Fifth Sunday of Lent

Reflection

Perhaps the greatest challenge to our faith in a loving God is the incomprehensible suffering and death of the innocent, such as in abortion and children and innocent civilians who are major casualties in war, and parents who die at an early age leaving behind young families, etc. Pope Saint Paul VI spoke to this when he said that, “The right to life is basic and inalienable. It is grievously violated in our day by abortion and euthanasia, by widespread torture, by acts of violence against innocent parties and by the scourge of war. The arms race is an insanity which burdens the world and creates the conditions for even more massive and destruction of life.” Words spoken some years ago, but still alarmingly relevant.

Yet, in today’s Mass, we have God’s word that God is a God of life!  Each of the Scripture readings addresses the heart of the paschal or Easter mystery, which is new life coming through dying. When I give the homily at a funeral, if it is my choice, I will usually refer to the story of Jesus telling Martha, the grieving sister of Jesus’ friend Lazarus, who has died, that “I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, even if that person dies, will live and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” After which, Jesus raised Lazarus from death to life.

The late Fr. Raymond Brown, renowned Catholic Scripture scholar, wrote that “Jesus comes to give life that cannot be touched by death, so that those who believe in Him will never die.” The challenge, then, for all of us is to believe in Jesus the Christ and His promise of eternal life beyond all earthly sufferings and death.

Prayer

That our faith and trust in the risen Christ may continually deepen throughout our life on earth.

Fr. Ray Doherty, S.S.E. ’51, Edmundite Campus Ministry

Scripture

First Reading: Ezekiel 37:12-14

Psalm 130:1-8

Second Reading: Romans 8:8-11

Gospel: John 11:1-45

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Saturday of the Fourth Week

Reflection

Today's readings present us with a very harsh lesson, but one that will resonate with anyone who makes a sincere effort to do the right thing for the right reason. As Jesus said to His followers, "If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also." This harsh reality continually confronts anyone who makes a sincere and constant effort to do the will of the Lord.

The good news is that the triune God will always be our refuge and our strength in times of trouble. The words of the prophet Jeremiah with regard to our persecutors are strong indeed: "But you, O Lord of hosts, O just judge, searcher of mind and heart, let me witness the vengeance you take on them, for to you I have entrusted my cause!"

We take comfort in the words of the responsorial Psalm: "Do me justice, O Lord, because I am just, and because of the innocence that is mine. Let the malice of the wicked come to an end, but sustain the just, O searcher of heart and soul, O just God.”

Doing the work of the Lord while being guided by a good conscience under the direction of the Holy Spirit is never easy, but the Comforter is always by our side. Faith, hope, and love must be our
constant companions, and not without good reason are they known as the theological virtues and regarded as the fundamental principles of Catholicism.

Prayer

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, help us to remember that You will always be our refuge and our strength in times of trouble.

Lorraine Sterritt, President of Saint Michael’s College and Norbert Lain, Instructor in Latin, Greek, and of Medical and Scientific Terminology

Scripture

First Reading: Jeremiah 11:18-20

Psalm 7:2-3, 9b-12

Gospel: John 7:40-53

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Friday of the Fourth Week

Reflection

Today’s responsorial Psalm reminds us that it is not always easy to “follow the Lord,” “to be just in His eyes.”  Life is full of ups and downs.  Each day has its own series of challenges. We cannot avoid the stress, pain, suffering, and inconveniences of living.  But we know that the “Lord delivers us...The Lord is close to the brokenhearted.” (Psalm 34) 

In John’s Gospel, we read that Jesus was also challenged in life.  He was among the hunted; He was hated and not trusted by some peers.  But how did Jesus respond to this lack of understanding? He looked within Himself to find courage, strength, and power.  He knew who He was.  He was in relationship with His Father and He defended their relationship. 

Today’s Gospel challenges us to respond as Jesus did.  We are challenged to look within to find courage and strength which come from our relationship with the Father and the Son.  This relationship is the source of hope and power; it is the divine life within us.  We know the Father because we know the Son.  We were sent by the Father to know Him and to share in the life of His Son.  Let us pray that we may be one in Him. 

Prayer

Lord, mindful of Your Life within me, give me the strength to respond to my life challenges with the courage and the power which come from You.  I offer this prayer in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Janice Couture, Member of the Worshipping Community

Scripture

First Reading: Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22
Psalm 34:17-21, 23
Gospel: John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Thursday of the Fourth Week

Reflection

In the readings for today, the ancient Israelites and the contemporaries of Jesus shared a similar affliction.  They could not bring themselves to see and appreciate gifts of immediate, abundant, immeasurable value.  The Israelites lost sight of their covenant with the Lord who had freed them from the bonds of slavery.  Those conversing with Jesus found it difficult to look up from studying their Scriptures to see those very writings fulfilled in their presence.   The people led by Moses preferred the bovine to the divine!  Those addressed by Jesus were more intrigued with the words of an oddly curious fellow out in the wilds of the desert. 

How often are we similarly “stiff-necked”?  Blind to gifts of immeasurable value given to each of us, personally.  A role in divine creation—our uniquely own “am, here and now”.  An immortal soul of our own.  Promises of salvation and eternal life made directly to each of us.  Holy cow!?

Instead, we grouse about the Patriot’s blowing their chances for the Playoffs, our bosses don’t appreciate us, the B+ should have been an A-, the skis we want aren’t in stock.  Spending our time and energy, fretting and molding little cattle-shaped worries rather than pausing, raising our eyes and saying, “Wow, thank you.”

Maybe part of the challenge is that our true gifts are of such value that we are incapable of finding the words to sufficiently express the breadth and depth of our gratitude.  Perhaps we will someday be handed a new and divine lexicon to help with that.  On the “required reading” shelf in the heavenly bookstore.

Prayer

Open my eyes, Lord   Help me to see your face   Open my eyes, Lord   Help me to see
Open my ears, Lord   Help me to hear your voice   Open my ears, Lord   Help me to hear

Open my heart, Lord   Help me to know your gifts   Open my heart, Lord   Help me to say, thank you.  Amen.

Church Hindes, ’69, Member of the Worshipping Community

Scripture

First Reading: Exodus 32:7-14
Psalm 106:19-23
Gospel: John 5:31-47

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Wednesday of the Fourth Week

Annunciation of the Lord

Reflection

Who is God? This is one of the foundational questions of any deistic faith. It can be answered in any number of ways: God is the Creator, the “unmoved-mover,” the supreme being. God is omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal and necessary for all existence. As one can see, efforts to capture the nature of God, to come and “know” God, are often very separate from concrete realities. We can, of course, fall into analogy—for example, God is like a Father—but pondering the nature of God, especially as God is in the first person of the Trinity, tends to lead us into the intellect and the abstract… that is until we encounter the Incarnation of Jesus in the womb of Mary.

Here we move from the abstract to the concrete. No longer is God just the transcendent One, but God is one with us. No longer is God only understood to be omnipotent, omnipresent, and eternal, but God is truly human and truly vulnerable as life impregnated by the power of the Holy Spirit in response to Mary’s fiat, “May it be done to me according to your word.” But even more, the incarnation is not simply a one way movement of God assuming our humble existence. In assuming our humanity, God also elevates it. And that is a wondrous inheritance…

Prayer

“I Sing of a Maiden” by Fr. John Duffy, C.S.s.R. 

She was the Mother of the wandering Word,

Little and terrifying in the laboring womb.

And nothing would again be casual and small,

But everything with light invested, overspilled

With terror and divinity, the dawn, the first bird’s call,

The silhouetted pitcher waiting to be filled.

Most Rev. Christopher Coyne, Bishop of Burlington

Scripture

First Reading: Isaiah 7:10-14; 8:10

Psalm 40:7-11

Second Reading: Hebrews 10:4-10

Gospel: Luke 1:26-38

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Tuesday of the Fourth Week

Reflection

Today—in the midst of forty days of reflecting on Jesus’s time in the heat and drought of the desert—we find water.  What begins in the first reading as a small trickle coming from the temple deepens and widens into a powerful river as Ezekiel follows the angel further. Much like the river flows downstream to make fresh the massive salt water sea, Christ comes down from Heaven to Earth to save the sea of imperfect people so that they, too, may be cleansed, as He does for the man who was afflicted in the Gospel. Ezekiel’s inability to cross the river in the first reading and the Psalm’s declaration that “we fear not, though the earth be shaken / and mountains plunge into the depths of the sea”  ground us in our own temporality and physical limitations of our humanity, yet also place us side by side with God, who is limitless in His divinity. Illustrated further in the Gospel, this contrast emphasizes Christ’s ability to radically reimagine and give new life to laws that was hijacked by Pharisees and Sadducees and kept us from right relationship with God.

Just as the river nurtures the soil and vegetation while journeying to cleanse the sea, Christ gives us new life as He passes through the physical world. It is a life of abundance, even during this season of restraint. For this, we give thanks to the water, and we give thanks to God. 

Prayer

Lord, let my faith in you grow deeper, wider, and stronger like a river during this season of Lent. We give you thanks for renewing and cleansing us through Christ. 

Mackenzie Faber, ’18

Scripture

First Reading: Ezekiel 47: 1-9, 12
Psalm 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9
Gospel: John 5:1-16

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website

Monday of the Fourth Week

Reflection

I take two lessons from today’s rich readings.

The first lesson surrounds my faith. Does my faith hinge on proof?  Does my faith hold together by facts, by figures?  Does my faith depend strictly on miraculous displays of God’s glory?  Do I require that God validate, that God substantiate, that God demonstrate?  I just wish that God would show me a sign. Give me a miracle. Lend me a hand. 

I’ve got to ask why the Word of God isn’t sufficient to feed my faith.  Why isn’t His holy language ample sustenance, plenty of food, a smorgasbord for my table?

I learn today to see that Jesus’ curing of the official’s son isn’t the actual miracle. The actual miracle is, in fact, that the official believes Jesus’ word before seeing. The miracle is that the official believes at the very holy moment of Jesus’ spoken holy word. The actual miracle is that he need not run home to see his son cured in order to believe. Oh yes! 

The second lesson is in witnessing how Jesus relates to outsiders.  He receives the Other, this gentile, this official of the King, as a fellow sacred being on this earth.  Plain and simple.  We are one people joined in Divinity.

Prayer

May I completely know that my belief is the miracle I’ve been searching for.  As I continue to travel from home to outskirts back to home again, may I see all others as me.  Dear Jesus, heal my hungry heart and repair my divisions.  Amen.

Antonia Messuri

Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and Director of the Office of Accessibility Services

Scripture

First Reading: Isaiah 65:17-21
Psalm 30:2, 4-6, 11-12a, 13b
Gospel: John 4:43-54

Daily Scripture readings can be found online at the USCCB website