April 5
Tuesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Give a Mass Offering
Mass Intentions
7:45 AM – Transplant Donor / Recipient
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
Numbers 21:4-9
From Mount Hor the children of Israel set out on the Red Sea road, to bypass the land of Edom. But with their patience worn out by the journey, the people complained against God and Moses, “Why have you brought us up from Egypt to die in this desert, where there is no food or water? We are disgusted with this wretched food!”
In punishment the LORD sent among the people saraph serpents, which bit the people so that many of them died. Then the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned in complaining against the LORD and you. Pray the LORD to take the serpents away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people, and the LORD said to Moses, “Make a saraph and mount it on a pole, and whoever looks at it after being bitten will live.” Moses accordingly made a bronze serpent and mounted it on a pole, and whenever anyone who had been bitten by a serpent looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
Responsorial Psalm
Psalms 102:2-3, 16-18, 19-21
R. (2) O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
O LORD, hear my prayer,
and let my cry come to you.
Hide not your face from me
in the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
The nations shall revere your name, O LORD,
and all the kings of the earth your glory,
When the LORD has rebuilt Zion
and appeared in his glory;
When he has regarded the prayer of the destitute,
and not despised their prayer.
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Let this be written for the generation to come,
and let his future creatures praise the LORD:
“The LORD looked down from his holy height,
from heaven he beheld the earth,
To hear the groaning of the prisoners,
to release those doomed to die.”
R. O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.
Gospel Acclamation
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory!
The seed is the word of God, Christ is the sower; all who come to him will live for ever.
R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ, King of endless glory!
Gospel
John 8:21-30
Jesus said to the Pharisees: “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come.” So the Jews said, “He is not going to kill himself, is he, because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?” He said to them, “You belong to what is below, I belong to what is above. You belong to this world, but I do not belong to this world. That is why I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.” So they said to him, “Who are you?” Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning. I have much to say about you in condemnation. But the one who sent me is true, and what I heard from him I tell the world.” They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father. So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM, and that I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.” Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.
“O Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you.”
Reflection
“When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM…”
This phrase “lift up” or “lifted up” has double meaning and great significance in the Gospel of John, and it occurs a number of times. The phrase carries with it the image of Jesus being physically raised on the cross, being raised from death to life, and even it has a layer meaning the elevation of Jesus returning to the Father. As a consequence of him being lifted onto the cross for death, the glory is already there from that moment on. Without the eyes of faith and the knowledge of the Resurrection, this would be nearly impossible to fathom. Death by crucifixion was the most devastating and humiliating defeat. Yet, it is by Jesus’ being lifted up that he is able to draw all peoples to himself.
Who would have thought that from death could come life?
Jesus also says today, “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin.” Sounds like our first reading. Bitter complaining, ungratefulness, selfishness—whatever you want to call it…Moses eventually receives instruction that God will bring healing to them through the very means that was causing them death. The choice is yours, look at the saraph, or don’t.
Again, who would have thought that through death would come the power to save? The people led by Moses are invited to trust. Moses lifting up the saraph in the desert for all to see drew the people (at least the ones willing to trust) to healing and life. The very means through which they were suffering death had been transformed to bring life. As a result, we can conclude it is not the saraph itself or the physical cross itself that has the power to save, but God himself. We must look to him alone for healing and life.
Peace,
Fr. Foley
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