Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent • Day of Abstinence
π Today's Readings
- First Reading: Wisdom 2:1a, 12–22
- Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 34:17–18, 19–20, 21 and 23
- Gospel: John 7:1–2, 10, 25–30
π️ "His Hour Had Not Yet Come"
π Reflection
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Today we begin to feel, unmistakably, the shadow of the Cross.
The Book of Wisdom is chilling in its accuracy. Written centuries before Christ, it describes the plot of the wicked against the just man: "Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us — he calls himself a child of God." Reading it today, we hear the very voices of those who will cry for Christ's crucifixion. It is a prophecy dressed as a complaint.
In the Gospel, Jesus moves quietly, almost secretly, because people are seeking to kill Him. And yet He goes to the Temple, He teaches publicly, He does not hide the truth. He simply moves in God's time: "His hour had not yet come."
This phrase appears again and again in John's Gospel. It is one of the most profound phrases in all of Scripture. Jesus is not running from His death. He is walking toward it — but on the Father's timetable, not the crowd's.
There is immense peace in this for us. Our lives, too, are in God's hands. Our trials arrive not by accident but within a Providence we may not yet understand. The same God who held back Jesus' hour holds our hours too — the hour of our suffering, the hour of our rescue, the hour of our final homecoming.
Lent is teaching us to live in His time, not in our anxiety. To walk forward faithfully, trusting that the Father sees what we cannot see and holds what we cannot hold.
Palm Sunday is just over a week away. The shadow of Calvary will deepen. But we know what lies beyond it. We walk with eyes fixed on the empty tomb.
π‘ One Simple Message for Today "His hour had not yet come" — your life is held in the hands of a God who is never too early and never too late.
π A Prayer for Today
Lord Jesus, as You walked toward Jerusalem in the Father's time, help me to surrender my life to His timing. Take from me the anxiety of control. I place my hour — and every hour — in Your hands. Lead me through the Cross to the joy of Easter. Amen.
πΏ Lenten Practice for Today
On this Friday of abstinence, unite your small sacrifice with the suffering Christ. Offer it for someone in their own "dark hour" today — the sick, the dying, the grieving. Let your Friday fast be an act of intercession.
May the Lord bless you and keep you close to His Sacred Heart this holy season. π️
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