Reflection on Mass Readings: Saturday of the 4th Week of Lent

The gospel today shows us the range of people’s attitudes toward who they believe Jesus to be and from where He comes. Some think Jesus is from Galilee and take no initiative to learn that He was really born in Bethlehem, the city of David, and in their indifference and ignorance then, do not accept Jesus as the Christ.  Although another group within the crowd have come to believe by Jesus’ teaching and miracles that He is the Messiah, the Pharisees say these people have been deceived by Jesus because they do not know the law. The Pharisees had formed their own pre-conception of God – perhaps a God like Jeremiah and Psalm seem to allude – and therefore their minds and hearts were not truly open to Jesus, His saving words and deeds, and to the new life He came to offer all men.

Who is Jesus? This is a question we see in many places in the gospels put to people. The same responses seen in Scripture we see down the ages in people: indifference, narrow preconceptions, or He’s just a wise and very spiritual man. The same question is before us each day – who is Jesus? For every one of us, there are still fibers of our lives that we’ve yet to allow ourselves to confess that Jesus is Lord because of our indifference, preconceptions, selfishness, or lack of courage. Lent presents us with this new opportunity to humble ourselves, open ourselves, and realize anew our need for Jesus. So, let us be open to finding the Lord in some new surprising way today we ordinarily wouldn’t expect to encounter Him, let us come to name a bit more of our brokenness and sin in which we still need welcome and confess Jesus as Lord and our Divine Physician, and let us always be accepting of the new way of life He offers us anew through His Passion, Death and Resurrection. – Brian McCauley