Daily Mass Readings — Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent
"Before Abraham was made, I am." — John 8:58
Liturgical Context
Today is Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent, and the liturgy places before us the covenant made with Abraham — the first father in faith, the man whose name God changed and whose posterity God multiplied beyond counting — and then draws us into the Temple at Jerusalem, where Christ claims to have been present at that covenant, older than Abraham, bearing the Name of God Himself. The thread between the readings is the word before: God's covenant with Abraham preceded the Law, preceded circumcision, preceded every human achievement — and Christ precedes even the covenant, for He is the one in whom Abraham rejoiced. Two days from Holy Week, the Gospel ends with stones raised against Him. The hour is very near.
✠ First Reading — Genesis 17:3–9
³ And Abram fell flat on his face. And God said to him: ⁴ I am, and my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations. ⁵ Neither shall thy name be called any more Abram: but thou shalt be called Abraham: because I have made thee a father of many nations. ⁶ And I will make thee increase exceedingly, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. ⁷ And I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and between thy seed after thee in their generations, by a perpetual covenant: to be thy God, and the God of thy seed after thee. ⁸ And I will give to thee, and to thy seed, the land of thy sojournment, all the land of Chanaan for a perpetual possession, and I will be their God. ⁹ Again God said to Abraham: And thou therefore shalt keep my covenant, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Commentary
The changing of Abram's name to Abraham is an act of divine possession and creation: God renames what He owns. Saint John Chrysostom notes that the new name — father of many nations — was a promise staggering in its audacity, for at this moment Abraham had no legitimate heir and was nearly a hundred years old (Homilies on Genesis, Homily XXXIX). Yet he believed, and the covenant was sealed. Saint Paul in Romans 4 draws the decisive theological conclusion: this covenant was made before circumcision, and therefore it reaches to all who believe, Jew and Gentile alike. The CCC teaches that the covenant with Abraham is one of the covenants of promise that prepares for and prefigures the new and eternal covenant sealed in the blood of Christ (CCC §706). In today's Gospel, Christ will claim to have been present at this very covenant — to have been the Day that Abraham rejoiced to see. The promise made to one old man in a tent becomes, in Christ, the promise made to every human soul.
✠ Responsorial Psalm — Psalm 104 (105):4–9
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
⁴ Seek ye the Lord, and be strengthened: seek his face evermore. ⁵ Remember his marvellous works which he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth. ⁶ O ye seed of Abraham his servant; ye sons of Jacob his chosen.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
⁷ He is the Lord our God: his judgments are in all the earth. ⁸ He hath remembered his covenant for ever: the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. ⁹ Which he made to Abraham; and his oath to Isaac.
R. The Lord remembers his covenant for ever.
Commentary
The refrain — The Lord remembers his covenant for ever — is the Psalm's great proclamation of divine fidelity. God does not forget. The covenant made with one man kneeling in the dust is held in the memory of the Eternal from before time began. Saint Augustine writes that the covenant is not merely a legal agreement but a bond of love — God binding Himself to His creature with an oath because He willed to give us the firmest possible ground for hope (The City of God, Book XVI, ch. 24). In Lent, this Psalm is a call to seek His face evermore — not to find God by our own searching, but to turn toward the face that has always been turned toward us, remembering a promise made to Abraham and renewed in Christ at every Mass.
✠ Verse Before the Gospel — John 6:63, 68
The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
✠ The Holy Gospel — John 8:51–59
The Lord be with you. — And with your spirit.
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John. Glory be to Thee, O Lord.
⁵¹ Amen, amen I say to you: If any man keep my word, he shall not see death for ever. ⁵² The Jews therefore said: Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest: If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death for ever. ⁵³ Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? and the prophets are dead. Whom dost thou make thyself? ⁵⁴ Jesus answered: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom you say that he is your God. ⁵⁵ And you have not known him, but I know him. And if I shall say that I know him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know him, and do keep his word. ⁵⁶ Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day: he saw it, and was glad. ⁵⁷ The Jews therefore said to him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? ⁵⁸ Jesus said to them: Amen, amen I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am. ⁵⁹ They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise be to Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ.
Commentary
Before Abraham was made, I am. The claim is absolute and unmistakable — not I was, which would denote temporal pre-existence, but I am, the very Name revealed to Moses at the burning bush (Ego sum qui sum, Ex. 3:14). Saint Cyril of Alexandria, in his Commentary on John, writes that Christ's use of the present tense here is not a grammatical accident but a theological declaration: He who exists beyond time cannot be spoken of in the past tense — He simply is, eternally, before and after all things (Commentary on John, Book VI). The crowd's response — reaching for stones — shows they understood exactly what He was claiming. It was not arrogance they heard, but the divine Name spoken by human lips. The CCC teaches that "only the divine identity of Jesus's person can justify so absolute a claim" (CCC §590). He does not hide from the stones by force; He hides Himself, for His hour is not yet come — but it is almost come. Tomorrow, the same voice that said I am He will be silent before Pilate.
✠ Closing Prayer
O eternal God, who art the same yesterday, today, and for ever, and whose covenant with Abraham Thou dost remember for ever: grant us the faith of that ancient father who rejoiced to see the Day of Christ and was glad. Let us keep Thy word, O Lord, that we may not see death for ever. And when the world takes up its stones against the truth Thou hast planted in our hearts, hide us within Thyself until the hour that is Thine alone. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our Father... Hail Mary... Glory be...
✠ Laus Deo semper — Praise be to God always ✠
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