communion. Sins, great and small, to one degree or another turn our gaze away from God and fix it upon something else. The Lord wanted to see their faces, but instead he got their backs. He is their God, but he wants them to acknowledge it, to turn their faces toward him, and they don’t, despite all he has done for them.

Sin may be an exercise of our freedom, since God created us with freedom so that we could choose whether to love him or not, but it’s also something that makes us freely expose ourselves to the influences of evil in the world that ultimately seek to despoil us of that freedom. We may turn our back on God, but that leaves us exposed to the “strong man” of today’s Gospel to come and conquer us because we didn’t side with God; we turn from our Father and walk right into the alleys of bullies. Our Lord wants to be the strong man and big brother that defends us from evil, but we have to let him. In healing a mute today the Our Lord is showing, despite the propaganda of some, that the power of God is present and active in him and conquering evil, not just healing. They may not entirely understand or believe yet that he is God, but they can’t deny that the Father is acting through his miracles.

If you feel weighed down and powerless due to the bad choices you’ve made, Our Lord is waiting to be the strong man to shelter you as you regain your footing. He will help you to stand up and will stand by you for as long as you let him. Lent’s the time to regain your footing with his help and rejoin him now and forever.

Readings: Jeremiah 7:23–28; Psalm 95:1–2, 6–9; Luke 11:14–23. See also 27th Week in Ordinary Time, Friday.