Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent, Lectionary: 255

Key:

What these passages tell us about God

What these passages tell us to do

Reading 1 JER 20:10-13

I hear the whisperings of many: "Terror on every side! Denounce! let us denounce him!" All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine. "Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail, and take our vengeance on him."

But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion: my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph. In their failure they will be put to utter shame, to lasting, unforgettable confusion.

O LORD of hosts, you who test the just, who probe mind and heart, Let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause.

Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD, For he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked!

Responsorial Psalm PS 18:2-3A, 3BC-4, 5-6, 7

R. (see 7) In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
I love you, O LORD, my strength, O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
My God, my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD, I exclaim, and I am safe from my enemies.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
The breakers of death surged round about me, the destroying floods overwhelmed me;
The cords of the nether world enmeshed me, the snares of death overtook me.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.
In my distress I called upon the LORD and cried out to my God; From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears.
R. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice.

Verse Before The Gospel SEE JN 6:63C, 68C

Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life; you have the words of everlasting life.

Gospel JN 10:31-42

The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus. Jesus answered them, "I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?"

The Jews answered him, "We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.
You, a man, are making yourself God."

Jesus answered them, "Is it not written in your law, 'I said, 'You are gods"'?  If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came, and Scripture cannot be set aside, can you say that the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world blasphemes because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?  If I do not perform my Father's works, do not believe me; but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me, believe the works, so that you may realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father."

Then they tried again to arrest him; but he escaped from their power.

He went back across the Jordan to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained.  Many came to him and said, "John performed no sign, but everything John said about this man was true." And many there began to believe in him.

the LORD is with me,

like a mighty champion

LORD of hosts,

you who test the just,

who probe mind and heart

he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked

he heard my voice

O LORD, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer

he heard my voice

My God, my rock of refuge,

my shield,

the horn of my salvation,

my stronghold!
Praised be the LORD,

I am safe from my enemies

he heard my voice

From his temple he heard my voice

my cry to him reached his ears. 

he heard my voice

he heard my voice

Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life;

you have the words of everlasting life

I have shown you many good works from my Father

the one whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world

'I am the Son of God'

perform my Father's works

the Father is in me and I am in the Father

to you I have entrusted my cause.
Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD

In my distress I called upon the Lord

In my distress I called upon the Lord

In my distress I called upon the Lord

In my distress I called upon the Lord

In my distress I called upon the Lord

believe the works

 Top of Form

Bottom of Form

God's persistent, energetic, sacrificial love for us & our response (Readings for March 11, 2018)

Key:

What these passages tell us about God

What these passages tell us to do

Commentary/observations

Reading 1 2 CHR 36:14-16, 19-23

In those days, all the princes of Judah, the priests, and the people added infidelity to infidelity, practicing all the abominations of the nations and polluting the LORD’s temple which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

Early and often did the LORD, the God of their fathers, send his messengers to them, for he had compassion on his people and his dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised his warnings, and scoffed at his prophets, until the anger of the LORD against his people was so inflamed that there was no remedy. Their enemies burnt the house of God, tore down the walls of Jerusalem, set all its palaces afire, and destroyed all its precious objects. Those who escaped the sword were carried captive to Babylon, where they became servants of the king of the Chaldeans and his sons until the kingdom of the Persians came to power. All this was to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah:  “Until the land has retrieved its lost sabbaths,  during all the time it lies waste it shall have rest while seventy years are fulfilled.”

In the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia,  in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah, the LORD inspired King Cyrus of Persia to issue this proclamation throughout his kingdom, both by word of mouth and in writing: “Thus says Cyrus, king of Persia: All the kingdoms of the earth the LORD, the God of heaven, has given to me, and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of his people, let him go up, and may his God be with him!”

Responsorial Psalm  PS 137:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6.

R. (6ab) Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
By the streams of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.
On the aspens of that land we hung up our harps.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
For there our captors asked of us the lyrics of our songs, and our despoilers urged us to be joyous: “Sing for us the songs of Zion!”
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
How could we sing a song of the LORD in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand be forgotten!
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!
May my tongue cleave to my palate if I remember you not, if I place not Jerusalem ahead of my joy.
R. Let my tongue be silenced, if I ever forget you!

Reading 2 EPH 2:4-10

Brothers and sisters: God, who is rich in mercy,  because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ — by grace you have been saved —, raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so no one may boast. For we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them.

Verse Before The Gospel JN 3:16

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.

Gospel JN 3:14-21

Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,  so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,  so that everyone who believes in him might not perish  but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,  but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,  because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world,  but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light,  so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,  so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

1.    God loves us in spite of our sin (second reading, gospel). He comes to us to draw us away from sin (first reading). Like a loving parent He sometimes lets us feel the sting of sin in order to correct us (first reading), but he ultimately does mighty works to rescue us from our sin (First reading, gospel).

2.   How should we respond to that wonderful, persistent, energetic love? By reciprocating with energetic work on His behalf (second reading, gospel). That work consists of both striving to get closer to God and serving our fellow man.

3.   Those dynamics are well described in Paragraph 1, Catechism of the Catholic Church:

God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength.  He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church. To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Saviour. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.(emphasis added)