Saturday of 4th week of Lent

FIRST READING

A reading from the book of the Prophet Jeremiah             11:18-20
I for my part was like a trustful lamb being led to the slaughter-house.

The Lord revealed it to me; I was warned. Lord, that was when you opened my eyes to their scheming.' I for my part was like a trustful lamb being led to the slaughter-house, not knowing the schemes they were plotting against me, 'Let us destroy the tree in its strength, let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name may be quickly forgotten!'

But you, the Lord of hosts who pronounce a just sentence,
who probe the loins and heart,
let me see the vengeance you will take on them,
for I have committed my cause to you.

The Word of the Lord.

Responsorial Psalm           Ps 7
Response                            Lord God, I take refuge in you.

1. Lord God, I take refuge in you.
From my pursuer save me and rescue me,
lest he tear me to pieces like a lion
and drag me off with no one to rescue me. Response

2. Give judgement for me, Lord; I am just
and innocent of heart.
Put an end to the evil of the wicked!
Make the just stand firm,
you who test mind and heart,
O just God!                                                   Response

3. God is the shield that protects me,
who saves the upright of heart.
God is a just judge
slow to anger;
but he threatens the wicked every day.        Response

Gospel  Acclamation              Ez 33:11
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
'I take pleasure, not in the death of a wicked man - it is the Lord who speaks -
but in the turning back of a wicked man who changes his ways to win life.'
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!

or                                           Lk 8: 15
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!
Blessed are those who, with a noble and generous heart,
take the word of God to themselves
and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
Praise and honour to you, Lord Jesus!

GOSPEL

A reading from the Gospel according to John               7:40-52
Would the Christ be from Galilee?

Several people who had been listening to Jesus said, 'Surely he must be the prophet', and some said, 'He is the Christ', but others said, 'Would the Christ be from Galilee? Does not scripture say that the Christ must be descended from David and come from the town of Bethlehem?' So the people could not agree about him. Some would have liked to arrest him, but no one actually laid hands on him.

The police went back to the chief priests and Pharisees who said to them, 'Why haven't you brought him?' The police replied, 'There has never been anybody who has spoken like him'. 'So' the Pharisees answered 'you have been led astray as well? Have any of the authorities believed in him? Any of the Pharisees? This rabble knows nothing about the Law - they are damned.' One of them, Nicodemus - the same man who had come to Jesus earlier - said to them, 'But surely the Law does not allow us to pass judgement on a man without giving him a hearing and discovering what he is about?' To this they answered, 'Are you a Galilean too? Go into the matter, and see for yourself: prophets do not come out of Galilee.'

The Gospel of the Lord.   

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Gospel Reflection            Saturday,             Fourth Week of Lent      


We hear a lot about peer pressure today. Young people especially seem quite susceptible to peer pressure in various ways. If something is not considered ‘cool’ by their peers it can be very difficult for them to take it on. When it comes to acknowledging one’s faith and witnessing to it, peer pressure often works against young people. It is not easy for young people to witness to their faith in any kind of public way. That is why we all have to support those young people who are trying to do so, whether it is our young readers, our young Eucharistic ministers, the members of our youth choir. They need role models to help them resist the kind of peer pressure that mocks their faith. We all need such models. There is one such model in today’s gospel reading, Nicodemus. His peers, his fellow Pharisees, had already made up their minds about Jesus. He was leading people astray. Nicodemus, who was a prominent member of the Pharisees, challenged his peers, ‘Surely the Law does not allow us to pass judgement on a man without giving him a hearing and discovery what he is about?’ He was saying to his fellow Pharisees, ‘Don’t prejudge Jesus. Give him a hearing’. Nicodemus had already come to Jesus by night and had engaged Jesus in serious conversation. Like many a person who goes against his or her peers, Nicodemus incurred the disdain of his fellow teachers of the Law, ‘Are you a Galilean too?’ We need plenty of people like Nicodemus today who are prepared to risk isolation because of their faith, even if it is only an emerging faith, as was the case with Nicodemus. Indeed, we all need to have something of his courage and integrity today.

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The scripture readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers.  http://dltbooks.com/The Gospel reflection comes from WEEKDAY REFLECTIONS 2019-20: The Word of God is Living and Active by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications  c/f https://www.messenger.ie/product/the-word-of-god-is-living-and-active-reflections-on-the-weekday-readings-for-the-liturgical-year-2019-2020/c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/

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Fifth Sunday of Lent

Introduction
Lazarus’ resurrection is a figure and type of Jesus’ resurrection, and of our resurrection, first to divine life in Baptism and to our definitive resurrection at the end of time. The Gospel is a call to a deeper faith in the Spirit living in us, giving life to our mortal bodies. 
                                                                                                     

FIRST READING

A reading from the book of the Prophet Ezekiel        37:12-14
I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live.

"The Lord says this: I am now going to open your graves; I mean to raise you from your graves, my people, and lead you back to the soil of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and raise you from your graves, my people. And I shall put my spirit in you, and you will live, and I shall resettle you on your own soil; and you will know that I, the Lord, have said and done this - it is the Lord who speaks."

The Word of the Lord

Responsorial Psalm          Ps 129
Response                              With the Lord there is mercy and fullness of redemption.

l. Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord, 
   Lord, hear my voice!
   O let your ears be attentive
   to the voice of my pleading.               Response

2. If you, O Lord, should mark our guilt,
    Lord, who would survive?
    But with you is found forgiveness:
    for this we revere you.                        Response

3. My soul is waiting for the Lord,
     I count on his word.
    My soul is longing for the Lord
    more than watchman for daybreak.
    (Let the watchman count on daybreak
    and Israel on the Lord.)                     Response

4. Because with the Lord there is mercy
    and fullness of redemption,
    Israel indeed he will redeem
    from all its iniquity.                           Response

SECOND READING        

A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Romans          8:8-11
The Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you.

People who are interested only in unspiritual things can never be pleasing to God. Your interests, however, are not in the unspiritual, but in the spiritual, since the Spirit of God has made his home in you. In fact, unless you possessed the Spirit of Christ you would not belong to him. Though your body may be dead it is because of sin, but if Christ is in you then your spirit is life itself because you have been justified; and if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then he who raised Jesus from the dead will give life to your own mortal bodies through his Spirit living in you.

The Word of the Lord

Gospel  Acclamation                    Jn 11: 25. 26
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !
I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord,
whoever believes in me will never die.
Glory and praise to you, O Christ !

GOSPEL                       

A reading from the Gospel according to John             11:1-45
'I am the resurrection and the life.

There was a man named Lazarus who lived in the village of Bethany with the two sisters, Mary and Martha, and he was ill. - It was the same Mary, the sister of the sick man Lazarus, who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. The sisters sent this message to Jesus, 'Lord, the man you love is ill'. On receiving the message, Jesus said, 'This sickness will end not in death but in God's glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified'.

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when he heard that Lazarus was ill he stayed where he was for two more days before saying to the disciples, 'Let us go to Judaea'. The disciples said, 'Rabbi, it is not long since the Jews wanted to stone you; are you going back again?' Jesus replied: '

Are there not twelve hours in the day?
A man can walk in the daytime without stumbling
because he has the light of this world to see by;
but if he walks at night he stumbles,
because there is no light to guide him.'

He said that and then added, 'Our friend Lazarus is resting, I am going to wake him'. The disciples said to him, 'Lord, if he is able to rest he is sure to get better'. The phrase Jesus used referred to the death of Lazarus, but they thought that by 'rest' he meant 'sleep', so Jesus put it plainly, 'Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad I was not there because now you will believe. But let us go to him.' Then Thomas - known as the Twin - said to the other disciples, 'Let us go too, and die with him'.

On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. Bethany is only about two miles from Jerusalem, and many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to sympathise with them over their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, 'If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you'. 'Your brother' said Jesus to her 'will rise again.' Martha said, '1 know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day'. Jesus said:

'I am the resurrection.
If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live,
and whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Do you believe this?'

'Yes, Lord,' she said 'I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.' When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in a low voice, 'The Master is here and wants to see you'. Hearing this, Mary got up quickly and went to him. Jesus had not yet come into the village; he was still at the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were in the house sympathising with Mary saw her get up so quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

Mary went to Jesus, and as soon as she saw him she threw herself at his feet, saying, 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died'. At the sight of her tears, and those of the Jews who followed her, Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart, 'Where have you put him?' They said, 'Lord, come and see'. Jesus wept; and the Jews said, 'See how much he loved him!' But there were some who remarked, 'He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man's death?' Still sighing, Jesus reached the tomb: it was a cave with a stone to close the opening. Jesus said, 'Take the stone away'. Martha said to him, 'Lord, by now he will smell; this is the fourth day'. Jesus replied, 'Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?' So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said:

'Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer.
I knew indeed that you always hear me,
but I speak for the sake of all these who stand round me,
so that they may believe it was you who sent me.'

When he had said this, he cried in a loud voice, 'Lazarus, here! Come out!' The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, 'Unbind him, let him go free'.

Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what he did believed in him.

The Gospel of the Lord

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 (Shorter form)
GOSPEL                         John  11:3-7. 17. 20-27. 33-45
I am the resurrection and the life.

The sisters Martha and Mary sent this message to Jesus, ‘Lord, the man you love is ill.’ On receiving the message, Jesus said, ‘This sickness will not end in death but in God’s glory, and through it the Son of God will be glorified.’

Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, yet when he learned that Lazarus was ill he stayed where he was for two more days before saying to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judaea.’

On arriving, Jesus found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days already. When Martha heard that Jesus had come she went to meet him. Mary remained sitting in the house. Martha said to Jesus, ‘If you had been here, my brother would not have died, but I know that even now, whatever you ask of God, he will grant you.’‘your brother’ said Jesus to her ‘will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know
he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.’ Jesus said:

‘I am the resurrection and the life.
If anyone believes in me, even though he dies he will live, and whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Do you believe this?

‘Yes Lord,’ she said ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world.’ Jesus said in great distress, with a sigh that came straight from the heart, ‘Where have you put him?’ They said, ‘See how much he loved him!’ But there were some who remarked, ‘He opened the eyes of the blind man, could he not have prevented this man’s death?’ Still sighing, Jesus reached the tomb; it was a cave with a stone to close the opening. Jesus said, ‘Take the stone away.’ Martha said to him, ‘Lord, by now he will smell; this is the fourth day.’ Jesus replied, ‘Have I not told you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?’ So they took away the stone. Then Jesus lifted up his eyes and said:

‘Father, I thank you for hearing my prayer.
I knew indeed that you always hear me, but I speak
for the sake of all these who stand round me,
so that they may believe it was you who sent me.’

When he had said this, he cried in a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, here! Come out!’ The dead man came out, his feet and hands bound with bands of stuff and a cloth round his face. Jesus said to them, ‘Unbind him, let him go free.’

Many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary and had seen what he did believed in him.

The Gospel of the Lord




Taken from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, published and copyright 1966, 1967 and 1968 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and Doubleday, a division of Random House Inc, and used by permission of the publishers.