Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Today's Mass Readings

Holy Week draws near. In the entrance antiphon of today’s liturgy, we glimpse the darkness of the coming days: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in distress. Deliver me from the hands of my enemies and those who pursue me. O Lord, let me never be put to shame, for I call on you” (Ps 30:10,16,18). It is both the prayer of the prophet Jeremiah and that of Jesus. The words of Jeremiah heard in the first reading (Jer 20:10-13) are surely those of Jesus as well: “All those who were my friends are on the watch for any misstep of mine.” The parallels between the first reading and the gospel cannot be missed.

In the gospel from John 10, the people pick up rocks to stone Jesus. (Jeremiah hears the people say “Denounce! Let us denounce him!”) Jesus replies: “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?” Their response is the charge that will be brought against Jesus in the court of Pilate: “You, a man, are making yourself God.”

The people tried to arrest him, “but he escaped their power.” Jesus walks away with the confidence of Jeremiah “…the Lord is with me, like a mighty champion…for he has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked.” The responsorial refrain echoes Jeremiah’s petition and that of Jesus as well: “In my distress I called upon the Lord, and he heard my voice. (Ps 18:cf. 7).

As we hear the text of the communion antiphon for today’s liturgy, let our hearts be filled with gratitude for the calumny, persecution and suffering that Jesus underwent for our sake: “Jesus bore our sins in his own body on the cross, so that dead to sin, we might live for righteousness. By his wounds we have been healed (1 Pt 2:24).”

Prayer for Today: O Lord of hosts, you who probe the mind and heart, defend me in times of trial and persecution for it is you who are my mighty champion; it is you who rescue the life of the poor from the power of the wicked.

Reflection by Br. Michael Marcotte, OSB