Thursday - March 07, 2022
TODAY'S READINGS
THURSDAY OF THE FIFTH WEEK OF LENT
Lectionary: 254
Gn 17:3-9
When Abram prostrated himself, God spoke to him:
“My covenant with you is this:
you are to become the father of a host of nations.
No longer shall you be called Abram;
your name shall be Abraham,
for I am making you the father of a host of nations.
I will render you exceedingly fertile;
I will make nations of you;
kings shall stem from you.
I will maintain my covenant with you
and your descendants after you
throughout the ages as an everlasting pact,
to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
I will give to you
and to your descendants after you
the land in which you are now staying,
the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession;
and I will be their God.”
God also said to Abraham:
“On your part, you and your descendants after you
must keep my covenant throughout the ages.”
Responsorial Psalm 105:4-5, 6-7, 8-9
R. (8a) The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
You descendants of Abraham, his servants,
sons of Jacob, his chosen ones!
He, the LORD, is our God;
throughout the earth his judgments prevail.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
He remembers forever his covenant
which he made binding for a thousand generations –
Which he entered into with Abraham
and by his oath to Isaac.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
Verse Before the Gospel
If today you hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.
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.
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Keeping the Covenant of Truth
In today's Gospel reading, Jesus is accused of being possessed. In effect, his accusers are calling him a liar because of the claims he has made about his relationship with God. Jesus turns that around and identifies them as the real liars. But is that fair? They truly believe that their analysis of the situation is accurate. They're not deliberately lying.
The hardest substance in the universe is truth. It cannot be changed. It cannot be remolded into a different shape. It cannot be chiseled away or eroded into something less than what it started out to be. No matter what we believe, the truth remains constant and is not affected by anyone -- not by our desire to rationalize away wrong choices nor by the whims of society and the world's ever-changing morals.
Therefore, anyone who believes an alteration of the truth is believing a counterfeit, a lie. And everyone who professes one of the counterfeits is a liar, even if they feel absolutely convinced that their version of the lie is the truth. A lie does not become a truth just because we think it's truth.
This is good news, because since truth is unchangeable, and since God only speaks truth, we know that whatever he promises in his Word is unchangeable. We can rely on his promises with absolute certainty.
In today's first reading, God initiates his covenant with us. Psalm 105 points out that his covenant is "binding for a thousand generations." To the Hebrews, "a thousand" meant "infinite" or "beyond counting."
His covenant with us is a truth and it cannot be changed, it cannot be broken. We can walk away from it, but if we uphold our responsibilities as prescribed by this covenant, obeying God's commandments, we benefit from its permanence. We can count on God's love and faithfulness. To "break" the covenant means we've accepted a counterfeit.
The covenant is the Kingdom of God. When we enter into the covenant, God protects us, teaches us, brings us great friends, gives us good uses for our talents, and showers us with gifts just for the pleasure of watching us get excited about his generosity.
However, when we explore outside the Kingdom, we begin to believe the lies that we hear. But the King doesn't want us to live outside of his covenant, so he sends us his Son, who is the way, the truth, and the life of the covenant. We can return to the covenant by reuniting with Jesus in the Eucharist and in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Today's Prayer
Lord, may Your words never seem too astonishing to me. Help me to listen to You with an open heart, always willing to change what is wrong. Amen.
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The mother of Jesus promised St. Dominic that, “one day through the rosary & the scapular I shall save the world!”
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