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The Word today, Lent4C

  • Writer: Admin
    Admin
  • Mar 26, 2025
  • 2 min read


March 31 - April 05, 2025



Isaiah 65:17-21 Exultant optimism is perhaps not the mood of the times, but, it is the mood of this passage from Isaiah. One line anticipates the Gospel: no more will be found the infant living a few days only. Even the exaggerations are delightful.


John 4:43-54 John’s Gospel tells this familiar story with an intriguing twist: the parent is rst called a “court ofcial,” then a “man” and only towards the end, “the father.” For us all, some roles are more fundamental than others.



Ezekiel 47:1-9,12 “Awash with life” might be a good description of Ezekiel’s “vision” of the Temple. Exuberance is everywhere: And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal. The Gospel takes up the water image in a remarkable vision of healing.


John 5:1-3,5-16 As you listen to this story, you might bear in mind the corresponding one about about the man born blind in John 9. Both “patients” are put under enormous pressure. Under that pressure, the man born blind becomes stronger; in this Gospel, the man crumbles and betrays Jesus. What does being under pressure for the faith do to me?



Isaiah 49:8-15 The feeling of being abandoned led the prophet to afrm that God, like a mother to us, never ever forgets her people.


John 5:17-30 Part of the background to the opening verses is a contemporary Jewish discussion about whether God could really have ceased from creating, as it says in Gen 2:2. Part of the foreground is an anticipation of the raising of Lazarus, who will “hear his voice and live.”



Exodus 32:7-14 In this disconcerting story, God is furious that the people have so quickly abandoned him. Moses reminds God of who God is and so God relents, thanks be to God.


John 5:31-47 This compact reading can upset us today because of the robust comments of Jesus. In reality, we are eavesdropping on the later conversation between Christian and Jews. The evangelist parades before us ve “witnesses” to Jesus: the Father, John the Baptist, his own deeds, the Scriptures and, nally, Moses himself. The reading calls us all to give an account of the hope that is within us.



Wisdom 2:1,12-22 There is a contemporary ring to this reading from the book of Wisdom: the godless resent the faith of the believers. Such resentment foreshadows the reaction to Jesus.


John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 Jesus certainly disconcerted those who met him, as we hear in this reading. Who is he really? Where is he from? Who sent him?



Jeremiah 11:18-20 Jeremiah, always in difculty because of his calling, places his full and total trust in God. The psalm captures it well: Lord God, I take refuge in you.


John 7:40-52 Again, there is a contemporary ring about the range of opinions and the discord triggered by the person and presence of Jesus. What do I believe? What difference does it make?


References

-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2025aa, March 30). Fourth Sunday of Lent. USCCB. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/033025-YearC.cfm

-Sunday readings. (n.d.-s). Hearers of the Word. https://www.tarsus.ie/SundayReadings


 
 
 

The Word today, Lent3C

  • Writer: Admin
    Admin
  • Mar 22, 2025
  • 3 min read


March 24 - March 29, 2025



2 Kings 5:1-15 A very lively, realistic story prepares us for the Gospel reading. There are comic elements: the disappointment of Naaman and the utterly sensible advice of his servants.


Luke 4:24-30 Our reading is really the second part of an integrated scene in Luke’s Gospel. Jesus preaches in Nazareth and is initially well received. What we really have here is a symbolic tableau, giving us the whole Gospel story of Jesus in a nutshell. The last elusive line points to Easter.


The Annunciation to the BVM


Isaiah 7:10-14, 8:10 The birth of a child—as in this reading—is always a sign of hope. Hebrews 10:4-10 Our reading today reects on the death of Jesus, in the light of the incarnation.


Luke 1:26-38 In the Bible, there are stories of couples who cannot have children. An annunciation resolves the situation. Our annunciation is similar, yet signicantly different on account of the child to be born — son of the Most High, descendant of Jacob and David, Jesus the Messiah.



Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9 Our reading reects on God’s grace to Israel and on the consequent responsibility of the Israelites to live lives consistent with that grace. It was true long ago in Judaism; it is true today in our Christian proclamation.


Matthew 5:17-19 Matthew can disconcert with his quite conservative attitudes. It is important to remember that the Law (the Torah) meant three things at the time. It meant rst of all the Pentateuch, which has lost none of its relevance for Christians. It also meant the Ten Commandments, which, in the time honoured phrase, have not gone away. Finally, it meant the rules governing the marks of Jewish identity, such as circumcision and the dietary laws. While these latter are indeed suspended for Christians, the moral law is, if anything, sharpened.



Jeremiah 7:23-28 The ministry of Jeremiah encountered tremendous opposition. In fact, his book is divided into two parts, the rst devoted to a rehearsal of the collapse of the independent kingdom of Judah. Within that, Jeremiah points out that the very faithlessness of the people was one of the causes of that calamity.


Luke 11:14-23 Just as the prophets encountered opposition, so did the Jesus. In the case of Jesus, the opposition accuses God’s prophet of aligning himself with the forces of evil. Already in Luke’s Gospel, we hear the story of the temptation, wherein Jesus resolutely rejects the devil.



Hosea wrote in the 8th century BC, at a time of immense pressure from Assyria. He can be trenchant but is also a marvellous poet of the love of God. Listen by letting any of the moving metaphors touch our hearts.


Mark 12:28-34 This great passages takes us to the hear to of the preaching of Jesus, the Jewish Messiah.



Hosea 5:15-6:6 This is really a sarcastic reading. But, behind the biting sarcasm, is the beating heart of God, reaching out to us again and again.


Luke 18:9-14 The risk for us in reading this parable is that we nd ourselves sitting in judgment on the Pharisee—that is, copying him in sitting in judgment on the tax collector. The latter’s heart-felt prayer for mercy is at the centre of the parable: can I make it my own?


References

-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2025y, March 23). Third Sunday of lent. USCCB. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/032325-YearC.cfm

-Sunday readings. (n.d.-s). Hearers of the Word. https://www.tarsus.ie/SundayReadings


 
 
 

The Word today, Lent2C

  • Writer: Admin
    Admin
  • Mar 14, 2025
  • 3 min read

Updated: Mar 15, 2025



March 17 - March 22, 2025


See special notes for St Patrick’s Day)


Daniel 9:4-10 Daniel prays a great prayer which we could make our own today. The Psalm takes up the same theme of forgiveness.


Luke 6:36-38 Pardon is free from God — but it is truly “ours” only when we pardon in return.



Isaiah 1:10, 16-20 Following an opening command to wash and make ourselves clean, no fewer than seven imperatives help us to think practically of changes in our lives.


Matthew 23:1-12 Matthew is aware that religious leaders can “lose the run of themselves,” as we say. This is true in our Gospel of the Pharisees, but the the Gospel goes on to issue a warning also to Christian leaders: they are not to be called rabbi or father or teacher. Why is that the case?


St Joseph, husband of the BVM


2Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16 God’s delity through time is expressed in his commitment to the family of David, of which Jesus will be born.


Romans 4:13,16-18,22 Abraham trusted against all the odds — as did his later descendant Joseph.


Matthew 1:16,18-21,24 Joseph of the Gospels reminds us of Joseph of Genesis, who dreamed and who saved his family.



Jeremiah 17:5-10 Two ways of life are contrasted today and, as always, the choice is ours. The contrast is sharply drawn. We do know that things are not so black and white in reality; however, the offer of two different ways of life still stands. The psalm going with this reading is perfect.


Luke 16:19-31 The story of the rich man (Dives in Latin) and the poor man, Lazarus, is unique to this Gospel. The story is pretty clear and it would be hard to miss the message. The exploration of the parable in the last paragraph, however, is larded with irony…are we among those who would not be convinced even in someone should rise from the dead?



Genesis 37:3-4, 12-13, 17-28 The ordinary mass goer might well ask why this reading and what is it about? The story of the rejection of Joseph by his brothers is interesting and signicant of itself. Today, however, it is told to anticipate a similar rejection in the Gospel, the rejection of Jesus and his mission. In the case of Joseph, the rejected one became the saviour when there was a famine in the land of Canaan. Likewise, the rejected Jesus became a saviour but not merely to one family but to the whole human race.


Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46 In the Old Testament, there are passages which talk about Israel as God’s vineyard, a metaphor which undergirds today’s parable. The parable on the lips of Jesus may have been simpler. The version we have in the Gospel reects the context of Matthew’s community and the later application of Psalms to Jesus’ own death and resurrection.



Micah 7:14-15,18-20 Today we hear a great prayer for forgiveness, a condent prayer because the Lord is our shepherd. It would make a terric reection on God’s mercy and compassion. It does prepare us to hear with fresh ears the parable of the prodigal son.


Luke 15:1-3, 11-32 As often, it can be hard to hear what is so familiar so that we are addressed again, so a special effort is needed. It might be good to focus on the stay-athome brother and his resentments. Do I nd such inty resistance in myself ? In my community? In our society? Even as we nd this in ourselves, it is good to recall that the parable ends without resolution, open-ended, so that forgiveness and compassion are always possible.


References

-United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. (2025w, March 16). Second Sunday of lent. USCCB. https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031625.cfm

-Sunday readings. (n.d.-s). Hearers of the Word. https://www.tarsus.ie/SundayReadings


 
 
 
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