Wednesday

4th Week of Easter, Wednesday (2)

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Today’s First Reading speaks of the word of God growing and spreading. In today’s Gospel Our Lord, just before the account of the Last Supper in John’s Gospel, says his word will judge those who accept or reject it, not him. He teaches us today that his word goes beyond him, beyond his humanity to not only being the word of God, a word that cannot be discounted, but a word of truth. When we stand before him at the end of our lives and are judged, he won’t need to say much of anything. Everything he said and taught will be evidently true, as well as whether we heeded his words or not. There’ll be no spin, no legal chicanery, just things presented as they are.

Our Lord in today’s Gospel doesn’t just lend credence to his word because he has said it. He lends credence to it because his Father has taught him and told him to say it. As believers we too have been taught by Jesus and told to share his teachings and truth with others, because they are the word of God. His word, as the First Reading reminds us, has great power.

The word of God is eternal life. Let’s not stay in the dark and help others come to hear it as well.

Readings: Acts 12:24–13:5a; Psalm 67:2–6, 8; John 12:44–50. See also 4th Week of Easter, Wednesday.

3rd Week of Easter, Wednesday (2)

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After Stephen’s martyrdom, recalled in yesterday‘s First Reading, the Christians are scattered due to persecution, but that, in God’s Providence, helps Christianity to spread. Stephen may be gone, but Philip heads up to Samaria and starts working signs and wonders as well. There have been many attempts throughout history to destroy Christianity; apparently they didn’t heed Gamaliel‘s advice to just wait and see whether Christianity would die off on its own. It won’t. The Lord made good come out of his Son’s crucifixion, and in moments of persecution he makes good come too.

Throughout the world today Christian’s are still being persecuted and murdered for their faith. Religious extremists are taxing them, terrorizing them, and beheading them. We should support them and religious liberty as well, but also ask ourselves whether we’re being complacent in countries where Christianity is tolerated, albeit, at times, ridiculed. It’s a question of spiritual life and death, even though it may not always be a question of physical life and death. Even veiled persecution should stoke our apostolic zeal to spread the Gospel and have the right to share our faith.

Let’s pray today for all persecuted Christians and thank Our Lord for all those who have given their lives for the Gospel, including him.

Readings: Acts 8:1b–8; Psalm 66:1–3a, 4–7a; John 6:35–40. See also 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time,Cycle B and 3rd Week of Easter, Wednesday.

2nd Week of Easter, Wednesday (2)

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People who don’t agree with the truth or are afraid of being exposed by it try to lock it away or cover it up. The Sanhedrin in today’s First Reading tries in vain to lock up those now entrusted by Christ with spreading the truth. It’s a truth that profoundly impacts the way we see ourselves, God, and the world, and is poignantly summarized in today’s Gospel: “God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” God has acted in our regard out of concern and love; Jesus didn’t come to condemn, but to save. The Father handed him over to us, and those who didn’t believe in him made a concerted effort to kill him, the truth, because he condemned what they were doing. They weren’t successful, just as the Sanhedrin wasn’t when the early Church started to also proclaim the truth.

Our Lord doesn’t just want to come into the world; he wants to come into our hearts and shed light on what we’d rather not see. Turning from him is turning from the truth. We all have that fear from time to time of being exposed for what we are–not as virtuous or holy as we could be or should be–yet Our Lord doesn’t come to expose us in order to condemn us; he comes to lead us back into the light, his light, the light of truth, and to save us from all the evil destructive things contained in the darkness of ignorance and falsehood. Advocates of keeping things in the dark, of doing evil, will try to lock us away too if we strive to live the truth and reflect it’s light, but like the first believers, Our Lord will watch over us as we try to live the life he’s shown us and teach it to others as well.

Ask Our Lord today to help see whether you’re jailed or the jailor. No matter which one you are, or both, he has come to set you free.

Readings: Acts 5:17–26; Psalm 34:2–9; John 3:16–21. See also 2nd Week of Easter,Wednesday.

Holy Week, Wednesday (2)

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Today’s liturgy takes us right to the beginning of the Last Supper, an apt preparation for the liturgy we’ll be celebrating tomorrow evening on Holy Thursday. We see two plans in motion: Judas has made a deal with the chief priests to hand Jesus over when the time is right, and Our Lord prepares for his last meal on earth with his disciples. Our Lord’s been preparing them for what is about to happen: he warned them that he would be handed over and put to death (cf. Matthew 17:22), but now he warns them too that one of them will betray them. In John’s account of Jesus’ last days on earth we see him taking precautions, so it is no surprise that someone close to him would have to betray him.

Even though he tells Judas that he knows it will be him, and that it’ll be the worst mistake of his life (“better for that man if he had never been born”), Judas is set on his path; perhaps he thinks Our Lord is bluffing, trying to flush him out. There’s no way to know what was in his blackened heart. Our Lord, knowing his own path leads to the Cross, is also prepared in the Last Supper to share what would be two of the Church’s greatest gifts: the Eucharist and the ministerial priesthood.

Whether you attend the Chrism Mass tomorrow or the Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper, use these last few days of Holy Week and the Easter Triduum to examine your heart and see what path you’re on: following Christ’s is the surest and the safest, even though it passes through the Cross. Don’t be shocked if there’s a little bit of Judas in you to purge before taking up your cross and following Christ.

Readings: Isaiah 50:4–9a; Psalm 69:8–10, 21–22, 31, 33–34; Matthew 26:14–25. See also Holy Week, Tuesday (2), Holy Week, Tuesday and Holy Week, Wednesday.

5th Week of Lent, Wednesday

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Yesterday Our Lord addressed the Jews who didn’t believe in him or in the Father. Today he addresses those who did believe in him, and he reminds us that faith alone is not enough; there has to be a change of heart, a conversion. To understand what Our Lord is saying today about the Father and the “father” of the Jews he is addressing we have to consider a moment in the account of the Fall of Adam and Eve. The Lord, addressing the serpent who contribute to the Fall, says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel” (Genesis 3:15, NABRE).

The Jews are thinking of being blood descendants of Abraham. Our Lord is speaking of whose side they’ve chosen by their behavior. Our Lord is the “offspring” who strikes at the head of the serpent’s offspring, a fatal blow. Our Lord is offering them a way to return to the right side: to return to the family of God by turning away from sin. As he describes in today’s Gospel, those who sin enslave themselves. The fact that they seek Our Lord’s death shows that they are not on the side of Our Lord, or of Abraham, or of the Father, because they are trying to kill the truth that could set them free. Our Lord is trying to convince them to change back to the winning side; it they don’t, they may slow down God’s designs, but ultimately they’ll fail.

The young men in today’s First Reading were clear regarding which side they were on, regardless of the consequences. In a world that often entices us to sacrifice our Christian principles, let’s show the same boldness as the young men by believing in Christ and the winning side and giving witness to it, no matter how much the world seems to threaten us.

Readings: Daniel 3:14–20, 91–92, 95; Daniel 3:52–56; John 8:31–42.