27th March 2020
Friday of the 4th week of Lent
For today’s Gospel reading click the link below
Mass Readings
Meditation: What can hold us back from doing the will of God? Fear, especially the fear of death and the fear of losing the approval of others, can easily rob us of courage and the will to do what we know is right. Jesus met opposition and the threat of death with grace and determination to accomplish his Father’s will. Jesus knew that his mission, his purpose in life, would entail sacrifice and suffering and culminate with death on the cross. But that would not be the end. His “hour” would crush defeat with victory over sin and Satan, condemnation with pardon and freedom, and death with glory and everlasting life.
Jesus
offered up his life for us to restore us to friendship with God
He willingly suffered for our sake and embraced the cross to redeem us from sin
and to restore us to new life and friendship with God our Father.
Saint Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD) wrote:
“Our Lord had the power to lay down his life and to take it up again. But we cannot choose how long we shall live, and death comes to us even against our will. Christ, by dying, has already overcome death. Our freedom from death comes only through his death. To save us Christ had no need of us. Yet without him we can do nothing. He gave himself to us as the vine to the branches; apart from him we cannot live.”
No one can be indifferent with Jesus for very long. What he said and did – his miraculous signs and wonders – he did in the name of God. Jesus not only claimed to be the Messiah, God’s Anointed One – he claimed to be in a unique relationship of sonship with God the Father and to know him as no one else did. To the Jews this was utter blasphemy. The religious authorities did all they could to put a stop to Jesus because they could not accept his claims and the demands he made.
Jesus
alone can set us free from the power of sinful pride, rebellion, and fear
We cannot be indifferent to the claims which Jesus makes on us. We are either
for him or against him. There is no middle ground. We can try to mold the Lord
Jesus to our own ideas and way of thinking or we can allow his word of truth to
free us from our own sinful blindness, stubborn pride, and ignorance. Do you
accept all that Jesus has taught and done for you with faith and reverence or
with disbelief and contempt? The consequences are enormous, both in this life
and in eternity.
“Eternal God, who are the light of the minds that know you, the joy of the hearts that love you, and the strength of the wills that serve you; grant us so to know you, that we may truly love you, and so to love you that we may fully serve you, whom to serve is perfect freedom, in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Prayer of Saint Augustine)
Psalm 34:17-22
17 When the righteous
cry for help, the LORD hears, and delivers them out of all their
troubles.
18 The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves
the crushed in spirit.
19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the LORD delivers him out of them all.
20 He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.
21 Evil shall slay the wicked; and those who hate the righteous will be
condemned.
22 The LORD redeems the life of his servants; none of
those who take refuge in him will be condemned.
A Daily Quote for Lent: Christ our physician, by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
“As Christians, our task is to make daily progress toward God. Our pilgrimage on earth is a school in which God is the only teacher, and it demands good students, not ones who play truant. In this school we learn something every day. We learn something from commandments, something from examples, and something from sacraments. These things are remedies for our wounds and materials for study.”
copyright (c) 2020 Servants of the Word, source: www.dailyscripture.net, author Don Schwager