Preferring Nothing to Christ

Genesis 17:3-9
Psalm 104(105):4-9
John 8:51-59

The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.

Using the responsorial psalm verse as a repeated prayer or mantra can often be a very helpful way into the Liturgy of the Word. It’s especially helpful today as the theme of covenant links our readings. God’s faithfulness to us and our faithfulness to God is the foundational to the story of our salvation. We can trace a path through the Scriptures of God’s desire to reach out in love to the whole of humanity.

In the first reading from Genesis God pledges his faithfulness to Abraham:

I will establish my Covenant between myself and you, and your descendants after you, generation after generation, a Covenant in perpetuity, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.

Time and time again God will remind the people of Israel of this bond.

In the Gospel today Jesus confounds his hearers by declaring ‘before Abraham came to be, I AM.’ The Pharisees hear this literally. What Jesus is saying is that every covenantal promise made to Abraham and every generation thereafter comes to fulfilment in Him. This is blasphemy to their ears. It’s easy to scapegoat the Pharisees and pat ourselves on the back because we can grasp what Jesus is saying. The invitation to the Pharisees and to us today is one and the same: live lives of faithfulness and love that the world may believe.

In the remaining days of Lent how can you live in faithfulness?  

Daniel 3:14-20,24-25,28
John 8:31-42 

In much of John’s Gospel Jesus speaks to people who struggle to understand him. He speaks figuratively and his hearers assume he is being concrete. We, however, are so used to quotations from the Gospels and usually can grasp their meaning.

‘If you make my word your home
you will indeed be my disciples,
you will learn the truth
and the truth will make you free.’

From our vantage point, the quotation from today’s Gospel could be seen as the Gospel in microcosm:

inhabit the Scriptures,
grow in discipleship,
learn the truth,
experience freedom.

Our starting place is so clear. Get to know the Scriptures, make them your home and feel at home with them. This is a very personal journey. In every page of the Scriptures God speaks to our hearts.

Use your Bible today. Find your favourite quotations.

What is God saying to you today?

Numbers 21:4-9
John 8:21-30

Each year as we get closer to Holy Week I find that the readings are a little more complex than those we read in the early weeks of Lent. The texts from John’s Gospel ask a little more of me. John writes in a register which I feel requires me to hold together several layers of meaning at once.

Today’s first reading from Numbers is the story of the people being bitten by snakes in the wilderness. Moses fashions a bronze serpent, holds it up and whoever looks upon it lives. Whatever we might think of the likelihood of this happening, the point the story is the power of God to heal and save.

Moses’ holding up the serpent links directly with John’s important theological idea of Jesus being ‘lifted up’ on the cross. Jesus is presented as the one who brings healing through suffering and glory. When Jesus is lifted up people will see that his claims about his close relationship with his Father are true.

In today’s Gospel the Pharisees are determined to trap Jesus. The Pharisees are studiers of the Law in all its beauty and power. They want to see the way ahead, but just can’t. They take Jesus literally when he speaks. This isn’t quite enough.

Jesus changes tack and speaks of his relationship with his Father. In the most intimate of language we hear that Jesus and the Father are one and that Jesus does ‘what pleases him.’ The Pharisees still can’t understand.

‘what the Father has taught me is what I preach;
he who sent me is with me,
and has not left me to myself,
for I always do what pleases him.’

Doing what pleases God is a hard daily task. The Jesuits have a helpful way of looking at this and speak of ‘wanting to want what God wants’. I can manage this.

How do you hear Jesus’ words?

JOHN 8:12-20

As we move towards Holy Week there is a sense of growing tension in our Gospel texts. Jesus’ actions are being watched very closely and every word of his teaching is being scrutinised. Vigorous debate and cross questioning were an important part of the faith world of Jesus. It’s easy to forget this when we see him being confronted in the Temple. Jesus often replies in ways that must have been shocking to his hearers. To declare himself the light of the world is the boldest of claims.

I am the LIGHT of the world; anyone who follows me will not be walking in the dark;
he will have the light of LIFE.

We see this quotation on posters and prayer cards and we sing it in our hymns. It comforts us. But does it challenge us too? What would it mean for us to really follow Christ? What would it mean for us to have the light of life? What would it mean for us to have all that we do and say flooded with Christ’s light?

At baptism our parents and godparents stood around the font holding candles which had been lit from the Paschal candle. They put their hope in Christ who is our light. They pledged that you and I would always walk in that light.

Light a candle today and thank God for the blessings you received at Baptism.

Isaiah 43:16-21
Ps 125 (6)
John 8:1-11

As we get closer to Holy Week the liturgy builds in intensity. We have journeyed with Jesus from desert to mountain top and we have heard his invitation to turn our hearts to God, to bear fruit for his Kingdom. And now the Church puts before us a story that invites us to examine our own hearts and minds.

This is perhaps one of the most tender encounters in all of the Gospels. We picture the uncomfortable scene of a woman brought by the Pharisees to Jesus. In the eyes of the crowd she is in disgrace. But Jesus diffuses a situation, shifting the focus away from the woman and writing in the dust. With this simple action he makes space for the woman. He makes a frightening situation safe for her. We will never know what he wrote. And this, for me, makes the encounter all the more tender.

I like to think that for the woman this encounter was life-changing. Not only for the compassion that she was shown, but also because Jesus saw her and made space for her. I wonder could the woman make the words of today’s Psalm (125) her own: ‘What marvels the Lord worked for us! Indeed we were glad.’ Would she see herself as going out ‘full of tears’ and coming back ‘full of song’? I hope so.

Jesus stands before the woman as an embodiment of the marvels that God can work. As I reflect on the story I find myself wondering where I stand. Do I stand with the crowd? Do I stand with Jesus? Do I stand with the woman? Do I stand with the teachers of the law and the Pharisees?

Although I’d like to imagine myself always standing with Jesus and the woman, I need to acknowledge those times when judgment looms large for me. Lent gives us the chance to look again at our assumptions and judgments.

How can you make a safe space for another?

Jeremiah 11:18-20
John 7:40-52

Where you come from seems to matter a great deal in the Bible. It’s not just your town or village that is under scrutiny, but your parents too. In its best light this is about being able to trace the path of God’s promise.

The promise of the Messiah, the Anointed One, gives the people great hope. For those who anticipated a powerful political Messiah the idea that he could come from the relatively obscure town of Galilee would seem almost ridiculous. They have read the biblical sources in such a way so as not to be able to recognise Jesus as the Messiah.

We read the text with hindsight knowing only too well how things are engineered so that Jesus is actually born of David’s line and in Bethlehem. This requires two plot twists for God’s plan to be fulfilled.

Being able to see the way in which God has worked in the past can help you make sense of the present and encourage you to look to the future with hope. It isn’t always easy to see the hand of God in our own lives or to see or hear some things as prophetic. Often its only in looking back that we glimpse God.

Reflect on your faith journey. How has God been at work in your life?

Exodus 32: 7-14
John 5:31-47

In today’s reading from Exodus God challenges Moses about the creation of a golden calf. Moses tries to defend the people and makes appeal to a tradition that stretches far back in biblical memory:

‘Remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, your servants to whom by your own self you swore and made this promise: I will make your offspring as many as the stars of heaven, and all this land which I promised I will give to your descendants, and it shall be their heritage for ever.’

Memory plays a key part in our life of faith. On a personal level we have the memory of the gifts and promises in our own faith journey, on a communal level we come together in worship to remember and relive our shared faith story. We ritualise those key moments so that they are placed firmly in our collective memory.

During Lent we are invited into the wilderness, to journey with the Israelites towards the Promised Land. We too must face the times when the journey is hard. We will feel the pull of easy solutions and things that seem to offer us some respite. The invitation is to rely entirely on God and not on things that we can fashion ourselves. God’s promise held true for the Israelites and holds true for us today.

Where in your life are you being invited to rely on God?

Isaiah 49:8-15
John 5:17-30

Each year in Lent the Church gives us the opportunity to revisit the story of our salvation. It’s a story of faith and great ideals, of times of bitter disappointment and the utmost courage. In the first readings in our weekday lectionary we are invited to identify with the people of Israel. God chooses a people to be the bearers of hope and light. God chooses a people to a beacon of faithful love. Their initial hope and courage is tested to its limits when they find themselves in Exile. Just when they feel that every last glimmer of hope is lost Isaiah paints a vision of a joyful return to Jerusalem. After years of soul wearying waiting God declares that now is the ‘day of salvation.’ Into the depths of their despair and fear of abandonment, God speaks words of hope:

Does a mother forget her baby at the breast,
or fail to cherish the son of her womb?
Yet even if these forget,
I will never forget you.

Given the situations in our world today it may take more than our usual courage to hear Isaiah’s words and to know that this is a message for our times. We may not be able to influence the world situation, but every small gestures of hope in God’s promise can strengthen us in heart and mind.

Where in your own life do you most need to hear God say: ‘At the favourable time I will answer you, on the day of salvation I will help you.’ ?

Ezekiel 47:1-9,12
John 5:1-3, 5-16

Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month, because this water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.

This passage from Ezekiel comes towards the end of a long and complicated vision of the new Temple. Beginning at Ch 40, Ezekiel’s vision fills seven chapters and its details can be hard to follow. By the time we get to Ch 47 there is a change and the mood is one of hope and healing. Water flows out from the Temple and wherever the water flows there is life.

The idea of a tree that can both provide something good to eat and be medicinal is a very comforting image. We’ve largely lost the practice of turning to nature for our healing.

After our experience in the pandemic of having to consider the life and death implications of everything that makes up our daily lives, we need Ezekiel’s message of hope more than ever.

Where do you look for healing?

Isaiah 65:17-21
John 4:43-54

Naming a child carries such significance. In biblical times the naming of a child could serve as a way of remembering a significant event. The name Moses comes from the root verb ‘to draw’ or ‘pull out’, because he was drawn out of the River Nile. His name would always be a reminder of God’s providence.

Today’s passage from Isaiah imagines God naming Jerusalem and her people. The names ‘Joy’ and ‘Gladness’ carry such huge potential and all the more so because Jerusalem has suffered destruction and her people exile. It’s as if God sees what they can’t. This promise of restoration and new life speaks directly to the despondency the Israelites feel as they find themselves in exile.

Can you imagine a name that God might give you?