Reflection for THURSDAY, 4th Week of Lent.
By
Fr. Aloysius Santiago sdb
Director, Social Action Movement, Don Bosco Bidar
Reading of Today's WORD of GOD
John 5: 31- 47
You place your hopes on Moses but 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?’
Reflection on the readings
The one thing that creates some problems for us and makes us feel aged is this thing called forgetfulness.
Forgetfulness afflicts everybody, and especially when we are no longer that young and we forget this and that, then we become the butt of jokes.
Anyway if our individual forgetfulness can give us problems, how about the forgetfulness of a nation?
Certainly it would be disastrous, as in the case of Israel.
It was not that long ago since they experienced the liberation from Egypt and the miraculous parting of the Red Sea.
But soon they forgot about the God who saved them and they created an idol in the image of an animal!
In fact, forgetfulness is too lame a word to be used here.
The word should be stupidity. The Israelites were stupid enough to forget, and for that they wondered in the desert for 40 years just to have their memory corrected.
The 40 days of Lent is indeed a time for us to recall and remember the saving acts of God and the wonderful graces He poured into our lives so that we won't forget the meaning of love and mercy.
It is also a time to cleanse ourselves of other distractions that have come into our lives that make us lose focus and forget about God in our lives.
For it is to God alone that we must say : You alone are my God.
Good Morning
Have a lovely day
GOD Bless Us All Today
Let's pray for the children writing their board exams and also for the forthcoming state elections.