Daily Readings

Reading I:  Is 49:8-15

    Thus says the LORD:
In a time of favor I answer you,
    on the day of salvation I help you;
    and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people,
To restore the land
    and allot the desolate heritages,
Saying to the prisoners: Come out!
To those in darkness: Show yourselves!
Along the ways they shall find pasture,
    on every bare height shall their pastures be.
They shall not hunger or thirst,
    nor shall the scorching wind or the sun strike them;
For he who pities them leads them
    and guides them beside springs of water.
I will cut a road through all my mountains,
    and make my highways level.
See, some shall come from afar,
    others from the north and the west,
    and some from the land of Syene.
Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth,
    break forth into song, you mountains.
For the LORD comforts his people
    and shows mercy to his afflicted.

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me;
    my Lord has forgotten me.”
Can a mother forget her infant,
    be without tenderness for the child of her womb?
Even should she forget,
    I will never forget you.
 

Responsorial Psalm:  145:8-9, 13cd-14, 17-18

R.    (8a)  The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
    slow to anger and of great kindness.
The LORD is good to all
    and compassionate toward all his works.
R.    The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is faithful in all his words
    and holy in all his works.
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
    and raises up all who are bowed down.
R.    The Lord is gracious and merciful.
The LORD is just in all his ways
    and holy in all his works.
The LORD is near to all who call upon him,
    to all who call upon him in truth.
R.    The Lord is gracious and merciful.
 

Verse before the Gospel:  Jn 11:25a, 26

I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord;
whoever believes in me will never die.
 

Gospel:  Jn 5:17-30

Jesus answered the Jews: 
“My Father is at work until now, so I am at work.”
For this reason they tried all the more to kill him,
because he not only broke the sabbath
but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.

Jesus answered and said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you, the Son cannot do anything on his own,
but only what he sees the Father doing;
for what he does, the Son will do also.
For the Father loves the Son
and shows him everything that he himself does,
and he will show him greater works than these,
so that you may be amazed.
For just as the Father raises the dead and gives life,
so also does the Son give life to whomever he wishes.
Nor does the Father judge anyone,
but he has given all judgment to the Son,
so that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father.
Whoever does not honor the Son
does not honor the Father who sent him.
Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever hears my word
and believes in the one who sent me
has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
but has passed from death to life.
Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming and is now here
when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God,
and those who hear will live.
For just as the Father has life in himself,
so also he gave to the Son the possession of life in himself.
And he gave him power to exercise judgment,
because he is the Son of Man.
Do not be amazed at this,
because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs
will hear his voice and will come out,
those who have done good deeds
to the resurrection of life,
but those who have done wicked deeds
to the resurrection of condemnation.

“I cannot do anything on my own;
I judge as I hear, and my judgment is just,
because I do not seek my own will
but the will of the one who sent me.”

 

Father Kirk's Daily Lenten Reflection
Wednesday of the 4th Week of Lent: March 22, 2023

The Old Testament reading for today reminds us rather poignantly that God’s love for us never falters even if there are times when we think it does.  Isaiah prophesied: “Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.”  “Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb?  Even should she forget, I will never forget you,” says the Lord.

Through the gospel Jesus assures us that He and the Father are one and he does nothing apart from him.  This of course enraged the religious leaders because by calling God his “Father” Jesus equated himself with God.  But let’s be serious, he was and he IS equal with God the Father – coeternal – that is Jesus exists with the Father equally and eternally.

The scriptures for today reaffirm what the psalmist wrote: “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness.  The Lord is good to all and compassionate toward all his works."