Gospel: April 5, 2025

April 5, 2025 (Saturday)

4th Week of Lent

Psalter: Week 4 / (Violet)

St. Vincent Ferrer, priest

Ps 7:2-3, 9bc-10, 11-12

O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge.

1st Reading: Jeremiah 11:18-20

Gospel: John 7:40-53

Many who had been listening to these words began to say, “This is the Prophet.” Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some wondered, “Would the Christ come from Galilee? Doesn’t Scripture say that the Christ is a descendant of David and from Bethlehem, the city of David?” The crowd was divided over him. Some wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him. The officers of the temple went back to the chief priests, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him?” The officers answered, “No one ever spoke like this man.” The Pharisees then said, “So you, too, have been led astray! Have any of the rulers or any of the Pharisees believed in him? Only these cursed people, who have no knowledge of the law!” Yet one of them, Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier, spoke out, “Does our law condemn people without first hearing them and knowing the facts?” They replied, “Do you, too, come from Galilee? Look it up and see for yourself that no prophet is to come from Galilee.” And they all went home.

Reflection

“No knowledge of the law.”

Jesus says that the things of heaven have been revealed to mere children, while they have been hidden from the learned and the clever (Mt 11:25). We have evidence of this in the way that the Pharisees reject the insights of the ordinary people, stating that they have “no knowledge of the law” and that they are “cursed” rather than destined for eternal life. The Pharisees consider the people’s belief in Jesus to be ignorance. The people see it for what it really is: salvation and new life. Are we open to the insights of others? Do we overlook someone’s view because he or she does not have a degree? The Church’s Magisterium teaches that all members of the People of God have an innate sense of faith (sensus fidei), and so the Church should appreciate the supernatural sense of all the faithful (sensus fidelium). However, all recent popes have also highlighted that this instinct for faith and for the ways of God can either be clouded or enabled by the way we live, and that it is truly helped by living one’s faith in communion with the Church. May our life of faith give us eyes to see!