Friday of the Fourth Week of Lent
Daily Prayer
Gentle Jesus, as an example of humility for the human race, You took the form of man and became flesh. You were busy doing Your Father’s work and ultimately submitted to the Cross. Grant that we may heed Your lessons of courage and patient suffering so that we too might carry out our Father’s will and so merit a share in His Resurrection. Amen
Scripture Readings
Wisdom 2:1a, 12-22; John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30
(Click for today’s Readings.)
Scripture Quote
John 7:30
So they tried to arrest him,
but no one laid a hand upon him,
because his hour had not yet come.
Reflection
The reading from Wisdom was written about a century before the birth of Jesus. Yet it foreshadows the events of Good Friday: because “the just one…styles himself a child of the Lord, with revilement and torture condemn him to a shameful death.”
The reading from the Gospel of John shows that Jesus’ time will end soon. The “Jews,” the Pharisees and Sadducees, have accused him of blasphemy for saying He was the Son of God (yesterday’s reading from John). Jesus knows it is dangerous to travel to Jerusalem for the feast of the Tabernacles. Yet Jesus does so because it is one of three times of the year when all Jews are called to Jerusalem, and Jesus did not come to abolish the law.
Still, “no one laid a hand upon him.” Have you noticed how Jesus often slips away? He does so here in this passage; He does so in Luke 4:30, which we read on the Monday of the Third Week of Lent; and He does so in Luke 5:16 and Matthew 14:13.
On each of these occasions, Jesus is busy doing His Father’s work. His Father’s work is not yet finished, and so Jesus is not yet arrested. But soon He will be.
Reflection Questions
How do I react when I am falsely accused? Do I follow the example of Jesus?
What can I do during these final days of Lent to better prepare myself to celebrate the Resurrection?
Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
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