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March 10, 2024Today’s readings, with their emphasis on God’s mercy and compassion, contain some of the most beautiful and poignant verses in Sacred Scripture. There is the incomparable lament by the streams of Babylon in Psalm 137 as Israel bewails its exile and mourns the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. This bereavement purified and intensified Israel’s faith like no other event in its history. In Ephesians, we have the description of God as “rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4). The Gospel Reading has the often quoted John 3:16 and the assurance that, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him” (Jn 3:17). All the readings show the disposition of God, who, even in punishing, does so out of mercy, and who uses tragic events and secular rulers for his own loving designs.
Another theme running through the readings is that of “works” and “faith”. In the First Reading, the infidelity of the priests and people and their refusal to listen to the prophets occasions the Babylonian exile. Their works are evil because they have not kept faith with the God of Israel. John emphasizes the need to believe in the Son for salvation. This believing leads to living in the truth and doing good works in God. Ephesians makes it clear that we do not save ourselves. It is by grace through faith, not by our works. However, it goes on to say that we are “created in Christ Jesus for the good works that God has prepared in advance, that we should live in them” (Eph 2:10). Created for good works! Predestination is a term that can make us uneasy, but how interesting that it is used here in relation to good works, that there are good works God has prepared in advance for us. This could be a fruitful thought to mediate on during Lent: What are the good works God has prepared in advance for me to do? For good works are unique to each person. Each of us has our own station in life, our own unique personal relationships. John Wesley famously said:
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.
What an exciting and positive perspective of Christianity. Yet, we all know that there is much within us that we would prefer to remain hidden and out of the light. During this Lent, may we bring these deficiencies to Our Lord as well so that we may not “prefer darkness to light” and may we pray that we can live in ever greater light.
[click here for the readings of the day]
