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In the second half of Lent, beginning with the fourth Sunday, our focus has shifted from our programme of conversion to the Lord Jesus' saving love for us. In the liturgy John's Gospel is our guide, and we see Jesus moving towards His ultimate goal: His saving death on Calvary. In John's Gospel the whole of his public life is a dramatic development of the confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees: between light and darkness. Today the drama is nearing its climax. Good Friday is just one week away. The Pharisees have challenged Jesus: what work do you do to prove to us that you are the Messiah? They want to see signs of power. But He appeals instead to His divine mission. The Pharisees protest that He blasphemes by making Himself equal to Yahweh, and so, in today's gospel, they try to stone Him. But Jesus is firm: He cannot compromise His mission and His message, even if it means rejection and death. In the first reading Jeremiah faces his persecutors. He also cannot deny Yahweh's call. But, unlike Jesus, he is only a human being. His only hope is Yahweh's saving intervention. Jesus, however, speaks with divine authority, in His own name. For the Pharisees this amounts to blasphemy, and they seek to arrest Him. John's Gospel presents a challenge, not only to the Jewish leaders of his time, but to every one of us. Who is Jesus Christ for me? Lord, You are my truth. |
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P R A Y I N G W I T H T H E C H U R C H
| INTENTION : |
For the ecclesial organisations and groups engaged in social
action, that in their testimony they may proclaim strongly and consistently
the Gospel of Love.
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It is the Church's desire that all social-charitable initiatives might
always be inspired, in their implementation, by the immutable principles of
the Gospel. There is danger, however, that professional organisations
engaged in the social field risk losing the fundamental motivation for their
existence: that is bearing witness to Christ's charity which the Church has
the duty to communicate and to share with others. In order to be effective, then, continual spiritual formation is needed for voluntary co-operators who wish to devote themselves to social action. All these initiatives tend to develop the awareness that the foundation and centre of our action is Christ, in whom the God of love revealed himself and gave himself to men and women. Consequently all those who welcome Christ follow him and answer the call to be faithful witnesses to it. This awareness must totally imbue the hearts and minds of individuals so that it also inspires the Communities they set up for organised action in support of underprivileged persons and communities suffering from material and moral poverty. Being thus imbued and formed it becomes necessary that volunteers pray to draw Christ into their midst and have him accompany them. | |
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