Daily Readings
Wednesday April 6, 2022
Wednesday of 5th Week in Lent
The Truth Will Set You Free — Believe Like Abraham
Persons who trust in God fight enslavement to sin. In the face of abuse of authority, persecution or coercion of any kind, even of tradition or of the law, they retain their inner freedom. When they hear and keep God’s Word, they make a decision for freedom. The liberating word of Christ sets us free and makes us sons and daughters. God’s children are born to be free. The three young men at the king’s court were willing to lay down their lives for their faith. Like the faith of Abraham, our faith in Jesus should be deep and unconditional.
First Reading: Daniel 3:14-23; 91-92; 95
Furious, King Nebuchadnezzar ordered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to be brought in. When the men were brought in, Nebuchadnezzar asked, “Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you don’t respect my gods and refuse to worship the gold statue that I have set up? I’m giving you a second chance—but from now on, when the big band strikes up you must go to your knees and worship the statue I have made. If you don’t worship it, you will be pitched into a roaring furnace, no questions asked. Who is the god who can rescue you from my power?”
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar, “Your threat means nothing to us. If you throw us in the fire, the God we serve can rescue us from your roaring furnace and anything else you might cook up, O king. But even if he doesn’t, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference, O king. We still wouldn’t serve your gods or worship the gold statue you set up.”
Nebuchadnezzar, his face purple with anger, cut off Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace fired up seven times hotter than usual. He ordered some strong men from the army to tie them up, hands and feet, and throw them into the roaring furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, bound hand and foot, fully dressed from head to toe, were pitched into the roaring fire. Because the king was in such a hurry and the furnace was so hot, flames from the furnace killed the men who carried Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego to it, while the fire raged around Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Suddenly King Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in alarm and said, “Didn’t we throw three men, bound hand and foot, into the fire?”
“That’s right, O king,” they said.
“But look!” he said. “I see four men, walking around freely in the fire, completely unharmed! And the fourth man looks like a son of the gods!”
Nebuchadnezzar went to the door of the roaring furnace and called in, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the High God, come out here!”
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walked out of the fire.
All the important people, the government leaders and king’s counselors, gathered around to examine them and discovered that the fire hadn’t so much as touched the three men — not a hair singed, not a scorch mark on their clothes, not even the smell of smoke on them!
Nebuchadnezzar said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego! He sent his angel and rescued his servants who trusted in him.
They ignored the king’s orders and laid their bodies on the line rather than serve or worship any god but their own.
Gospel: John 8:31-47
Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.”
Surprised, they said, “But we’re descendants of Abraham. We’ve never been slaves to anyone. How can you say, ‘The truth will free you’?”
Jesus said, “I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave is a transient, who can’t come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through. I know you are Abraham’s descendants. But I also know that you are trying to kill me because my message hasn’t yet penetrated your thick skulls. I’m talking about things I have seen while keeping company with the Father, and you just go on doing what you have heard from your father.”
They were indignant. “Our father is Abraham!”
Jesus said, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would have been doing the things Abraham did. And yet here you are trying to kill me, a man who has spoken to you the truth he got straight from God! Abraham never did that sort of thing. You persist in repeating the works of your father.”
They said, “We’re not bastards. We have a legitimate father: the one and only God.”
“If God were your father,” said Jesus, “you would love me, for I came from God and arrived here. I didn’t come on my own. He sent me. Why can’t you understand one word I say? Here’s why: You can’t handle it. You’re from your father, the Devil, and all you want to do is please him. He was a killer from the very start. He couldn’t stand the truth because there wasn’t a shred of truth in him. When the Liar speaks, he makes it up out of his lying nature and fills the world with lies. I arrive on the scene, tell you the plain truth, and you refuse to have a thing to do with me. Can any one of you convict me of a single misleading word, a single sinful act? But if I’m telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Anyone on God’s side listens to God’s words. This is why you’re not listening—because you’re not on God’s side.”
Prayer
Lord our God,
you call us to be free people.
Help us to give you always
a response of freedom.
Set free by Christ’s
liberating word and death,
may we never again
shackle ourselves with self-made chains,
of selfish sin and false attachments.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Reflection:
Wounded Healers
Faith is not genuine until it touches our attitudes and, above all, our concrete choices. To “remain” in the Word of Christ means to conform our lives to his life and his virtues. Christ seems to imply that there are true and false disciples. There is only one way to tell the difference between the two: whether one embraces his Word as an ideal and as a rule of life.
The false security that the Jews claim on being descended from Abraham could find its parallel in us Christians who are content with our baptism and our religious practices. We come across many traditional Catholics who take pride in claiming their Catholic faith and say, ‘we have been Catholics for many generations, and we grew up in strong Catholic traditions.’ Furthermore, ironically, we fight for defending our traditions while leaving the Word of God stranded on the streets! Perhaps in our earnest efforts to remain faithful to the centuries-old traditions, we have missed the point – We forgot to remain with the Word.
We have become Christians not because of any of our merits. We go to Church every day or every week, not because we are any better than others. We are also chained by sin, but we believe in the Lord who forgives and sets us free. Every Christian is on a mission to forgive and love. Christians should take pride not in their centuries-old customs and traditions but instead in the forgiveness and Mercy of God. We should be able to repeat to ourselves: “I have been forgiven, I will forgive and will be an instrument of reconciliation.”
A person who suffered woundedness can understand with empathy the wounds of those around him. A person who acknowledges and owns up to the failures can better accompany people with all their weaknesses without being judgemental. My weaknesses and failures help me put aside my ego and give Jesus the centre stage, who can set us free.
Pope Francis tells us that the knowledge that we are wounded sets us free. Yes, it sets us free from becoming self-referential and thinking of ourselves as superior to others. The people with whom we interact and live do not expect us to be superheroes. They expect us to be companions, with all the weaknesses and limitations.
Wounded soldiers become bolder; wounded Christians become more loving. We say “yes” to the Lord at the start of the day and every moment of our lives… “Here I am, Lord, sinful yet loving, wounded yet willing to serve.”