4TH WEEK OF LENT
Psalter: Week 4 / (Violet)
Ps 106:19-20, 21-22, 23
Remember us, O Lord,
as you favor your people.
1st Reading: Ex 32:7-14
Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have quickly turned from the way I commanded them and have made for themselves a molten calf; they have bowed down before it and sacrificed to it and said: ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt.’”
And Yahweh said to Moses, “I see that these people are a stiff-necked people. Now just leave me that my anger may blaze against them. I will destroy them, but of you I will make a great nation.”
But Moses calmed the anger of Yahweh, his God, and said, “Why, O Yahweh, should your anger burst against your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with such great power and with a mighty hand? Let not the Egyptians say: ‘Yahweh brought them out with evil intent, for he wanted to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth.’ Turn away from the heat of your anger and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the promise you yourself swore: I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land I spoke about I will give to them as an everlasting inheritance.”
Yahweh then changed his mind and would not yet harm his people.
Gospel: Jn 5:31-47*
If I bore witness to myself, my testimony would be worthless. But Another One is bearing witness to me, and I know that his testimony is true when he bears witness to me. John also bore witness to the truth when you sent messengers to him, but I do not seek such human testimony; I recall this for you, so that you may be saved. (…)
You search in the Scriptures, thinking that in them you will find life; yet Scripture bears witness to me. But you refuse to come to me, that you may live. I am not seeking human praise; but I know that the love of God is not within you, for I have come in my Father’s name and you do not accept me. If another comes in his own name, you will accept him. As long as you seek praise from one another, instead of seeking the glory which comes from the only God, how can you believe? (…) If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?
Reflections
THEY HAVE MADE FOR THEMSELVES A GOLDEN CALF
Idolatry was one of the sins of the people of Israel that God condemned. Since the image of the relationship between God and his people was in terms of marriage, idolatry was like adultery. It was infidelity and is the worst form of betrayal. It is a perennial temptation for human beings to create a God to their image and likeness. We choose a God whom we can put in our pocket, one who will approve our ways and justify what we want to do. But this is not believing in God. This is creating an idol. When we are growing we tend to put some people we admire on a pedestal. There is nothing wrong with this but as we grow more mature we have to put them gently one by one because if not, they will fall from their pedestal and it is not they who will suffer but we who put them there. “Thou shalt not have strange gods before me” God reminds us. There is only ONE God and to this God we owe absolute and abiding fidelity. We have to get rid of the false gods, the golden calves we have created along the way and turn back to the God who is ever faithful to us and loves us with an unconditional love in spite of our infidelity.
Daily Reflection 2018
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