Lesson –
Isaias xlix. 8‒15
Thus says the Lord: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you; and I have preserved you, and given you to be a covenant of the people, that you might raise up the earth, and possess the inheritances that were destroyed, that you might say to them that are bound: ‘Come forth” and to them that are in darkness: ‘Show yourselves.’ They will feed in the ways, and their pastures will be in every plain. They will not hunger nor thirst, neither will the heat nor the sun strike them: for he that is merciful to them will be their shepherd, and at the fountains of waters he will give them drink. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my paths will be exalted. Behold these will come from afar, and behold these from the north and from the sea, and these from the south country. Give praise, ye heavens, and rejoice, earth; ye mountains, give praise with jubilation, because the Lord has comforted His people, and will have mercy on His poor ones. And Sion said: ‘The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.’ 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 I not forget you,” says the Lord Almighty.
Thanks be to God.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
Never did our heavenly Father express His tender mercy towards us in more glowing terms, and He bade His Prophet deliver them to us. He gives the whole earth to His Son, Jesus Christ, our Incarnate Lord, not that He may judge and condemn it, as it deserves, but that He may save it (John iii. 17). This divine Ambassador having come on the earth, he tells all that are galled by fetters, or that sit in the gloomy shadow of death, to come to him, promising them liberty and light. Their hunger will be appeased, and their thirst quenched. They will no longer pant under the scorching rays of the sun, but will be led by their merciful Shepherd to the cool shades on the banks of the water of life.
They came from every nation under heaven: the Fountain, the Font, will be the centre where all the human race is to meet. The Gentile world is to be henceforth called Sion, and the Lord loves the gates of this new Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob (Psalm lxxxvi. 2). No God had not forgotten her during the long ages of her idol-worship. His love is tender as that of the fondest mother; yes, and though a mother’s heart may forget her child, God never will forget His Sion. You, then, who received Baptism at your very entrance into the world but have since then served another Master besides Him to whom you swore perpetual allegiance at the font — be of good heart! If the grace of God has found you submissive, if the holy exercises of Lent and the prayers offered for you by the Church have had their effect, and you are now preparing to make your peace with God,— read these words of your heavenly Father and fear not! How can you fear? He has given you to His own Son. He has told him to save, heal, and comfort you. Are you in the bonds of sin? Jesus can break them. Are you in spiritual darkness? He is the Light of the world, and can dispel the thickest gloom. Are you hungry? He is the Bread of Life. Are you thirsty? He is the Fountain of living Water. Are you scorched, are you burnt to the very core, by the heat of concupiscence? Even so, poor sufferers, you must not lose courage. There is a cool fountain ready to refresh you, and heal all your wounds. Not indeed the First Font, which gave you the life you have lost, but the second Baptism, the divine Sacrament of Penance, which can restore you to grace and purity.
Gospel – John
viii. 12‒20
At that time Jesus spoke to the multitude of the Jews, saying: “I am the light of the world. He that follows me walks not in darkness, but will have the light of life.” The Pharisees therefore said to Him: “You give testimony of yourself. Your testimony is not true.” Jesus answered and said to them: “Although I give testimony of myself, my testimony is true, for I know from where I came and where I go, but you know not from where I come, or where I go. You judge according to the flesh, I judge not any man. And if I do judge, my judgment is true because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me. And in your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am one, that give testimony of myself, and the Father that sent me, gives testimony of me.” They said therefore to Him: “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered: “Neither me do you know, nor my Father: if you did know me, perhaps you would know my Father also.” These words Jesus spoke in the treasury, teaching in the temple, and no man laid hands on him because his hour was not yet come.
Praise be to you, O Christ.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
What a contrast between the tender mercy of God, who invites all men to receive His Son as their Redeemer, and the obduracy of heart with which the Jews receive the heavenly Ambassador! Jesus has proclaimed Himself to be the Son of God, and, in proof of His divine origin, has, for three long years wrought the most astounding miracles. Many of the Jews have believed in Him, because they argued that God could never have authorised falsity by miracles, and they therefore accepted the doctrine of Jesus as coming from heaven. The Pharisees hate the light and love darkness. Their pride will not yield even to the evidence of facts. At one time they denied the genuineness of Jesus’ miracles, at another they pretended to explain them by the agency of the devil. Then too, they put questions to Him of such a captious nature that, in whatever way Jesus answered, they might accuse Him of blasphemy or contempt for the Law. Today they have the audacity to make this objection to Jesus being the Messiah — that He gives testimony in His own favour! Our Blessed Lord who knows the malice of their hearts deigns to refute their impious sarcasm, but He avoids giving them an explicit answer. It is evident that the Light is passing from Jerusalem and is to bless other lands. How terrible is this punishment of a soul that abuses the truth, and rejects it by an instinctive hatred! Her crime is that sin against the Holy Ghost, which will not be forgiven, neither in this world, nor in the world to come (Matthew xii. 32). Happy he that loves the truth, though it condemns his evil passions and troubles his conscience! Such an one proves that he reveres the wisdom of God, and if it do not altogether rule his conduct, it does not abandon him. But happier far he that yields himself wholly to the Truth and as a humble disciple follows Jesus. He walks not in darkness. He will have the light of life. Let us then lose no time, but take at once that happy path marked out for us by Him who is our Light and our Life. Keeping close to His footsteps, we went up the rugged hill of Quarentana, and there we witnessed His rigid Fast, but now that the time of His Passion is at hand, He invites us to follow Him up another mountain, that of Calvary, there to contemplate His sufferings and Death. Let us not hesitate: we will be repaid — we will have the light of life.
