Daily Mass Readings — Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent
"The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand." — John 3:35
Liturgical Context
Midweek in the fourth week of Lent, the Liturgy plunges us into one of the most theologically dense passages of the Gospel of John: the discourse in which Christ proclaims His complete unity of will and work with the Father. The First Reading from Isaiah introduces the figure of the suffering Servant who gives himself for sinners — and the two texts converge on the mystery of obedient love: the Son does nothing except what He sees the Father doing, and what the Father does, the Son does likewise. For the Lenten soul, this unity of divine will is both comfort and command.
✠ FIRST READING — Isaias 49:8–15
⁸ Thus saith the Lord: In an acceptable time I have heard thee, and in the day of salvation I have helped thee: and I have preserved thee, and given thee to be a covenant of the people, that thou mightest raise up the earth, and possess the inheritances that were destroyed: ⁹ That thou mightest say to them that are bound: Come forth: and to them that are in darkness: Show yourselves.
¹⁰ They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in every plain. ¹¹ They shall not hunger, nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor the sun strike them: for he that is merciful to them, shall be their shepherd, and at the fountains of waters he shall give them drink. ¹² And I will make all my mountains a way, and my paths shall be exalted.
¹³ Praise, O ye heavens, and rejoice, O earth, ye mountains, give praise: because the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy on his poor ones.
¹⁴ But Sion said: The Lord hath forsaken me, and the Lord hath forgotten me. ¹⁵ Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb? and if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee, saith the Lord.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Commentary
"Can a woman forget her infant?" — this image from Isaiah is, writes Saint John Paul II, among the most tender expressions of divine love in all of Scripture (Dives in Misericordia, §4). The Servant who is given as a covenant of the people is, for the Fathers, unmistakably Christ: He is sent to say to those in bondage Come forth, the very words He will one day cry at the tomb of Lazarus. Saint Jerome notes that the mountains made into a way foreshadow the levelling of all obstacles between God and man accomplished in the Incarnation (Commentary on Isaiah, XIII). Lent invites us to hear this word personally: when we feel forgotten, when desolation whispers that God has abandoned us, the answer is this maternal image — yet will not I forget thee.
✠ RESPONSORIAL PSALM — Psalm 144 (145): 8–9, 13–14, 17–18
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful: slow to anger, and of great mercy.
⁸ The Lord is gracious and merciful: patient and plenteous in mercy. ⁹ The Lord is sweet to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful: slow to anger, and of great mercy.
¹³ Thy kingdom is a kingdom of all ages: and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. The Lord is faithful in all his words: and holy in all his works. ¹⁴ The Lord lifteth up all that fall: and setteth up all that are cast down.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful: slow to anger, and of great mercy.
¹⁷ The Lord is just in all his ways: and holy in all his works. ¹⁸ The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him: to all that call upon him in truth.
R. The Lord is gracious and merciful: slow to anger, and of great mercy.
Commentary
Psalm 144 (145) is the great alphabetical hymn of divine compassion, and Saint Thomas Aquinas called it the summit of the Psalter's praise (Commentary on the Psalms, Ps. 144). "The Lord lifteth up all that fall" — this is God's very definition of Himself in relation to sinners. The CCC §1700 reminds us that the dignity of the human person rests precisely in this: that God does not abandon what He has made. Every verse of this Psalm is a refutation of despair. For the soul in Lenten purgation, "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him in truth" is the anchor: nearness, intimacy, the closeness of a Father who cannot forget His child.
✠ VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL — John 11:25, 26
I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live.
✠ THE HOLY GOSPEL — John 5:17–30
The Lord be with you. — And with thy spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Saint John. Glory be to Thee, O Lord.
¹⁷ But Jesus answered them: My Father worketh until now; and I work. ¹⁸ Hereupon therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he did not only break the sabbath, but also said God was his Father, making himself equal to God.
¹⁹ Then Jesus answered, and said to them: Amen, amen, I say unto you, the Son cannot do any thing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing: for what things soever he doth, these the Son also doth in like manner. ²⁰ For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things which himself doth: and greater works than these will he shew him, that you may wonder.
²¹ For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and giveth life: so the Son also giveth life to whom he will. ²² For neither doth the Father judge any man: but hath given all judgment to the Son: ²³ That all men may honour the Son, as they honour the Father. He who honoureth not the Son, honoureth not the Father, who hath sent him.
²⁴ Amen, amen I say unto you, that he who heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath life everlasting; and cometh not into judgment, but is passed from death to life.
²⁵ Amen, amen I say unto you, that the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.
²⁸ Wonder not at this; for the hour cometh, wherein all that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God. ²⁹ And they that have done good things, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.
³⁰ I cannot of myself do any thing. As I hear, so I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not my own will, but the will of him that sent me.
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise be to Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ.
Commentary
"The Son cannot do any thing of himself, but what he seeth the Father doing." This verse, which scandalised the Arians as suggesting subordination, is in fact, as Saint Hilary of Poitiers explains, a statement of perfect unity: the Son's seeing is simultaneous and identical with the Father's acting — there is no gap, no sequence, no inferiority (On the Trinity, VII, 21). The one who hears Christ's word and believes passes from death to life — the transfer is already accomplished, past tense, for those who believe. Saint ThΓ©rΓ¨se of Lisieux understood this with childlike clarity: trusting not in her own works but in the word of Him who promised, she rested in the Father's will as the Son rested in it. Lent is practice in this same surrender: "I seek not my own will, but the will of him that sent me."
✠ CLOSING PRAYER
O Lord Jesus Christ, eternal Son of the Father, who dost work all things in perfect accord with Him that sent Thee, teach us to submit our wills entirely to Thine. We confess that we so often seek our own will in prayer and in penance; draw us into that holy unity of love wherein Thou doest only what the Father showeth Thee. Grant us ears to hear Thy voice even now, that we may pass from death to life before the hour of judgment. We rest our hope not on our merits but on Thy word, which never fails. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Our Father… Hail Mary… Glory be…
✠ Laus Deo semper — Praise be to God always ✠
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