The WORD in LENT - Fourth week, Thursday
March 23, 2023: Exodus 32: 7-14; John 5: 31-47
The Gospel today is a very dense passage where Jesus speaks of his testimonies about himself and his identity, his testimony about God and the mission that the One who has called and sent him. In the extensive discourse what Jesus wishes to highlight is that we know, we understand, we come to believe, but these do not stand firm for long.
A bit of a trouble, or a small delay in favours, or an untoward incident that breaks our plans, or an unexpected turn of events that gets us into crisis, takes us away from God. We see people going away from God, denying God, or creating their own god or gods when things do not go the way that they want. Is this my way of thinking too?
Here we are reminded, that our call is to be testimonies of the Lord and of what the Lord wants to accomplish in and through us. All over the world, we have any number of cases of persons who are persecuted, tortured, oppressed and even killed in the name of the faith and of the testimony they offer. But what stands out is the endurance of these persons and communities. Their struggles and deaths give us pain, but remain a great testimony, a testimony of peace!
The Holy Father calls them, 'the martyrs of our day'. The challenge is, how enduring are we in our commitment to the Lord? How prepared are we to hold on to our faith, in the face of struggles? How persevering are we to wait for the wonders that the Lord has in store for us! That will decide how much peace we would have and how much peace we would promote!
One good spiritual exercise that we can think of could be - to become aware of our words and our actions, and check how much of our thoughts and words bear testimony to the Lord, for peace is testimony!