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Meditations on Weekday Gospels
Fifth Week of Lent, April 3 -8, 2006
Monday
John 8.1-11
Scripture scholars don't know where to place
this section of John’s Gospel. Does it belong in
John's Gospel or in Luke's? But in itself it remains God's
Word. It is a powerful witness to God’s forgiveness
that follows true repentance. In this simple narrative
Jesus brings us to the center of God's compassion. In Jesus
there is now no condemnation for those who broken-hearted because
of their sins. In Jesus there is the power to overcome sin.
“Sin no more.” Jesus has the power to forgive
sins and to enable us ultimately to be free from sin. Lent
is our struggle to enter into that mystery of redemption. The
redemption is won by Christ's struggle and death at the hands of
hypocritical religion. We remain
with the woman taken in adultery; we lie at
the feet of Jesus. There are no others around. We see
the absoluteness of that moment wherein we take responsibility
for our sins and then receive the freedom of forgiveness and new
life. It is at the heart of the Paschal mystery.
Tuesday
John 8.21-30
Like Jesus' auditors in this Gospel reading
we may be ignorant or not fully aware that in our prayer Jesus
speaks to us of his Father. More than speaking about the
Father, Jesus reveals the Father in the depths of our prayer in
the Holy Spirit. Our prayer is to complete the Trinitarian
cycle. In grace we have come forth from the Father and we
return to the Father. The light of revelation reveals the
ontological reality of our abiding in the Father in Christ’s
grace. The most we can bring is our silent adoration before
the Mystery of the Trinity and our receptive surrender to the
Spirit's love. Our prayer is this silent consenting to
being in the Father, now in faith, soon in light at the
resurrection, but now begun, this eternal abiding with. Sin
places us outside of this abiding; attachment to the culture of
the world fortifies the barriers to sensitivity to the
Trinitarian life. Lord Jesus, you are He, Son with the
Father in the Holy Spirit. Every breath is my amen to that
naked intention of love.
Wednesday
John 8.31-42
Let us look at the first few words of verse
31. "If you live according to my teaching" misses
the meaning I think. RSV translation has: "If you
continue in my word." The Latin, following the Greek,
has "Si vos manseritis in sermone meo." That word
"manseritis" has the idea of living in, abiding with;
mansion is a derivative in English. It is not just a living
by, a sort of moral or behavioral connotation. Rather, we
live in the Word; we live with the Word; we abide with the Word.
We would be disciples of Jesus. That is the ethos of our
prayer: to be immersed in Jesus. We do that by the power of
the Holy Spirit who uses the words of Scripture to penetrate into
the very core of our selves. We abide with Jesus by abiding
in the fullness of the Church. In this ecclesial
discipleship we find freedom. In this freedom of the Spirit
we find Jesus, who is Truth, the Incarnate Word. Truth and
freedom end in the Trinitarian life. "I proceeded and
came forth from God; he sent me." It is not a mere
prophet whose word we embrace. It is the Word Himself who
is in the bosom of the Father, the Word who pitched his tent
among us, so that we can be able to abide there, live there with
the Word Incarnate. Prayer consists of the moments of
conscious consent to this abiding in the Word within the Father
through the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Thursday
John 8.51-59
Many have kept Christ's word and yet have
experienced, and will experience, death. But they will not
see death. On their passing through death they will see
Christ who is life; they will not see death at their death.
They will wake to eternal light in the mystery of Christ. They
will know the certainty of their own resurrection in the body and
the sight of God's glory in the risen Christ. Death is pure
nothingness; Christ is eternal existence and light. Jesus
is the great "I Am." Our own person is immortal
and is destined for divine glory because of Jesus being the Son
of Man and the Son of the Father. “Before Abraham, I
am.” Our prayer is keeping the word of Christ. Our
prayer is living in the word as in a house. Our prayer is
the constant surrender to the Presence of the Triune God in the
mystery of the incarnate Son. The fruit of our prayer is
seeing life. In Him was the light of life. Our prayer
is a joy, sharing the laughter of Sarah and the joy of Abraham.
They were happy to see our day.
Friday
John 10.31-42
At this moment Jesus continues his work.
I am his work. Prayer is the silent awareness of the work
of Christ in us. My deepest moments of prayer come in that
silence and receptivity wherein with all my being I surrender to
this work. The work is Trinitarian. The Father is in
the Son and the Son is in the Father, and in the unity of the
Holy Spirit. God works in me as member of the Church.
All my prayer is Trinitarian and Ecclesial. I suffer the
world's taking up of stones against the Church. The Church
is the eternal, spotless witness to the fullness of Christ at any
given moment, in any given place, amid any given culture or
civilization. These latter traits are of the Church's
Catholicism. How many peoples, how many struggles, how many
persons in their individual dramas of redemption, do I carry in
the simplicity of my love expressed in silent prayer? My
prayer is sharing in the consecration of the Son sent into the
world. I am a consecrated person by my Baptism. My
consecration is living membership in the Church. My
consecration is into the Church, the whole Body of Christ. Christ
redeems humanity through the sacrament of the Church.
Saturday
John 11.45-57
Lent is closing; Passiontide is upon us
already. It is the time of a deeper entering into the dying
of Jesus, the emptying that must accompany true contemplative
prayer life. Many believe in Jesus because they see signs.
Looking for signs is a foundation of sand for my spiritual house.
As I grow deeper in my prayer, so I must relinquish the desire
for signs. It is the old magic trip that plagues me. I
pray and follow the spiritual path to fulfill my own agenda and
to see results in my life. I will come closer to my own
idealized image of perfection. Or, I remain divided. I
have one eye on Jesus and an ear to what my culture says about
Jesus. I want to remain friends with the enlightened of
society. I am like the ones in the Gospel who see the glory
of Lazarus resuscitated but also want to be in with the ruling
class. Some see the sign but must report everything to the
Pharisees. No, allow me to surrender in absolute, naked
faith. Let me enter into your dying, Lord Jesus, the One
who dies so to gather into one the dispersed children of
humanity. My prayer must be beyond signs; it must be
singularly directed into the heart of the Trinity in pure faith
and hope. In that prayer I embrace the whole of humanity in
the work of redemption.
--William C. Fredrickson, Obl.OSB.
D.Min.
