5TH WEEK OF LENT
Psalter: Week 1 / (Violet)
Dn 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56
Glory and praise for ever!
1st Reading: Dn 3:14-20, 91-92, 95*
King Nebuchadnezzar questioned them, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden statue I have set up? (…) If you won’t, you know the punishment: you will immediately be thrown into a burning furnace. And then what god can deliver you out of my hands?”
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we need not defend ourselves before you on this matter. If you order us to be thrown into the furnace, the God we serve will rescue us. But even if he won’t, we would like you to know, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden statue you have set up.” (…)
Nebuchadnezzar exclaimed, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who sent his angel to free his servants. Who, trusting in him, disobeyed the king’s order; and preferred to give their bodies to the fire rather than serve and worship any other god but their God.
Gospel: Jn 8:31-42
Jesus went on to say to the Jews who believed in him “You will be my true disciples, if you keep my word. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are the descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves of anyone. What do you mean by saying: You will be free?”
Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave. But the slave doesn’t stay in the house forever; the son stays forever. So, if the Son makes you free, you will be really free.
I know that you are the descendants of Abraham; yet you want to kill me because my word finds no place in you. For my part, I speak of what I have seen in my Father’s presence, but you do what you have learned from your father.”
They answered him, “Our father is Abraham.” Then Jesus said, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do as Abraham did. But now you want to kill me, the one who tells you the truth — the truth that I have learned from God. That is not what Abraham did; what you are doing are the works of your father.”
The Jews said to him, “We are not illegitimate children; we have one Father, God.” Jesus replied, “If God were your Father you would love me, for I came forth from God, and I am here. And I didn’t come by my own decision, but it was he himself who sent me.
Reflections
THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE
We have heard of this adage so often, we take for granted that we know its full meaning. But it is good to come back to it once in a while to see what further insights we can gain from it. First, maybe we should dwell on how falsehood shackles us. We have seen how people, when they begin with a lie, they have to manufacture more and more lies to bolster their first lie and before they know it they are entangled in lies and can no longer distinguish what is false from what is true, what is real and what is illusion. I have known people who have kept a secret infidelity from their spouses for years and years and then one day, the truth had to come out and it almost ended their marriage. But after some time they started to live with it and the relief that the spouse who had the secret is truly unbounded. The hurt remains especially for the aggrieved spouse but even for him/her, there grows a feeling that s/he will survive and actually felt relief because s/he admits that even before the revelation, s/he had somehow a sneaking suspicion that there was something being held back from him/her. Now that everything is in the open, s/he has lost that feeling. Truly TRUTH does make us free.
Daily Reflection 2018
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