Gospel: March 14, 2024
(Thursday)
4th Week of Lent
Psalter: Week 4 / (Violet)
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 106: 19-20, 21-22, 23
Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
1st Reading: Exodus 32: 7-14
Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a molten calf; they have bowed down before it and sacrificed to it and said: ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.’” And Yahweh said to Moses, “I see that these people are a stiff-necked people. Now just leave me that my anger may blaze against them. I will destroy them, but of you I will make a great nation.” But Moses calmed the anger of Yahweh, his God, and said, “Why, O Yahweh, should your anger burst against your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with a mighty hand? Let not the Egyptians say: ‘Yahweh brought them out with evil intent, for he wanted to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth.’ Turn away from the heat of your anger and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the promise you yourself swore: I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land I spoke about I will give to them as an everlasting inheritance.” Yahweh then changed his mind and would not yet harm his people.
Gospel: John 5: 31-47
If I bore witness to myself, my testimony would be worthless. But Another One is bearing witness to me, and I know that his testimony is true when he bears witness to me. John also bore witness to the truth when you sent messengers to him, but I do not seek such human testimony; I recall this for you, so that you may be saved. John was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were willing to enjoy his light. But I have greater evidence than that of John—the works which the Father entrusted to me to carry out. The very works I do bear witness: the Father has sent me. Thus he who bears witness to me is the Father who sent me. You have never heard his voice and have never seen his likeness; therefore, as long as you do not believe his messenger, his word is not in you. You search in the Scriptures, thinking that in them you will find life; yet Scripture bears witness to me. But you refuse to come to me, that you may live. I am not seeking human praise; but I know that the love of God is not within you, for I have come in my Father’s name and you do not accept me. If another comes in his own name, you will accept him. As long as you seek praise from one another, instead of seeking the glory which comes from the only God, how can you believe? Do not think that I shall accuse you to the Father. Moses himself, in whom you placed your hope, accuses you. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?
Reflection:“Reach out to one another.”
The Gospel of John depicts John (the Baptist) to be a witness to Jesus. If Jesus is the eternal light, John is the temporal light that bears witness to the eternal light. We, as followers of Jesus, share this calling. Today’s Gospel particularly points out that John’s bearing witness to Jesus is inseparable from his bearing witness to the truth. A world that is characterized by falsehood, disinformation and lies, is a world where darkness is also present. Nevertheless, with Jesus as our eternal light, darkness surely will not have the last say. John’s Prologue clearly says that Jesus, our light, shines in the darkness and darkness did not overcome the light (cf. Jn. 1:5). As modern-day witnesses to Jesus, it is our mission to reach out to one another especially in times when we grope in the dark. However, to be able to do this, we have to reach out to Jesus who is our eternal light. Otherwise, we will only fumble and stumble in the dark. Lent challenges us to deepen our relationship with Jesus, allowing his light to penetrate even the darkest side of our being.
