Churches of the Day

Thursday, Fourth Week in Lent

Jesus reminds people that Moses pleaded for mercy from God for his continuing wayward followers.
A reminder to all of us to turn back to our God our Father.

FIRST READING

A reading from the book of Exodus              32:7-14
Do not bring this disaster on your people.

The Lord spoke to Moses,
'Go down now, because your people whom you brought out of Egypt have apostasised. They have been quick to leave the way I marked out for them; they have made themselves a calf of molten metal and have worshipped it and offered it sacrifice. "Here is your God, Israel," they have cried "who brought you up from the land of Egypt!' I can see how headstrong these people are! Leave me, now, my wrath shall blaze out against them and devour them; of you, however, I will make a great nation.'

But Moses pleaded with the Lord his God.
'Lord,' he said 'why should your wrath blaze out against this people of yours whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with arm outstretched and mighty hand?
Why let the Egyptians say, "Ah, it was in treachery that he brought them out, to do them to death in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth"?
Leave your burning wrath; relent and do not bring this disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, your servants to whom by your own self you swore and made this promise:
I will make your offspring as many as the stars of heaven,
and all this land which I promised I will give to your descendants, and it shall be their heritage for ever.'
So the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.

The Word of the Lord.             Thanks be to God


Responsorial Psalm           Ps 105
Response                                 O Lord, remember me out of the love you have for your people.

1. They fashioned a calf at Horeb and worshipped an image of metal,
exchanging the God who was their glory for the image of a bull that eats grass.           Response

2. They forgot the God who was their saviour, who had done such great things in Egypt,
such portents in the land of Ham, such marvels at the Red Sea.                                       Response

3. For this he said he would destroy them, but Moses, the man he had chosen,
stood in the breach before him, to turn back his anger from destruction.                     Response

Gospel  Acclamation        Jn 6:63. 68
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life; you have the message of eternal life.
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!

or                                               Jn 3:16
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!
God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son;
everyone who believes in him has eternal life.
Glory to you, O Christ, you are the Word of God!

GOSPEL  

The Lord be with you.                        And with your spirit
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John     5:31-47           Glory to you, O Lord
You place your hopes on Moses, and Moses will be your accuser.

Jesus said to the Jews
'Were I to testify on my own behalf, my testimony would not be valid;
but there is another witness who can speak on my behalf, and I know that his testimony is valid.
You sent messengers to John, and he gave his testimony to the truth:
not that I depend on human testimony; no, it is for your salvation that I speak of this.

'John was a lamp alight and shining and for a time you were content to enjoy the light that he gave.
But my testimony is greater than John's: the works my Father has given me to carry out,
these same works of mine testify that the Father has sent me.
Besides, the Father who sent me bears witness to me himself.
You have never heard his voice, you have never seen his shape,
and his word finds no home in you because you do not believe in the one he has sent.

'You study the scriptures, believing that in them you have eternal life;
now these same scriptures testify to me, and yet you refuse to come to me for life!
As for human approval, this means nothing to me.
Besides, I know you too well: you have no love of God in you.
I have come in the name of my Father and you refuse to accept me;
if someone else comes in his own name you will accept him.

'How can you believe, since you look to one another for approval and are not concerned with the approval
that comes from the one God?
Do not imagine that I am going to accuse you before the Father: you place your hopes on Moses, and Moses will be your accuser.
If you really believed him you would believe me too, since it was I that he was writing about;
but if you refuse to believe what he wrote, how can you believe what I say?'

The Gospel of the Lord.           Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.


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Gospel Reflection           Thursday           Fourth Week of Lent          John 5:31-47

The figure of Moses is to be found in both readings today and in the responsorial psalm. In the first reading, Moses intercedes with God on behalf of his rebellious people, and God listens to the prayer of Moses. The responsorial psalm, reflecting on this incident, says that ‘Moses, the man God had chosen, stood in the breach before him’. Moses stood in the breach between God and his people; he helped to keep God’s relationship with his people alive. In the gospel reading, Jesus declares that Moses was writing about him. What Moses said and did point ahead to the person of Jesus. Yet, Jesus was greater than Moses. He brought a fuller revelation of God than Moses ever did. Jesus stood in the breach between God and his people in a much more profound way.  Whereas Moses is depicted as standing between an angry God and his people, Jesus stands between a loving God and his people, and, indeed, all humanity.

Jesus reveals God to be Love. Jesus cast a greater light upon God than Moses. It is because of Jesus that we can say that God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that we may have life and have it to the full. In the gospel reading, Jesus says that the works God his Father gave him to carry out testify to God, reveal God. The works Jesus refers to are all his deeds that brought life in its various forms to those he encountered. The death and resurrection of Jesus was an even fuller revelation of the God of love and life. We have much to be grateful for, because of all that Jesus has revealed to us about God, all that Jesus has brought to us from God. As the opening chapter of John’s gospel says, Jesus came full of God’s grace and truth, and from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.

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The Scripture Readings are taken from The Jerusalem Bible, published 1966 by Darton, Longman and Todd Ltd and used with the permission of the publishers.  http://dltbooks.com/


The Scripture Reflection is made available with our thanks from his book Reflections on the Weekday Readings  The Word is near to you, on your lips and in your heart by Martin Hogan and published by Messenger Publications, c/f www.messenger.ie/bookshop/

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TheFifth Sunday of Lent, Year C

What marvels the Lord worked for us. We all need forgiveness
(The Readings for Year A may be used as an alternative today)
(The third Scrutiny is celebrated today)

FIRST READING  

A reading from the book of the Prophet  Isaiah          43:16-21
See I am doing a new deed, and I will give my chosen people water to drink.

Thus says the Lord,
'who made a way through the sea, a path in the great waters;
who put chariots and horse in the field and a powerful army, which lay there never to rise again, snuffed out, put out like a wick.

'No need to recall the past,
no need to think about what was done before.
See, I am doing a new deed,
even now it comes to light; can you not see it?
Yes, I am making a road in the wilderness, paths in the wilds.

The wild beasts will honour me, jackals and ostriches,
because I am putting water in the wilderness (rivers in the wild) to give my chosen people drink.
The people I have formed for myself will sing my praises.'

The Word of the Lord      Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm   Ps 125. R v 3
Response                        What marvels the Lord worked for us! Indeed we were glad.

1. When the Lord delivered Zion from bondage, it seemed like a dream.
Then was our mouth filled with laughter, on our lips there were songs.      Response

2. The heathens themselves said: 'What marvels the Lord worked for them!'
What marvels the Lord worked for us! Indeed we were glad.                         Response

3. Deliver us, O Lord, from our bondage as streams in dry land.
Those who are sowing in tears will sing when they reap.                                Response

4. They go out, they go out, full of tears, carrying seed for the sowing:
they come back, they come back, full of song, carrying their sheaves.         Response

SECOND READING 
A reading from the second letter of St Paul to the Philippians        3:8-14
I have accepted the loss of everything if only I can have Christ

I believe nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For him I have accepted the loss of everything, and I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in him. I am no longer trying for perfection by my own efforts, the perfection that comes from the Law, but I want only the perfection that comes through faith in Christ, and is from God and based on faith. All I want is to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and to share his sufferings by reproducing the pattern of his death.

That is the way I can hope to take my place in the resurrection of the dead. Not that I have become perfect yet: I have not yet won, but I am still running, trying to capture the prize for which Christ Jesus captured me. I can assure you my brothers, I am far from thinking that I have already won. All I can say is that I forget the past and I strain ahead for what is still to come; I am racing for the finish, for the prize to which God calls us upwards to receive in Christ Jesus.

The Word of the Lord.                  Thanks be to God

Gospel  Acclamation               Amos 5:14
Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory!
Seek good and not evil so that you may live,
and that the Lord God of hosts may really be with you.
Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory!

Or                                                  Joel 2:12-13
Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory!
Now, now - it is the Lord who speaks - come back to me with all your heart,
for I am all tenderness and compassion.
Praise to you, O Christ, King of eternal glory!

GOSPEL:                                     

The Lord be with you.      An with your spirit
A Reading from the Gospel of John             8:1-11            Glory to you, O Lord
If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.

Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At daybreak he appeared in the Temple again;
and as all the people came to him, he sat down and began to teach them.

The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman along who had been caught committing adultery;
and making her stand there in full view of everybody, they said to Jesus,
'Master, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery, and Moses has ordered us in the Law to condemn women like this to death by stoning. What have you to say?'
They asked him this as a test, looking for something to use against him.

But Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger.
As they persisted with their question, he looked up and said,
'If there is one of you who has not sinned, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.'
Then be bent down and wrote on the ground again.
When they heard this they went away one by one, beginning with the eldest,
until Jesus was left alone with the woman, who remained standing there. He looked up and said,
'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' '
No one, sir' she replied.
'Neither do I condemn you,' said Jesus 'go away, and don't sin any more.'

The Gospel of the Lord                Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

For homily resources for this Sunday's Gospel click here:  https://www.catholicireland.net/sunday-homily/



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