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Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Isaiah 49:8-15
Psalm 145:8-9, 13-14, 17-18
John 5:17-30
S
UMMARY
In Isaiah, the Lord says to the prisoners: "Come out!" To those in dark-
ness: "Show yourselves!". And to all: "I will never forget you." In this
beautiful psalm, the Lord is lavishly described as "gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and of great kindness. The Lord is good to all". "The Lord
lifts up all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down.....The
Lord is near to all who call upon him." In the Gospel, Jesus declares his in-
timate relationship to the Father, and states the urgency of his proclama-
tion: "the hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the
voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live".
R
EFLECTION
There are times that I don't "hear" and grasp what is being said to me, to
my heart. My kids let me know this right up front. I can pride
myself on what a good listener I am only to be humbled later on
with a realization that I really didn't get "the message" after all.
My kids are often God's most direct way of delivering this mes-
sage.
And with God's insistent messages of love and care? Those espe-
cially I can't, and even sometimes won't, hear. God says to me,
the prisoner (do I really
"get" that I am a pris-
oner of my sinfulness
and confusion, and
can't release myself?):
Come out! God calls to
me in my darkness and
lostness: Show your-
self!