THE WORD IN LENT - Wednesday, 4th week in Lent
March 17, 2021: Isaiah 49: 8-15; John 5: 17-30
My father is working and so I should be working too...these words of Jesus make the fellow Jews angry. They accuse Jesus of equating himself with the Father, with God! Jesus affirms it yet again and tells us too...you too are! You too are just like God, bearing the image and likeness of God, children of God, chosen ones of God - this is not a privilege but a responsibility. It is a task, a challenge to make God present to the world that constantly distances itself from God! But God's love never distances itself, it reaches out. It reaches out to everyone, the whole world, the entire universe!
Does God love all in the same manner? Of course, God is never partial but what would love mean if it is the same with everyone, everywhere! God's love is specific says the Word today. God's love comes to respond to the need of each one proper to the void he or she experiences in life.
A mother's expression of love to a hungry child is feeding it; her reaching out to a frightened child is to caress it reassuringly! God's love is such, declares the Word today: even if that mother were to forsake, God would never forsake us! It takes special effort to respond to each one proper to their need, at times the needs of each person vary, at times even clash one against the other!
God alone knows the trick of reconciling them and making the right thing happen at the right time. After all, is it not true that, all things work together for good to them that love God, to those who are called according to God's purpose (cf Rom 8:28)?
Let us revive our sense of belonging to God, our child like attachment to God and the world will soon be set right!