Thursday of Week 4 of Lent – Gospel
Commentary on John 5:31-47
Today we continue on from yesterday’s words of Jesus to the Jewish religious leaders. In four ways, John’s Gospel reaffirms that God himself is the witness to the truth of all that Jesus says:
- The testimony of John the Baptist gives witness, although that was only human testimony (vv 33-34).
- The works of Jesus give clear testimony of the divine origin of all that Jesus does:
The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me.
The leaders could not see this, but the crowds often testified to it with enthusiasm (v36).
- The Father himself has given testimony, although that has not been seen directly by some of the Jews:
And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form…
Perhaps this is a reference to Jesus’ baptism or to the Transfiguration (vv 37-38).
- A careful reading of the Scriptures will show they give testimony to Jesus (vv 39-40).
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
This is clearly shown later on by Jesus when explaining the Scriptures to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35).
Although Jesus clearly comes in the name of his Father, he is not accepted or believed in. Yet some other individual will come in his own name, and they will accept him. Further, they keep looking to their own traditions, rather than looking further to someone who clearly comes from God.
Jesus will not accuse them before his Father. Moses, in whom they claim to believe, will be their accuser.
If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?
By “Moses” is meant the first five books of the Bible, known as the Pentateuch. Their authorship is attributed to Moses, although we know now by the dating of the various parts that this could not be possible. It was common in ancient times to attribute the authorship of a work to a well-known personality.
How much of all this applies to us? Where do we ultimately put our faith—in the Christ of the New Testament, or in a Jesus we have tailored to our own wants? How familiar are we with the Word of God in the New (and Old) Testament? Where do we clearly see the Risen Jesus bringing God into our lives every single day?
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Friday of Week 4 of Lent – Gospel
Commentary on John 7:1-2,10,25-30
In today’s Gospel we move to the 7th chapter of John, skipping chapter 6 on the Bread of Life, which will be read at another time in the liturgical cycle. We are told that Jesus was confining his activities to Galilee. He did not want to go to Judea and the vicinity of Jerusalem because there were people there who wanted to kill him. Jesus does not expose himself unnecessarily to danger. He knows that a time is coming when the final conflict will be inevitable, but that time is not yet.
It is the time of the Feast of Tabernacles and (though not contained in today’s reading) his family are urging him to go up to Jerusalem for the feast and show himself to the world. He tells them the time is not ripe for him to do this, but later on, after his family have left for the city, he goes privately and unbeknown to others. However, in Jerusalem, Jesus goes to the Temple area and begins to teach openly, to the amazement of his listeners:
How does this man have such learning, when he has never been taught? (John 5:15)
A marvelous example of Johannine irony—the Word does not need to study the Word!
Jesus is a source of some confusion in the minds of many people. On the one hand, the people are aware that Jesus has become a target of their religious leaders, and yet he goes about openly and speaking freely and without fear.
Jesus would not be Jesus if he were to keep his message to himself. The Word of God cannot remain silent. On the other hand, the people are also confused about the identity of Jesus. Is he allowed to speak freely because the leaders now believe he really is the Messiah-Christ? But everyone knows where Jesus comes from (Nazareth in Galilee). How, then, can he be the Messiah?
Jesus then tells them:
You know me, and you know where I am from.
That is only partially true; rather, they think they know.
I have not come on my own. But the one who sent me is true…I know him because I am from him, and he sent me.
And, if they do not know the Father, how can they know the Son? And vice versa.
This only angers his listeners who know what he is implying, but they cannot arrest him there and then because “his hour had not yet come.” The time of his arrest will only be in accordance with God’s plan.
Do we really know who Jesus is? There are many conflicting opinions out there. We can only know the real Jesus by reading the Scriptures under wise and perceptive guides who can help us penetrate the deeper meaning beneath the literal text. We can also learn a lot by prayer and contemplation. Lent is an excellent time for us to do both and, better still, to begin making it a practice that goes far beyond Lent.
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Saturday of Week 4 of Lent – Gospel
Commentary on John 7:40-52
Today we have a continuation of yesterday’s confusion about the identity of Jesus. There is a conflict between what people are seeing and hearing, and what they have been taught to believe. On the basis of his words and actions, Jesus looks like the Messiah, but as every Jewish child knows, the Messiah is not going to come from Galilee (where Nazareth is located). Rather, he is to come from Bethlehem and the family of David. This is a good example of Johannine irony. Of course, Jesus did come from Nazareth, but he was of the family of David and, as we know from Matthew and Luke, born in David’s town of Bethlehem.
Even the police are confused. When asked by the religious leaders why they have not arrested Jesus, they reply:
Never has anyone spoken like this!
They are scolded for their ignorance and told to never mind how impressively he speaks:
Surely you have not been deceived, too, have you? Has any one of the authorities or of the Pharisees believed in him?
And the crowds who surround Jesus and listen to him are written off as ignorant and cursed:
…this crowd, which does not know the law, they are accursed.
But one Pharisee, Nicodemus, who had earlier (John chap 3) spoken with Jesus in secret and had been won over, protests:
Our law does not judge people without first giving them a hearing to find out what they are doing, does it?
Nicodemus is swept aside by the leaders’ preconceived ideas:
Search and you will see that no prophet is to arise from Galilee.
We need to remember we are not reading this passage to condemn the Jewish religious leaders or the Pharisees, but to reflect on our own prejudices and short-sightedness. How do we see Jesus, the Gospel message, the whole Bible, the Church, our parish community and its leaders? How do we see our family, friends, neighbours, not to mention strangers and outsiders? Let him or her who is totally without prejudice or who has never passed judgement on another cast the first stone.
Let us pray for an open mind to accept in its totality the message of Jesus. And let us also be very open about the many and surprising ways in which Jesus can speak to us. If we are honest, there is something of the Pharisee in every one of us.
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Friday of Week 4 of Lent – First Reading
Commentary on Wisdom 2:1,12-22
Today’s reading comes from early on in the Book of Wisdom, in a passage describing life as seen by the godless (the “ungodly”, see chap 1). We often feel that if we are good and virtuous and, even more, because we are good and virtuous, people should be inspired to follow and imitate our good example. However, experience tells us that many times exactly the opposite happens, and people feel somehow threatened by or resentful of our good behavior.
The description of the animosity directed against those who live good and virtuous lives is well put in today’s reading, and it applies so perfectly to how Jesus was treated—so much so that some people see in this passage a prophecy about Jesus. However, it also applies to hundreds of others down the ages whose goodness has been resented, whose behaviour is seen as a condemnation and a threat to those with different values. Such individuals, as a result, have been persecuted and even killed.
In the passage, the “ungodly”, who are speaking about a prophet (called “the righteous man”) say:
Let us lie in wait for the righteous man, because he is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions.
It is because the prophet’s words are felt to be true that they create feelings of guilt in those against whom they are directed.
Again, the “ungodly” say:
He [the righteous man] reproaches us for sins against the law and accuses us of sins against our training.
The reproach is not denied, but it is strongly resented:
He professes to have knowledge of God,
and calls himself a child of the Lord.
He became to us a reproof of our thoughts;
the very sight of him is a burden to us…
Of course, “the righteous man” is the very person whom Scripture says should be respected and protected. And that claim is not denied by the “ungodly”, but such a one is seen as an obstruction to how they live.
And then there follows a good description of the “righteous man”:
…his manner of life is unlike that of others, and his ways are strange.
How true of Jesus and of many of his most faithful followers!
Subsequently comes the justification for violent action to remove the source of criticism. If the prophet is really a spokesperson for God, then surely God will protect him against any violent attack.
Let us test him with insult and torture,
so that we may find out how reasonable he is
and make trial of his forbearance.
Let us condemn him to a shameful death,
for, according to what he says, he will be protected.
It is exactly what happened to Jesus at the hands of his opponents as his enemies mocked him during his trial:
Some began to spit on him, to blindfold him, and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!” The guards also took him and beat him. (Mark 14:65)
And again, on the cross:
In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him…He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to… (Matt 27:41-44)
This has happened to many down through the centuries and it will happen in our times as well—and for exactly the same reasons. We call such dedicated followers martyrs, from the Greek word for ‘witness’. They give striking witness to the values of the Kingdom.
Those who carry out these actions can convince themselves that what they are doing is right:
Thus they reasoned, but they were led astray, for their wickedness blinded them, and they did not know the secret purposes of God…
Their aim is to obliterate the source of their discomfort, but the result is often the very opposite. It is a very dangerous thing to create martyrs. We remember the early Christian saying from the writings of Tertullian:
The blood of martyrs is the seed of faith.
Jesus himself has told us not to be surprised that we too will be misunderstood and treated as he was. The following of Christ involves what is called a ‘counter-witness’ to the prevailing values in our societies. Such a counter-witness will often be deeply resented, attacked, rubbished and ridiculed, and it may invite even violence and death.
Of course, we also have to be very careful that our witness is based on truth, integrity and love; we have to be careful to avoid any taint of Pharisaism or superior elitism, which we can fall into so easily. It is God we are proclaiming, not ourselves.
As we approach Holy Week, we need to reflect on these things and see how they fit into our lives. Whose side am I on? If I had been on Calvary, with whom would I have been standing? In issues of truth and justice in my own society, where am I seen?
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Tuesday of Week 4 of Lent – First Reading
Commentary on Ezekiel 47:1-9,12
About today’s passage from Ezekiel, the Vatican II Missal states:
“In the Middle East, desert land was commonplace and water all-important. Water was a symbol of God’s saving grace. The prophet Ezekiel described a future idealised Temple, the source of deepening waters and fertile abundance.”
A marvellous river, flowing out from under the Temple, is a manifestation of the blessings conferred on the land by Yahweh’s return to live among his people. It is linked in today’s Gospel with the healing of the man who was waiting for the waters of the ‘Sheep Pool’ to move.
The First Reading describes an ever-increasing stream of water flowing out from the Temple. It is to be understood as a healing, life-giving water. And, in the background, there is the image of the river flowing through the Garden of Eden, a symbol of the life that God gives to all creation. In the world of the Middle East, a world of parched deserts, water signifies great blessings, just as dryness and drought signify a curse.
Although not fed by any tributaries, the river continues to increase remarkably, until it is too deep to wade across. The banks of the river are seen to have an abundance of trees, again reminiscent of the fertility of Eden (Gen 2:9). The river flows on into the deep depression that marks the course of the River Jordan and into the Dead Sea, so named because its high salt level makes life impossible. But it is to be understood that the river will make the Dead Sea’s waters wholesome. Literally, the angel says that the river will ‘heal’ the waters of the Sea:
…when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh.
That this lowest (1,300 feet below sea level) and incredibly salty (about 35 percent) body of water should be able to sustain such an abundance of life indicates the wonderful renewing power of this “river of the water of life” (Rev 22:1).
The prophet says:
…there will be very many fish once these waters reach there. It will become fresh, and everything will live where the river goes.
Here we have the image of miraculous water flowing from the Temple and conferring a marvellous fertility. The power of the water is such that, as it flows into the Dead Sea where nothing can live because of its saltiness, the sea flourishes with fish, and fruit trees of every kind grow along its shores. There are overtones of the creation of the teeming waters in the Creation story (Gen 1:20-21). Ezekiel writes:
Wherever the river goes…everything will live…
In the context of the Gospel, this water is the Life that Jesus gives:
…whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35)
Truly, this is a symbol of the kind of life that God wishes us to share with him. Jesus says:
I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
(John 10:10)
Let us during this Lenten season experience the healing power of Jesus, a healing power which was initiated at our Baptism, but which needs to continue for as long as we live.
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Saturday of Week 4 of Lent – First Reading
Commentary on Jeremiah 11:18-20
Jeremiah, as a prophet of God, is the target of vicious conspiracies which want to wipe him out. In 622 BC, King Josiah of Judah undertook a religious reform (described in 2 Kings 23) after the Book of the Law was discovered, having lain hidden for years. It seems that Jeremiah took an active role in the reform. By championing the reform, which included the suppression of local shrines, Jeremiah incurred the hatred of his fellow citizens, the people of Anathoth.
It is then that he compares himself to a “gentle lamb led to the slaughter”. (A similar phrase will later be applied to Jesus as he is led to his execution.) For Jeremiah’s enemies are plotting to get rid of him:
Let us destroy the tree with its fruit;
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will no longer be remembered!
Jeremiah had no children so, in the eyes of his enemies, that would be the end of him forever.
But they were ironic words because, as in the case of so many martyrs in the cause of right, his name is all the more remembered after his enemies tried to blot him out of existence. And Jeremiah knows that too:
But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously,
who try the heart and the mind,
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
Ultimately God is Jeremiah’s only protection against his enemies. But God will see that truth and justice will prevail in the end. And, of course, this is true most of all of Jesus:
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone. (Ps 118:22)
That is what we reflect on and celebrate as we watch Jesus go through his Passion in the coming days.
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Thursday of Week 4 of Lent – First Reading
Commentary on Exodus 32:7-14
While Moses was up on the mountain conversing with God and receiving the law from him, the people below became impatient. “That Moses, the man who brought us here from Egypt—we do not know what has become of him.” Aaron, the brother of Moses, then collected all the gold that the women and children wore and melted it down to make a ‘golden calf’.
The word ‘calf’ is somewhat derisive because it was in fact the statue of a bull, a common symbol of divinity in the ancient East. It seems that a group in competition with Moses’ followers (or perhaps a dissident faction within Moses’ group) wished to have the figure of a bull symbolise the presence of God. However, the God being worshipped was still Yahweh, who had brought them out of Egypt. The dissidents would also likely have viewed the Ark of the Covenant simply as a symbol of Yahweh, rather than recognize that the actual presence of God resided in it. So, they would have no problem substituting the familiar symbol of the golden bull for the Ark.
In paying worship to the bull, they saw the saviour who brought them out of slavery in Egypt. But they were worshipping a god of their own making—something people in all ages, including our own, tend to do.
God is portrayed as reacting very angrily to this and asks Moses, who is still in his presence, not to stand in his way:
Now let me alone so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them…
But Moses, while not denying their sin, pleads on behalf of his people. Later, he will plead on behalf of his sister, Miriam, and frequently on behalf of the people all during their journey through the desert. His intercession foreshadows that of Christ, who on the Cross won forgiveness for our sin.
Moses’ argument is that, if God destroys his people, he will become a laughing stock among the pagans for rescuing his people and then destroying them in the wilderness. In addition, Moses reminds God of the promises he made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob of the great and unending future of their descendants. So God, seen here in very human terms, relents and withdraws his promise of vengeance.
Of course, this is not at all the kind of God the New Testament asks us to believe in. We should be careful about speaking of our God in such anthropomorphic terms. God does not get angry; he does not take revenge. Our sinfulness brings its own punishment because every sin is a denial of what we are meant to be and become.
As with most passages of Scripture, what we need to look at here is not what is being said and done, but at the underlying meaning of the passage. The emphasis here is on the thanklessness of God’s people and on God’s readiness to forgive again and give them another chance.
We are constantly in the same situation. Let us be aware at this time of the countless gifts God has given us and continues to shower on us. At the same time, we know that, when we fail, his mercy and compassion are there for us always. But let that compassion draw us closer to him and to Jesus, and help us to leave behind every lack of love in our lives.
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Monday of Week 4 of Lent – First Reading
Commentary on Isaiah 65:17-21
Isaiah speaks of a coming Utopia, a totally new world full of joy and gladness. It is a world without pain or sadness, a world of prosperity and plenty. The dream is of a restored Jerusalem after the exile, and of an even greater Messianic kingdom after that.
The reading comes from the last part of Third Isaiah, a part of the book not written by Isaiah the prophet. Chapters 65 and 66 form an apocalyptic collection, and date mainly from the period after the exile in Babylon, when a remnant of the Jews had returned to Jerusalem. (While it is not often said, many of the exiles stayed behind in Babylon because life was quite comfortable for them there.)
In the writing of the earlier prophets, messianic happiness was foreseen as a return to paradise, to the bliss of the Garden of Eden. But in apocalyptic literature, such as we have in today’s reading, there is seen rather a complete renewal of our present world. So, we have the opening words today:
For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth.
The past will go into complete oblivion, never to be remembered again.
There will be a new Jerusalem—a completely restored Jerusalem—following the return from exile, and even more so in the Messianic kingdom to come. Later on, the Book of Revelation will link the idea of a new heaven and a new earth with the “new Jerusalem” (Rev 21:1-2).
It will be a world free of pain and sickness, no weeping or wailing, no children dying before their time and no one living less than 100 years. We are speaking, of course, in apocalyptic language, not to be taken literally. It is a dream of better and happier times to come.
It paves the way for the coming of Jesus who, in today’s Gospel, brings healing and wholeness back to a household threatened with death. Here, Jesus anticipates his later statement to Martha:
I am the Resurrection and the Life. (John 11:25)
We do not expect to live lives without pain, sickness or even tragedy, but what we can expect from our commitment to Jesus’ Way is to experience the peace which only he can give.
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Wednesday of Week 4 of Lent – First Reading
Commentary on Isaiah 49:8-15
The reading is part of a celebration of the people’s joyful return from their exile in Babylon to their home in Jerusalem. It comes from Second Isaiah, a book full of hope and consolation which looks forward to the end of the exile and the people’s going home again.
The Hebrews are still in exile, and though their lives are led in hardship and bitterness, the prophet assures them that better times are on the way. In response to the cry of God’s people:
Thus says the Lord:
In a time of favor I have answered you;
on a day of salvation I have helped you.
The reference is probably to the year of jubilee, but the return from exile will bring about the same restoration of land for the people as the jubilee did for those who, because of debt problems, may have had to sell their land.
So the Lord now calls on his people:
…to establish the land,
to apportion the desolate heritages,
saying to the prisoners, “Come out,”
to those who are in darkness, “Show yourselves.”
It is a time for the restoration of justice to all. The end of their sorrows is symbolised in phrases like:
…they shall not hunger or thirst,
neither scorching wind nor sun shall strike them down…
Their God is with them:
…he who has pity on them will lead them
and by springs of water will guide them.
The way will be made clear for their return:
I will turn all my mountains into a road,
and my highways shall be raised up.
He will give them back their land, seized by the foreign invader. He will bring freedom to the prisoners and light to those in darkness. They will be surrounded by fertile lands, untouched by heat or thirst, and will luxuriate in springs of fresh water. The ways to the homeland will be cleared and exiles will return from as far away as the “land of Syene” (or Sinim—now known as Aswan, the first cataract on the River Nile in Egypt).
It is a time for great rejoicing, in which the whole of nature should take part:
Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth;
break forth, O mountains, into singing!
Yet, Zion is still sceptical:
The Lord has forsaken me;
my Lord has forgotten me.
But they are wrong—utterly wrong. God does not forget his people. He is full of tenderness and compassion, as gentle as that of any mother, expressed in those extraordinarily gentle and affectionate words:
Can a woman forget her nursing child
or show no compassion for the child of her womb?
Even these might forget,
yet I will not forget you.
In our darkest moments, let us not forget the unchanging intensity of God’s love for us.
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Monday of Week 4 of Lent – Gospel
Commentary on John 4:43-54
This week we begin a semi-continuous reading of John’s Gospel. Today, Jesus brings the promise of new life, now and in the future. Today’s Gospel follows immediately after the encounter of Jesus with the Samaritan woman. Jesus now goes back to Galilee from Samaria. In spite of what Jesus had said earlier about prophets not being welcomed in their own place, he was received well, because they had seen what Jesus had done in Jerusalem during his recent visit there.
He returns to Cana, where he had performed his first sign, changing water into wine. A high official comes to ask Jesus to cure his son who is dying. Jesus’ first reaction is negative; he complains of people just looking for miracles, signs and wonders. But the man ignores Jesus’ remarks and repeats his request for Jesus to come and heal his son before he dies. This, in itself, indicates the level of the man’s faith in Jesus. Having faith is always the basic requirement for healing to take place.
In the Synoptic Gospels, it is the centurion who tells Jesus it is not necessary to go to his house. That was because he was a Gentile and knew that Jesus should not go there (it is not clear as to whether John’s account today is another version of this same story, or if it is a different healing event). In today’s Gospel, Jesus simply says:
Go your son will live.
And in response:
The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way.
On his way home, the official’s servants meet him to tell him that his son is alive and well. Upon making further enquiries, the father learns that the fever subsided just at the moment when Jesus promised that the boy would live. It was also the moment when the man, trusting in Jesus’ word, began his journey home.
John tells us that this is the second of the seven “signs” that Jesus performed.* Its clear message is that Jesus brings life, eternal life that begins now. In John, eternal life begins as soon as we attach ourselves in total trust to Jesus and to his Way.
Lent is a good time for us to renew our pledge to walk along his Way and to ask for a deep level of faith to do so.
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*The seven signs in John’s Gospel are:
- The changing of water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana (2:1-11)
- The healing of the royal official’s son (4:46-54–today’s reading)
- The healing of a man who is crippled at the pool by the Sheep Gate (5:1-18)
- Feeding of the 5,000 (6:1-15)
- Jesus walking on the water (6:16-21)
- Healing of the man born blind (9:1-41)
- The raising of Lazarus (11:1-44)