21 March, 2024 | Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Reading Gn 17:3-9
Gospel Jn 8:51-59
Jesus said to the Jews:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever keeps my word will never see death.”
So the Jews said to him,
“Now we are sure that you are possessed.
Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say,
‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?
Or the prophets, who died?
Who do you make yourself out to be?”
Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing;
but it is my Father who glorifies me,
of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’
You do not know him, but I know him.
And if I should say that I do not know him,
I would be like you a liar.
But I do know him and I keep his word.
Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day;
he saw it and was glad.”
So the Jews said to him,
“You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM.”
So they picked up stones to throw at him;
but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.
Reflections:
“Only the Spirit gives life” (John 6:63).
Only with a spirit of faith and the aid of the Holy Spirit can we understand the things of God. Today’s world is rife with what we could call a spirit of materialism. It looks to material things and values as the solution to everything. This is why the Church traditionally prays, in the Litany of the Saints, to be freed from everlasting death, the spiritual death which Jesus warned against. Lent is the time to eradicate all forms of this evil from our lives, especially through the positive practices of prayer, penance, and almsgiving.
Activity:
Foster a more spiritual way of seeing yourself, others and the world.
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