Archive for March 18, 2023

Fourth Sunday of Lent

Posted: March 18, 2023 by CatholicJules in Sunday Reflections
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Eyesight to the Blind: Scott Hahn Reflects on the Fourth Sunday of Lent

Readings:

1 Samuel 16:1, 6–7, 10–13

Psalm 23:1–6

Ephesians 5:8–14

John 9:1–41

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God’s ways of seeing are not our ways, we hear in today’s First Reading. Jesus illustrates this in the Gospel as the blind man comes to see and the Pharisees are made blind.

The blind man stands for all humanity. “Born totally in sin,” he is made a new creation by the saving power of Christ.

As God fashioned the first man from the clay of the earth (see Genesis 2:7), Jesus gives the blind man new life by anointing his eyes with clay (see John 9:11). As God breathed the spirit of life into the first man, the blind man is not healed until he washes in the waters of Siloam, a name that means “Sent.”

Jesus is the One “sent” by the Father to do the Father’s will (see John 9:4; 12:44). He is the new source of life-giving water: the Holy Spirit who rushes upon us in Baptism (see John 4:10; 7:38–39).

This is the Spirit that rushes upon God’s chosen king David in today’s First Reading. A shepherd like Moses before him (see Exodus 3:1; Psalm 78:70–71), David is also a sign pointing to the good shepherd and king to come—Jesus (see John 10:11).

The Lord is our shepherd, as we sing in today’s Psalm. By His death and Resurrection He has made a path for us through the dark valley of sin and death, leading us to the verdant pastures of the kingdom of life, the Church.

In the restful waters of Baptism He has refreshed our souls. He has anointed our heads with the oil of Confirmation and spread the Eucharistic table before us, filling our cups to overflowing. With the once-blind man we enter His house to give God the praise, to renew our vow: “I do believe, Lord.”

“The Lord looks into the heart,” we hear today. Let Him find us, as Paul advises in today’s Epistle, living as “children of light,” trying always to learn what is pleasing to our Father.

On Today’s Gospel

Posted: March 18, 2023 by CatholicJules in Personal Thoughts & Reflections
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We cannot buy or earn our way into Heaven. We can only love our way into Heaven. Love not as in the emotion, but the living sacrifice of willing the good in another, through the grace of the Lord our God. Our faithfulness must therefore mirror the faithfulness of God our Heavenly Father.

When we pray, we come enter into His presence in perfect contrition for what we have done and what we failed to do. In humble adoration of our merciful Lord, we dwell in His love; knowing that He heal and restore us.  So that we may go out into the world sharing the joy of the Gospel.

Lord I am not worthy to come into Your presence, only say the word and I shall be healed. Amen

Saint Cyril of Jerusalem pray for us…

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First reading

Hosea 5:15-6:6 ·

What I want is love, not sacrifice and holocausts

The Lord says this:

They will search for me in their misery.

‘Come, let us return to the Lord.

He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us;

he has struck us down, but he will bandage our wounds;

after a day or two he will bring us back to life,

on the third day he will raise us

and we shall live in his presence.

Let us set ourselves to know the Lord;

that he will come is as certain as the dawn

his judgement will rise like the light,

he will come to us as showers come,

like spring rains watering the earth.’

What am I to do with you, Ephraim?

What am I to do with you, Judah?

This love of yours is like a morning cloud,

like the dew that quickly disappears.

This is why I have torn them to pieces by the prophets,

why I slaughtered them with the words from my mouth,

since what I want is love, not sacrifice;

knowledge of God, not holocausts.

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Gospel

Luke 18:9-14

The tax collector, not the Pharisee, went home justified.

Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else: ‘Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, “I thank you, God, that I am not grasping, unjust, adulterous like the rest of mankind, and particularly that I am not like this tax collector here. I fast twice a week; I pay tithes on all I get.” The tax collector stood some distance away, not daring even to raise his eyes to heaven; but he beat his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” This man, I tell you, went home again at rights with God; the other did not. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the man who humbles himself will be exalted.’