Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 246

Thus says the LORD:

In a time of favor I answer you,
on the day of salvation I help you;
and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people...

Sometimes I look for inspiration to the homilies I have written in past years. Scanning my reflections on John 5 I am reminded mostly of my inadequacy. Perhaps that is testimony enough to the beauty, depth and importance of the chapter, which we always hear on Wednesday of the fourth week of Lent.

The Evangelists studied the writing of Isaiah as they pondered the life of Jesus. They realized that he was “given … as a covenant to the people.” John put it best, “the word became flesh and pitched his tent among us.” We have many names for Jesus; we should include among them word, law, covenant, beauty, holiness, mercy and so forth. He is all of these words in the flesh. He is also, as John 5 makes clear, the Obedient Son of God.  

To love Jesus is to embrace and enter the covenant God has made with us. To cling to him is to be raised up with him in a time of favor, on the day of salvation.

John 6 will deepen our understanding of this covenant as Jesus insists we must eat his flesh. Even as he is the Word made Flesh, we are incorporated, or in-fleshed, into him by the Eucharist. His suffering and crucifixion are ours.  

Clearly, the religious authorities of Jesus' day found his teaching hard to stomach. John's Gospel describes one confrontation after another. There are few instances where he and his opponents agree on anything. Jesus' challenge is direct and uncompromising, 

For this reason they tried all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath but he also called God his own father, making himself equal to God.

The practice of Lent draws us apart from our contemporaries. We participate in the economic, recreational and civic life of our neighbors, co-workers, friends and family throughout the year; but during Lent, especially, we "come aside" to be instructed by the Lord. What we hear, see and do during Lent and Holy Week and Eastertide will set us apart, making us a "people peculiarly his own." 

It is not always comfortable, but it is necessary for our own good and for that of those we love.