FOURTH WEEK OF LENT..

MONDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK....(Is.65,17-21;John 4,43-54)The first reading from Deutero-Isaiah rings out with the hymn of new life...All the limitations under which we live now will disappear. The incompleteness of who we are will find its fulfillment in the days of the Messiah. The days of fulfillment are when life is no longer clouded by pain, death and all the results of sin in which we now walk . It is almost too good to be true..this dream which God gives us through the prophet. Just reflect: no longer shall the sound of weeping be heard....to live to be a hundred...looking forward to these great days.
In the Gospel, we have the stamp of this promise in the very person of the Lord. He is the One who will bring this great day about. The weeping of the father has been turned to joy, the death of the son has been changed to life, the bleakness of the first part of the Gospel grows into the joy of the end. Christ indeed has made all things new. But it is still a path to be walked, what He has done in the world must become a reality.
This would bring us to how we look at history. Is it circular? or is it linear? Does it just keep going around or is it headed someplace? Today’s Word reminds us that the life which the Lord has come to give is growing in the world; it is headed towards its final realization.
Question:
1: Do you look at your life as an active participant in the ever unfolding plan of God?

TUESDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK OF LENT (Ez.47,1-9,12; John5,1-16)From the New Temple, Jesus shall flow the life giving water, the Holy Spirit. The life of God shall come to us...But what is this life? We look at the man healed.
He was crippled and could not go into the life giving waters...The promise of wholeness which they offered was blocked to him. He sat there helpless, powerless to do anything. He could only wait and hope and yes, weep .Then one day the promise was fulfilled. He was put into the waters by a man he did not know. He could walk, he could take his place in society…No longer was he the crippled person to be looked on with pity....No longer was he the peripheral person whose existence was acknowledged only begrudgingly but now became very active in life. This is one aspect of Our Lord as life-giver...He heals us so that we become players on the field of life and not just passive spectators. The doubts, the fears, the lack of confidence which hold us back from being who we can be are healed by the water of the Spirit which comes from the Lord.
He takes us by the hand and gently puts us into this water...We have been bathed by it But a gift given must also be received. To be given this healing means that we have to walk in the fresh air of what it means…to be convinced that the Lord has so definitively entered our lives that we are different and do have a strength, that even though we are not completely healed we are healed to the extent that He wants us to be. To accept this gift ...perhaps the greatest example which the man in today’s Gospel gives us is this: he walked, he used the new life given to him.
Question:
1: Did the Lord ever pick you up and place in the life giving waters?

WEDNESDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK... (Is.49,8-15;John5,17-30)Continuing the general theme of Jesus as life giver we come to a different nuance in today’s Gospel. Before going further it would be good if we reminded ourselves of a very basic principle. Every time Jesus tells us about the relationship He has with the Father, He is telling us about our relationship with the Father. Not in exactly the same way because He is by nature and we are by adoption. This principle is very important for us to penetrate the words of the Gospels.
In the mystical words of today’s Gospel which soar almost beyond our reach because they delve into the very mystery of who God is, Jesus tells us about relationship. That very special relationship between the Father and Himself. It is a relationship like no other because it is founded on the complete identity of nature which we call the Trinity. It is the perfect love relationship because it is God loving God; there can be nothing more perfect. A very important aspect of any love though is that it has to “explode” in one way or another. It can not be confined but must extend an invitation for others to share in this love. We see this in families that always seem open to receiving others,;we see it in people who have “I want to share myself with you and I want you to share yourself with me” written on their foreheads.
It is to this love community that Jesus has come to invite us to share...”the man who hears my word and has faith in him who sent me possesses eternal life.” Jesus speaks the Word, the sharing of God with us. That is what words do...and in possessing the words of another, what we do is to accept that person into our hearts in a special way. In receiving the words of Jesus,eternal life is ours.
The two dimensions of this expression must be considered. The one is future: we live the Word and we will attain the fulfillment of the promise. The second is present:. eternal is the meaning of God; life is relationship. Therefore in the present, what Jesus is calling us to do is to look at our lives as so intimately wrapped up in the life of God that we truly share His life on earth.
This of course has the implication that we live our lives looking forward to the fullness of the community of love to which we have been called .The things we do are stones along the path .Each stone is important and should shout in some way that it is very important because it is heading to God and because it shares now the very life of God.
Question:
1: What does identity with the Lord mean to you?

THURSDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK....(Ez.32,7-14;John5,31-47) Does the life which God has given me as a gift belong to only me or is there hidden within the daily activities another meaning? Today’s Gospel gives us a hint and much more than a hint. It tells us about being sent; it tells us about doing things and saying things which proclaim the love of God. Today’s Gospel tells us about the Father looking down on the common things and sometime the big things we do and say as being blessed by Him. Life is made up of so many tasks, so many things to be done, we loose the beauty of what they are. We place the ordinary in the category of not important, almost doubting whether God could care over these things which really seem so secular. For those living their lives of faith,there is a desire to do great things for the Lord and the ordinary are simply to get through.
It seems to me that the Lord is saying something altogether different. Each and every one of us has been sent by God. This is the mystical meaning of what it means to say “I am alive.” We have been placed on this earth for a reason. The point of frustration comes in when we look for the reason in the dramatic and do not see the excitement of the small things we do every day as the living out of this mission. In the works which we do, in faith and love, the Father does give testimony to us. Life becomes a beautiful hymn of praise, even with all its disappointments, heartaches and frustrations...Beauty is something God-made and not man made.
As we go about our lives doing those things which we are called to do we should let God make them beautiful.
Question:
1:Do you believe that because you do them the ordinary things of life are holy?

FRIDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK... The Feast of St. .Joseph, the Husband of Mary (2Sam.7:74-5,12-14a,16; Rom.4:13,16-18, 22; Matt.1:16, 18-21, 24a) The doors are open to many possibilities in reflecting on this feast. Joseph calls us to look at our faith, our commitments, our courage. He challenges us to listen to our dreams. What strikes me now about Joseph is that he is a man who tried to do the best he could. Many times he was not sure , there were times when he just did not understand, but he kept on going.
OR
(Wis.2,1,12-22;John7,1-2,10,25-30) They see but they do not see, they hear but they do not hear...The gift of life is before them but they refuse to accept it. How easy it is for them to rationalize away that which God wants to give them. He reminds them who He is, but still they do not see… perhaps a few do. Is Jesus playing on the word “know”? They “know” him in one sense…Where He was born, what He has been doing. But He is asking them to know Him in a different sense. To come into contact with who He is. To experience His life inside of themselves...This they can not do.
As I read the Gospel, the word “evangelization” kept coming to mind. I know about Jesus ...Has this knowledge led to a deeper relationship with Him or am I content with the just “knowing about” Him? As I read, it was not too difficult for me to place myself in the crowd and repeat the words they said.
This is easy. It is not easy to see the Lord for who He is: the one sent to give life. It is easy to see Him as the carpenter’s son; it is not easy to see Him as equal to the Father. To go beyond the material- what we see and hear and feel and to go to that world to which He asks us, we will see things not seen, hear things not spoken, and feel his presence.
Question:
1: Are you satisfied in knowing about Jesus or are you searching to know Him?

SATURDAY OF THE FOURTH WEEK... (Jer.11,18-20;John 7,40-53) The crowd is divided...Is it not the same today? The voice of Jesus breaks through and causes division. Those who believe and those who do not...But more subtly and certainly more dangerous is the fact that instead of denying Christ today many people think they speak for Christ. The division which we face today, is not between believer and non-believer, but rather between those who say “this is the prophet, this is the Messiah” and those who look another way.
Another way of looking at the Gospel is the enthusiasm of the crowd…They were not passive in the face of Jesus…they were looking, searching for someone and their words can easily be interpreted as the cries of those longing for the fulfillment of their hope. The attitude of the Pharisees on the other hand is that of fear, despair and blindness, ...The Gospel is placing before us those two parts of who we are...The open, searching longing individual and the one who at times is closed, without hope. The image of that part of myself willing to let go courageously and that part which cannot let go fearful. Fear seems to run through the Gospel. It is almost as if the word is constantly drawing a comparison between those who are not afraid and those who are… between those for whom power of any