March 31
Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Give a Mass Offering
Mass Intentions
7:45 AM – Anne Fialkovic / Ellen & Jay Pristash
Prayer for Spiritual Communion
My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the most Blessed Sacrament. I love You above all things and I desire to receive You into my soul. Since I cannot now receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. I embrace You as if You were already there, and unite myself wholly to You. Never permit me to be separated from You. Amen.
Readings
First Reading
Exodus 32:7-14
The LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once to your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, for they have become depraved. They have soon turned aside from the way I pointed out to them, making for themselves a molten calf and worshiping it, sacrificing to it and crying out, ‘This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!’ The LORD said to Moses, “I see how stiff-necked this people is. Let me alone, then, that my wrath may blaze up against them to consume them. Then I will make of you a great nation.”
But Moses implored the LORD, his God, saying, “Why, O LORD, should your wrath blaze up against your own people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with so strong a hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent he brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains and exterminate them from the face of the earth’? Let your blazing wrath die down; relent in punishing your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised, I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.’“ So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalms 106:19-20, 21-22, 23
R. (4a) Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
Our fathers made a calf in Horeb
and adored a molten image;
They exchanged their glory
for the image of a grass-eating bullock.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
They forgot the God who had saved them,
who had done great deeds in Egypt,
Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham,
terrible things at the Red Sea.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
Then he spoke of exterminating them,
but Moses, his chosen one,
Withstood him in the breach
to turn back his destructive wrath.
R. Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.
Gospel Acclamation
John 3:16
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory!
God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life.
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory!
Gospel
John 5:31-47
Jesus said to the Jews: “If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is not true. But there is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that the testimony he gives on my behalf is true. You sent emissaries to John, and he testified to the truth. I do not accept human testimony, but I say this so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and for a while you were content to rejoice in his light. But I have testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father gave me to accomplish, these works that I perform testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. Moreover, the Father who sent me has testified on my behalf. But you have never heard his voice nor seen his form, and you do not have his word remaining in you, because you do not believe in the one whom he has sent. You search the Scriptures, because you think you have eternal life through them; even they testify on my behalf. But you do not want to come to me to have life.
“I do not accept human praise; moreover, I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I came in the name of my Father, but you do not accept me; yet if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe, when you accept praise from one another and do not seek the praise that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father: the one who will accuse you is Moses, in whom you have placed your hope. For if you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, because he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?”
“Remember us, O Lord, as you favor your people.”
Reflection
Today we see that our God is a God who listens and is able to change his course of action. When God is totally incensed because the Israelites have made a golden calf to worship due to Moses taking too long to come down from his mountain meeting with God, he wanted to destroy them and start again with Moses to build up a people who could follow him in the right way. Moses suggested that God might benefit from taking a more reasoned view of things and perhaps only wipe out a few of them rather than all of his followers. After all, he did rescue them from slavery in Egypt. In the end, God takes Moses’ advice and calms down a little. That is a pretty cool God if you ask me.
Jesus takes a similar tack in the gospel when he tells the Jews that he is really interested in their salvation rather than wiping them out because of their complete disbelief in the mighty deeds he has done. Jesus gives them a warning that they should reexamine the words of Moses to see that the person Moses identifies as the savior of God’s people is none other than Jesus. The Jews not only chose not to follow Jesus, but they also spent their time plotting ways to kill him, eventually cajoling the Romans into crucifying him on the Cross, something especially egregious when we know that Jesus was an innocent man. As we approach the events of Holy Week, it is important for us to keep our focus on who Jesus is and what he did—and continues to do—for us. Only in faith will we be able to put the persecution, death, and resurrection of Jesus into perspective in ways that the Jews could not. Even if they did not recognize who Jesus is, we do, and we are going to reap the benefits when the Kingdom of Heaven arrives—and it won’t be long either.
Keep the faith,
Deacon Dare
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